Nanos Research chief data scientist Nik Nanos says the poll’s findings suggest government announcements on increased defence funding and military recruitment are having a positive impact.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
An increasing percentage of Canadians say that they would be willing to serve in the Armed Forces if Canada were involved in a major conflict, suggests a new poll.
The public opinion survey, conducted by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail, also shows that a majority of respondents said they have a positive view of the military and would support a friend or family member joining the Canadian Forces. Most respondents agreed that the military is a good career option for young people today.
The survey results come at a time of increasing global instability, including conflicts such as the war in the Middle East, and tensions between Canada and the United States. As well, Canada is increasing spending on the military while also seeking to boost recruitment, including building a reserve force of 400,000.
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Nik Nanos, the chief data scientist for the polling firm, said the findings suggest a positive impact of the government announcements of increased defence funding and the need for more people to serve in the Forces.
“This speaks to a narrative of investment in new fighter jets, ships, submarines and equipment for the infantry,” Mr. Nanos wrote in a statement.
The Nanos poll found 24 per cent of respondents surveyed in early March expressed a willingness to serve full-time in the military “if Canada were involved in a major conflict.” That’s up from 12 per cent when the firm asked the same question in November, 2025.
When it comes to the part-time reserves, 32 per cent of respondents said they would be willing to serve part-time in the event of a major conflict, up from 19 per cent last November.
While the results reflect the willingness of all respondents to serve, the maximum age for enrollment in the Canadian Forces is generally 56.
Those aged 18 to 34 reported being about eight percentage points more willing to serve full-time than the 55-plus group, and almost 10 percentage points more willing to serve part-time.
Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said they had a positive impression of the Canadian Forces, and about three-quarters somewhat or strongly agreed that the Armed Forces make them proud to be Canadian. Atlantic Canada respondents expressed the highest level of approval at 71 per cent very positive, while the number was lowest in Ontario at 54 per cent.
When asked if they would view a friend or family member’s decision to join the Forces favourably, 73 per cent said yes. That’s slightly above the 68 per cent who agreed in a similar survey last year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed to increasing defence spending by more than $84-billion over five years as the government said the country needs a stronger military in a world it deemed dangerous and divided. Canada recently hit its NATO target of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence, after years of failing to do so, and has also committed to reach 5 per cent of GDP by 2035.
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Wayne Eyre, who served as Canada’s chief of defence staff between 2021 and 2024, says the polling results give the government additional social license to continue to invest.
But, in an interview after reviewing the Nanos survey, he said that the critical vulnerability of that spending program is a loss of popular support.
“We should have a certain degree of shame that it took berating from an erstwhile ally to properly invest in defence despite the very real threats coming from elsewhere to our country, our sovereignty and our way of life,” he said, referring to criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“If that berating disappears or is diminished after the next election in the U.S., we still have a long ways to go to build up our military after decades and decades of underinvestment.”
He said it’s up to government to decide how much investment in defence is enough, but a well-resourced military is a good hedge against unexpected developments affecting the security of the country.
Nanos conducted its survey research by engaging with respondents by landline and smartphone as well as online between March 1 and 8. The pollsters surveyed a random group of 1,058 Canadians aged 18 and older.
The margin of error is plus-or-minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Tom Lawson, a former Royal Canadian Air Force general who was chief of the defence staff between 2012 and 2015, said times have changed since the 1990s when, based in Ottawa, he recalls armed forces members being told not to wear uniforms to work because some in the public were aggressively critical of the military.
Now he said there is a greater sustained support for the military in Canada. He said the military needs to move to increase recruitment.
“I think it is important for the military to strike while the iron is hot,” said Mr. Lawson, who is now chair of the board of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, a non-profit aimed at promoting discussion of national security issues. I know that that sounds sneaky, but it’s not.”