Canada Nominates Gen. Jennie Carignan for NATO Senior Advisory Role

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan speaks on the sidelines of the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence in Ottawa on March 5, 2026. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

The federal government is nominating the head of Canada’s military as a candidate for a top role in NATO ahead of this year’s election for the position.

Defence Minister David McGuinty has announced Gen. Jennie Carignan’s nomination for chair of the NATO military committee, the main military adviser role for NATO’s secretary general, the Department of National Defence (DND) said in a May 20 news release.

A new committee chair is expected to be elected in September during the Military Committee Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The outgoing chair, Italy’s Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, will vacate the post as his term ends next summer. Dragone took up the role in January 2025.

Dragone currently serves as the main military advisor to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Rutte’s four-year term ends in 2028, but it could be renewed for another term.

The chair of the military committee is NATO’s senior military officer and the “conduit through which consensus-based advice from the Chiefs of Defence of all NATO member countries is brought forward to the political decision-making bodies of NATO,” the alliance says.

The chair also directs the military committee, NATO’s highest military authority, and acts as the committee’s spokesperson and representative.

The chair of the committee is elected from among the NATO chiefs of defence for a three-year term of office. Candidates must have served as chief of defence, or an equivalent capacity, in their own country, NATO says.

Carignan has served as chief of the defence staff for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) since July 2024. She is the first woman to hold the position.

She replaced Gen. Wayne Eyre who retired that summer after 40 years of service in the CAF. Eyre had served as chief of the defence staff since 2021.

Carignan has held senior leadership positions across the CAF and her military career has spanned more than 40 years.

Three Canadians have served as chair of the NATO military committee, including Gen. Charles Foulkes from 1952 to 1953, Admiral Robert Falls from 1980 to 1983, and Gen. Raymond Henault from 2005 to 2008, DND said in the release.

Carignan will continue to head the CAF while the selection process for the NATO role takes place.