The Briefing Mark Carney on the attractiveness of Canada’s military
Mar 9, 2026
Mark Carney, former Bank of England and current Canadian prime minister, on defence strategy, procurement and tech investment. Ewan Potts, Bloomberg energy and commodities reporter, on market moves. Laura James, Oxford Analytica Middle East analyst, on Iran’s new supreme leader. They discuss recruitment, unmanned systems, AI, hypersonics, Arctic and defence industrial resilience.
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Modernisation And Mission Drove Recruitment Surge
- Canada boosted recruitment 13% by signalling well-resourced armed forces and a clear mission to protect Canadians.
- Mark Carney tied recruitment gains to higher pay, modern tech (AI, drones) and visible investment across ships, planes and ammo.
Prioritise Tech To Make Military Roles Attractive
- Invest in technologies that let personnel do higher-value tasks rather than keep legacy platforms like tanks.
- Carney emphasised unmanned systems, machine learning and AI to make roles more interesting and efficient.
Fixing Readiness Is The Fastest Path To Spending Targets
- Canada reached NATO's 2% GDP defence target by fixing basic readiness failures first.
- Carney said ships and planes were functioning less than 50% before, so addressing basics moved spending toward 2%.