By Scott Taylor
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This year’s CDA conference once again took place in the landmark Chateau Laurier in Canada’s capital. The announced theme was the somewhat awkward hockey analogy Stickhandling Through Roughing and Interference: How to Position Canada in the Great Power Plays. The lineup of speakers included senior military officers from Canada, USA, UK, and France along with a number of internationally recognized experts in the fields of security and defence. The three major themes were; that Russia and China are immediate threats, we are already at war in cyber space, and that the West holds the moral high ground because we are part of a ‘Rules Based International Order’.
Chief of Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance gave the closing speech on the first day. Vance advised the audience that the Canadian Armed Forces are already in a pre-pandemic planning phase to deal with the COVID19 corona virus. In response to a question, Vance said that achieving an annual defence budget of two percent of Canada’s GDP is not something which concerns him. Prior to the close of day cocktail reception the CDA presented the Nichola Goddard award to Sergeant Leslie Blair. This trophy is awarded annually to a female who has made a significant contribution to Canada’s defence.
Day two of the conference featured a lengthy panel with Canada’s ADM Materiel Troy Crosby and his American counterpart the Honourable Ellen Lord, Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisitions and Sustainment. Vice Admiral Haydn Edmundson, Chief of Military Personnel (CMP) also led a panel on the challenges of recruiting in today’s social climate.
Esprit de Corps was the media sponsor for this year’s conference. Other notable sponsors included: ADGA, IBM, KPMG, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Logistik, MaxSys, Raytheon, DND and MINDS.
