We are overborne in some trades and highly underborne in some others. Short of wartime, non-conscription countries do not have
enough people because most civilians aren’t looking to join the military, period.
I will bet money that in 1960, CAF members were bemoaning that we didn’t have enough people compared to WWII or Korea levels. Now, we’re looking fondly at 1967 levels.
This brings us to
@Brad Sallows point - we need to figure out the required force structure for Canada (which is
not the same as traditional Canadian military ORBAT) before we figure out how to retain people.
Maybe we don’t need to retain as many Infantry soldiers, but we need to retain as many AVN/AVS techs and stokers as possible. But all that has to start with
what we actually need to defend Canada and contribute to our alliances.