General Jody Carrigan is set to officially take command of the armed forces this morning at a ceremony held at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Carrigan will also be promoted to the rank of General during the change of command ceremony.

She was selected by the federal government to become Canada’s first Minister of Defence, and she is no stranger to breaking barriers, having also been the first woman to lead a combat unit in the Canadian Armed Forces, with her career including deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Syria.

For the past three years, she has been the Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture, a position created in response to the sexual misconduct scandal in 2021.

General Wayne Eyre is set to retire from the armed forces later this summer after having led the army for almost three years.