Defence Minister Bill Blair told a group on Thursday that since 2021, the CAF has lost more members than they’ve gained.

Over the past three years, 15,176 members have left the military compared to 12,793 who’ve joined, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

In all, Minister Blair said on Thursday that the CAF is short 16,000 personnel.

The COVID vaccine mandates aren’t all that have hurt recruitment: Trudeau’s mass immigration and open-border policies, on top of calling Canada the world’s first “post-national” state, might have something to do with it.

But the mandates didn’t help. Amid their rampant COVID fear-mongering and vaccine shilling, CTV reported that more than 400 CAF members were fired or quit over the COVID vaccine mandate. It’s possible that number is way higher, and it’s unclear how many potential members haven’t applied because of the mandates that still exist for some members.

Either way, it’s gotten so bad under the Liberal government’s 8-year tenure that in 2022, the DND turned to Permanent Residents to join the CAF. Over 15,000 Permanent Residents have since applied, but only 100 have joined the military.

“Quite frankly that’s unacceptable,” minister Blair said. 

Blair has previously said that his most challenging task as Canada’s Defence Minister will be recruitment.

The minister announced on Thursday that he wants to scrap some of the medical requirements for CAF eligibility, and that he’ll make the enlistment process faster.

But this won’t sacrifice the CAF’s “high standards,” he ensured.

Recruitment and wokeness negatively correlated 

Also contributing to the recruitment crisis could be what some call the wokification of the military.

Critics have suggested that Canada’s “anti-racist” values, and gender ideology, are leading to a lack of enthusiasm among people who are willing to die for their country.  

Moreover, the National Post’s Tristian Hopper noted how the latest edition of the Canadian Military Journal focuses almost exclusively on a “culture change” that’s needed within the military, including a “feminist intersectional trauma-informed approach to reimagine and transform CAF culture.”

The approach isn’t without pushback from certain CAF members. Earlier this year, a picture surfaced on social media showing a ripped down tampon dispenser in a Canadian Air Force men’s bathroom. 

The incident came just after the Trudeau Liberals mandated that tampons be placed in men’s bathrooms in all federally regulated buildings, a move that earned international headlines and mockery.