Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/103039
L LEADERSHIP preServing cApABilitY O n October 29, General Tom Lawson accepted the responsibility of Chief of the Defence Staff from General Walt Natynczyk during a ceremony at the Canadian War Museum. Though Lawson admits he did not join the Canadian Forces with any grand vision, he is inextricably tied to its past and its future through his father and his children. His priorities, he said, would revolve around leadership, caring and preparing: ensuring the success of current missions, caring for the men and women of the CF, and incorporating the lessons of past and current operations to prepare for future challenges. A fighter pilot by trade, over a 33-year career since graduating from the Royal Military College in 1979 Lawson has held a range of command and staff positions, including a key role with the CF Transformation Team in 2005 where he led the stand-up of the Strategic Joint Staff organization. He has served as Wing Commander of 8 Wing Trenton, commandant of the Royal Military College in Kingston and, most recently, as deputy commander of North American Aerospace Defence Command. He spoke with LGen (Ret'd) J. O. Michel Maisonneuve, academic director of the Royal Military College Saint-Jean and a member of Vanguard's editorial advisory board, during the college's 60th anniversary celebrations. 12 DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013 www.vanguardcanada.com in an era of austerity Q Knowing you've been in the job for only a few weeks, did you come in with a vision of what you wanted to do as Chief of the Defence Staff? I didn't have a vision per se. I was delighted with the jobs that I picked up along the way and they gave me a sense of our youth and our professionalism. We had gone to NORAD thinking that this was our last job in uniform (and this time we meant it!) so coming back to interview for the job of CDS had me for the first time thinking about what the future might hold. I think in a huge country like ours with 35 million people across a nation that could easily support a billion, it's hard to be fully efficient; you can't have just one base in the center of the country. We've got three oceans, we have regions that must be tended to, we have land force areas, and bases that serve us quite well for the sovereignty role now. So anybody coming into the CDS position is not going to mess too much with that. Then we've got this set of cards that were dealt fairly significantly both to Walt [Natynczyk] just prior to him leaving but also to me at my change of command by the Prime Minister and by the Minister. It was quite clear what the marching orders were and these suggest that we are on the slight down-glide after years of an up-glide. So that limits