The current political climate has forced my wife and I to make a difficult decision. We're closing my retail business a bit earlier than we had planned. I'm still in good health. I take the 51st state verbiage from Washington literally and would be honoured to serve my country in the event of a national emergency. My family on both sides has a long history of military service to Canada, and while I've always been a civilian, I would serve in any capacity. Is there a place for an old dude like me?
Unfortunately, 60 is the compulsory retirement age for the Regular Force. I cannot speak to whether exemptions for a new recruit are possible but it would be unlikely.
In the event of a national emergency, with significant disruption or breakdown in existing systems and supply chains, Canadians would be looking more locally for disaster and economic resilience, and for replacing at a grassroots level services that have been disrupted or become scarce. The ability to be self sufficient, to provide food, first aid, basic mechanical maintenance of all sorts of things, shelter, survival through the winter with patchy utilities. Clearing damage and debris. Using various heavier power tools. These are all very transferable skills anyone can pick up and that are useful across all sorts of disasters, both natural and human.
Maybe look into volunteering with organizations that respond to emergencies, and which provide some of this training. This would also serve to network you with those who get up and show up to help when things are going poorly. Figure out who, in your local area, will be the ones motivated to put actual work in and get to know them, and them you. Learn how to communicate when phone and internet aren’t reliable. Do the kind of emergency work that torture-tests local logistics so you learn about what kind of things and supplies and parts run out first or unexpectedly, and how to work around that.
CAF is one cog in a very large machine, and ‘serving Canada’ can mean a lot of different things. Upskilling will never serve you poorly.
