{"id":104736,"date":"2026-09-11T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=104736"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:56:46","slug":"the-army-we-have-is-not-the-army-we-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/the-army-we-have-is-not-the-army-we-need\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Army we have is not the Army we need”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Army is re-organizing and the most visible sign of the new organization is the reconstitution of the 1st Canadian Division<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Formation patch for the 1st Canadian Division during the First World War.<\/p><\/div>\n

On Sept. 10, the Canadian Army undergoes one of the largest changes in its history as it transitions from divisions responsible for geographic regions in Canada to divisions with purpose-driven mandates.<\/p>\n

“The Army we have is not the Army we need<\/em>“, said Lieutenant-General (LGen) Michael Wright, Commander of the Canadian Army, in Inflection Point 2025<\/em>, which laid out the rationale for and plan to launch a full-scale modernization of the Canadian Army.<\/p>\n

This means 3rd Canadian Division, which has represented Western Canada for nearly 40 years, will be stood down on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

In its place will stand up 1st Canadian Division, which will assume command of the Canadian Army’s three Regular Force brigade groups \u2014 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (1 CMBG), 2 CMBG and 5 Groupe-brigade m\u00e9canis\u00e9 du Canada<\/em> (5 GBMC) \u2014 and 6th Canadian Combat Support Brigade (6 CCSB), the brigade designed to enable the rest of the Army to conduct its operations. In addition, 1st Canadian Division will also assume command over three newly formed formations: 1st Canadian Artillery Brigade, 1st Canadian Sustainment Brigade and 3rd Canadian Light Infantry Regiment.<\/p>\n

It’s all part of a push to move the Army away from “contribution warfare,” explained LGen Wright on the Feb. 4 edition of the Canadian Army Podcast. Going forward, the goal is to equip and position the Army to be capable of participating in major combat operations as an equal partner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you, like me, were wondering where the 3rd Canadian Light Infantry Regiment came from, it’s composed of existing battalions from the other regular infantry regiments, reducing them each to just their first and second battalions:<\/p>\n

The first of the three new formations being stood up as part of 1st Canadian Division is 3rd Canadian Light Infantry Regiment, which is a reassignment of existing units. The third battalions from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Royal Canadian Regiment and Royal 22e R\u00e9giment<\/em> will be brought together to form the new regiment. LGen Wright explained the new formation will “ensure [the Army is] able to respond with high-readiness forces at scale”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m sure there’ll be no morale issues at all with three battalions-worth of trained infantrymen being rebadged to a brand new unit with no history, traditions, or battle honours. And I’m sure we needed a few more combat postings for Colonels kicking around with nothing much to do …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Army is re-organizing and the most visible sign of the new organization is the reconstitution of the 1st Canadian Division: On Sept. 10, the Canadian Army undergoes one of the largest changes in its history as it transitions from divisions responsible for geographic regions in Canada to divisions with purpose-driven mandates. “The Army […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,7,5],"tags":[31,448,1521],"class_list":["post-104736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-history","category-military","tag-army","tag-canadianforces","tag-firstcanadianinfantrydivision"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-rfi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104738,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104736\/revisions\/104738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}