Jennie Carignan is Canada's top soldier. She is building a 400,000-strong civilian-defence force of volunteers aged 16 to 65—heavy-equipment operators, drone operators and cyber specialists—to support the Canadian Armed Forces in the event of a military attack or natural disaster. In November 2025 she dispatched a team to Finland to study that country's extensive civil-defence system. She argues the plan should please the United States, as it meets Donald Trump's demand that America's allies look after more of their own defence.
When the government bureau's remedies don't match your problem, you modify the problem, not the remedy.