It's time for big ideas. No. 1: Service for School
Canada needs a lot more soldiers. Canadians need more affordable paths to education. The solution is obvious.
Canadians need an affordable path to first university degrees.
A recent CTV News story told the tale of a 49-year old single mother earning $1,200 per month and saddled with $150,000 in student debt. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian with a bachelor’s degree graduates with $28,000 in tuition-related debt. Not everyone needs a university degree and not every degree is worth the price it costs. But pursuing higher education is a laudable goal that shouldn’t force most Canadians into a pit of debt. There must be a better way.
Canada needs a bigger regular and reserve army.
No country in the G7 has an Armed Forces as small as ours. When the relative “firepower” (kinetic impact) of our Armed Forces is compared to other countries, we rank 21st from the top. Many smaller countries rank much higher.
As the war in Ukraine should be teaching us, Canada needs to be ready for nasty surprises. We are not. We haven’t been in a long while. Our standing armed forces should be much bigger than the paltry 60,000+ in our regular (full-time) military – many of whom are not combat-trained or capable.
We also need more citizens with basic military experience who could get called up in an emergency.
As part of NATO, Canada should be ramping up its troop contributions in Europe to help deter an aggressive and expansive Russia. But, Canada’s military is struggling to fill its ranks – already much reduced from its Cold War strength. While Canada clings to its G7 and NATO member status, it is apparently unwilling to carry its own weight and expects others to do the heavy lifting. If we want to be taken seriously on the world stage, we need to take our own self-defence seriously.
While Canada’s chattering classes fret over the fact very few women or members of visible minorities are interested in joining the army, all Canadians should be worrying about the fact military recruitment – from all demographic segments, including white males – has fallen to just 6/100ths of one percent (0.06%) of the recruitable population.
Canada: we have a problem.
I have a solution. But it involves big changes. Are we ready for them?
We are now talking about — and already making — big changes to how we buy homes in this country. We’re reimagining an economy where people do not buy homes as investments — and instead buy homes only as places for themselves to live. That’s a colossal change that will affect millions of Canadians — for better and worse. And it’s already happening.
Are we ready to make more systemic changes?
Service for School
For generations, the Canadian Armed Forces have fully funded university educations for scores of young Canadians every year who promise to dedicate five years of their lives after graduation to military service. It’s a very competitive selection process and it’s only available to those who are suited for service as commissioned officers. That’s a small slice of those who choose to serve. The taxpayer pays for the degree up front and the new graduate serves later.
We should flip this around.
Any Canadian should be able to join the military – as a private recruit – and serve their country for two years in uniform. After they’ve served, Canada should pay for up to 4 years of college or university education leading to a bachelor’s degree. The Americans do something similar with their GI Bill.
This would accomplish three things: First, it would provide almost every Canadian with a path to an affordable – i.e. “free” – university education with no debilitating debt afterwards. Second, it would provide our military with a new source of recruits. Finally, it would produce better citizens to the great benefit of Canadian society.
Here’s how it would work.
Young Canadians could volunteer for this plan after high school – when they’re young, unmarried, unencumbered by families or worldly responsibilities, and craving excitement.
Volunteers accepted under this plan would serve two years in Canada’s regular armed forces. The first six months would be focused on training them to the level required to do one basic military occupation at the private soldier level in an operational environment. That can be accomplished in six months.
The next 12 months would be spent on operational duty in Canada or abroad (for those 18 and older.) Without wives, husbands and children to worry about, and keen for excitement, a one-year operational tour would be an adventure – not a burden – on these young soldiers. Their final six months in full-time service would be spent “demobilizing” them after operational service, if required, and training them on a junior leadership course.
During this two-year period of full-time service, we should not pay these soldiers very much – because they will have few expenses. The military will provide free uniforms, food and accommodation. These soldiers won’t have families to feed. They won’t need to make a “living wage.” Instead, they will receive a reasonable – though modest salary – begin to accrue a pension, and leave with a voucher worth tens of thousands of dollars for a four-year degree valid at any Canadian college or university.
After their two-years of full-time military service, these young soldiers would be qualified to lead small teams. Some may wish to pursue a military career at this point as leadership-qualified professional soldiers. The best of them would be accepted into a regular force enlistment, already qualified at the Master Corporal rank in many trades.
The rest would be transferred to the reserve component of the military for a further two-year period of mandatory, part-time, “Class A” service. Most would be already qualified as junior leaders and able to move directly into that role in a reserve force unit. Our part-time reserve army, navy and air force are starving for troops with this qualification. On a purely part-time basis, it often takes five or six years to qualify for a junior leadership role. It’s the biggest road block to reserve force career development.
This Service for School program would breach that obstacle and provide reserve units with a ready-supply of qualified junior leaders upon which to build a more combat capable reserve force. Of course, these young soldiers will be paid for their part-time reserve service – all while they attend university or college full-time at the military’s expense.
This program would be a great deal for young Canadians who participate – a great deal for Canada’s military – and a great deal for Canada.
What do you think?
Are you ready for some big ideas?
The idea of paid tuition in return for service to Canada is a great one.
Under your program, would you expect to maintain the same 70%+ of Canadian armed forces being white/male? Or do you see anything else that needs to be addressed (now) in order to realise your goals for increasing the size of our military?
You've been part of it, it sounds like the culture is toxic and well fortified. Even when the curtain is pulled back and we see how screwed up it was/is, nothing seems to change. They need a change agent at the top.