Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan arrives at the Prime Minister's office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 30.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The federal government has narrowed the list of candidates to succeed General Wayne Eyre as chief of the defence staff to two, with Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan among the front-runners, three sources say.
She’s part of a pool of at least four possible successors whose names are circulating in the defence community and the Department of National Defence, according to the sources.
These include Major-General Paul Prévost, Major-General Steve Boivin and Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss the succession process publicly.
It’s unclear when the government will pick a successor. It had already been announced that Gen. Eyre is retiring this summer, but he may end up staying in the chief of the defence staff (CDS) post until after the July 9-11 North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington.
One of the sources, a retired general, said Lt.-Gen. Carignan has to be considered first in line for the CDS job. She is a three-star general who has commanded troops in a NATO mission in Iraq, served as chief of staff of army operations and held senior roles at National Defence headquarters.
Also in her favour, the source says, is that she is a high-ranking female military officer with a reputation for excellent service and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken often about the need to promote women to important positions in government.
Lt.-Gen. Carignan has been chief of professional conduct in the military, where she has taken on the role of combatting sexual misconduct and overhauling the culture of the Canadian Forces.
That role has likely made her some enemies within the armed forces, the retired general says, as more than a dozen current and former senior officers have been investigated or forced into retirement.
Maj.-Gen. Boivin recently ended a three-year stint as commander of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. Prior to that, he was commanding officer of Joint Task Force 2, an elite special-forces unit, from 2013 to 2016.
Vice-Adm. Auchterlonie is commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command and before that was commander of Canadian Fleet Pacific. Maj.-Gen. Prévost is director of the strategic joint staff at National Defence headquarters and advises the CDS on Forces’ operational planning.
The vice-admiral is unlikely to have made the list of two final candidates that recently went to the Prime Minister, the retired general said. While talented, the source said, Vice-Adm. Auchterlonie is probably considered too outspoken for this government.
The retired officer added that the other candidates – both two-star generals – are unlikely to be chosen over a three-star general, such as Lt.-Gen. Carignan, because this would reflect negatively that someone could jump over a higher ranked officer for the top military posting.
Other Western countries have been working to promote women to higher ranks. For example, Britain recently promoted the most senior female officer in its armed forces to the post of Vice Chief of the Defence Staff.
General Dame Sharon Nesmith, who was previously deputy head of the army, is the first woman to become the deputy head of the British military and will also serve as aide-de-camp to King Charles.
She was the first woman to command an army brigade, the first woman to command a British division-level military unit and the first woman to be promoted to Lieutenant-General in the British Army.