I sometimes wonder why we don't just establish a foreign legion like France, or at least permit foreigners to join as enlisted (not officer ranks) like other countries as a pathway to Canadian citizenship. The risk in active service is a far greater display of commitment to Canada than the average study permit holder, and expanding our recruitment pool to Francophone nations in Africa, and states in the Caribbean would at least help greatly in finding non-specialized enlisted.

I don't see the security risk considering that the vast majority of CF recruits are never assessed for loyalty in their background checks, so long as they don't serve in their countries of origin. I've completed the reference check for CF recruit background checks - I really don't think they're that rigorous if they're essentially being outsourced to third party companies.

The fact that having any kind of university degree automatically puts you into the officer cadre, in a country with an extremely high post-secondary education rate like Canada and low tuition fees/generous student funding (versus the US where the opposite is true and the Army is a pathway to post-secondary education), is only furthering a ridiculous ratio of officers to the enlisted. I see more value in starting to recruit from countries where pathways to move up on the social ladder are deeply stifled, and building a base of those who are willing to make meaningful sacrifices to become Canadians (versus yet another MBA student from University Canada West that's only in it for themselves).

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With Canada's policy of keeping the borders wide open and allowing itself to be invaded, what do they need a military for?