Canadian Armed Forces embrace fun after discovering 'no actual requirement to be boring' on social media

Canada’s armed forces admit they have embraced their fun side on social media.

“After careful review of our policies, we learned that there was no actual requirement for us to be boring all the time. This was as much of a surprise to us as it was to everyone else.”

That’s how a spokesperson for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) explains the organization’s unexpectedly humorous presence on social media.

Using the hashtag #SundayFunDay, the CAF accounts, which have the usernames @canadianforces on Instagram and Canadian Armed Forces on Facebook, often add humorous captions to otherwise routine images shared on Sundays.

In an email to National Post, the spokesperson explained that, like all government departments, they use social media to communicate with Canadians on government activities, deliver services, and collaborate with partners and stakeholders.

But, they added: “We also have a particular need to engage with young Canadians – who are extremely active in social media – to promote CAF activities and recruitment. This involves trying to be fun, which is admittedly not usually in the government wheelhouse.”

A recent photo of soldiers filing into a Chinook helicopter, for example, was captioned: “‘Om nom nom’. It’s Chinook feeding time.”

Another post, which showed two soldiers looking through binoculars, joked: “Forward observers confirming if ribs and butter tarts are back on the menu at the mess tent.”

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The Canadian Armed Forces’ followers have responded positively to the funny captions, with one user commenting: “The social media posts I strive to make.”

Another wrote: “Give this page admin a raise.”

And beyond these posts, the CAF’s Instagram account adopts a lighthearted tone even for some of its more informational content.

Under a video touring the 4th Canadian Division Support Group tool crib, the caption read: “Welcome to the tool crib! It’s like MTV Cribs, but instead of walk-in closets and hot tubs, our vehicle technicians have torque wrenches and electronic test kits.”

Another video, posted on the 5th Canadian Division account in collaboration with the Canadian Army account, leans on viral internet trends for its humour.

The footage explained how troops working in the Arctic keep their calorie count up and was captioned: “When you’re caloriemaxxing during northern training and the Arctic Rations make you lowkenuinely look forward to your next meal.”

For those who need a translation, the message is essentially: “Arctic Rations are both calorie-dense and  delicious.”

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The CAF spokesperson told National Post that this refreshing approach is deliberate, and has led to increased engagement on social media.

“Over the years, we have found that humour, trends, and pop culture references helped increase our audience’s comfort communicating with us, increased our reach, resulted in more followers, and generally improved the tone of our engagement,” they said.

“The team also found this was possible without a) negatively impacting our reputation or authority, or b) us needing to actually agree that summer 2024 was a ‘brat summer.’ (Don’t get us started on 6-7.)”

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And the change in tone may be doing more than just entertaining followers. After years of missed recruitment targets, interest in joining the Canadian Armed Forces appears to be rising.

In January 2026, a spokesperson revealed applications for the regular force were up nearly 13 per cent in the 2025-26 fiscal year, compared to the previous year.

And in October 2025, a spokesperson said : “From April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, the CAF enrolled 6,706 new members into the Regular Force, surpassing the annual goal of 6,496 recruits. This represents the highest number of enrolments in the past decade and a 55% increase over the previous year.”

The surge in interest has been widely attributed to a combination of threats to Canada’s sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump (though not by the military itself), as well as modernized recruitment systems.

Still, a few funny social media posts likely haven’t hurt the cause.

• Applications to Canada's armed forces surged 12.9% in the past eight months, says national defence minister
• Government plans to boost Canadian Forces with foreign recruits

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