Question about the Canadian Forces

[Cecelia5578]

I'm curious (I guess I've been on a Canadian kick lately): Does the CF adequately represent the diversity of Canada? Is it similar to the American military, which seemingly has an overabundance of personnel from more conservative/rural parts of the country? Is there a similar disconnect between, well, liberal, urban Canada and the personnel of the CF?

Is this even an issue in Canada? I'll be honest, my knowledge of Canadian society and how the armed forces fit in is pretty thin.

[Shroom Man 777]

I hear the Canadian military sends representatives to the Toronto pride parade.

[Coop D'etat]

I'm curious (I guess I've been on a Canadian kick lately): Does the CF adequately represent the diversity of Canada? Is it similar to the American military, which seemingly has an overabundance of personnel from more conservative/rural parts of the country? Is there a similar disconnect between, well, liberal, urban Canada and the personnel of the CF?

Is this even an issue in Canada? I'll be honest, my knowledge of Canadian society and how the armed forces fit in is pretty thin.

There are other people who may be better qualified to talk about this here but from what I know the short answer is that it doesn't but there is a big institutional push to change that. As it stands they are much more male, white and rural than your typical Canadian but at the same time there have been pushes from they top to try and change that. I think the biggest stumbling block to achieve that is that the people who want to be in the military skews more towards young men whose families have been in the country longer and have kin that served before them.

This link here should get you started on the topic.
http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo8/no3/jung-eng.asp

Basically the Canadian Forces are small and recruit heaviest from a pool of less urban young men with family ties to the military. Canadian post-secondary education is also much more affordable then the American equivalent so there is less of a case of poor minorities enlisting as a method to obtain higher education and social advancement. As a whole, the military thus tends to skew conservative, but it should be noted that the divide between conservative and progressive is a lot less acrimonious in Canada compared to the United States

In my opinion, the main reason for the divide is that military service really isn't seen as a presitious career for urban Canadians of any stripe, along the lines of the opinion that you'll make more money doing something far less unpleasant and that there are other ways to serve your society. I think servicepeople get viewed as great people doing an important job that you want no part of.

As far as LGBT issues, they allowed homosexuals to serve openly in 1992 and from what little I know the change over was fairly successful. There certainly isn't any serious contention in retrospect that its wasn't the right thing to do on the political stage.