Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/507045
PUBLISHER and EXECUTIVE EdITOR John Jones publisher@netgov.ca EdITOR Chris Thatcher editorvanguard@netgov.ca CONTRIBUTORS Stu Beare Philip Jennings Jeffrey Rodney Benoit Maraval Peter Singer Cheri McGuire dan Simard denean Tomlin david O'Brien nicole Verkindt Greg Fyffe William Gortney EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD LGen (Ret'd) George Macdonald Vadm (Ret'd) Greg Maddison LGen (Ret'd) Michel Maisonneuve ambassador Graham Green Professor Philippe Lagassé SALES VICE PRESIdEnT PUBLIC SECTOR SaLES Terri Pavelic (905) 727-4091 ext. 225 terrip@netgov.ca VP BUSInESS MEdIa STRaTEGy Marcello Sukhdeo (905) 727-4091 ext. 224 marcellos@netgov.ca MaRKETInG dIRECTOR Mary Malofy ART & PRODUCTION aRT dIRECTOR Elena Pankova SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES CIRCULaTIOn SERVICES Mary Labao circulation@netgov.ca Publisher's Mail agreement: 40052410 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to circulation dept. 23-4 Vata Court, aurora, On L4G 4B6 Vanguard magazine is published 6 times per year by Promotive Communications Inc. all opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or any person or organization associated with the magazine. Letters, submissions, comments and suggested topics are welcome, and should be sent to assoceditor@netgov.ca REPRInT InFORMaTIOn: Reproduction or photocopying is prohibited without the publisher's prior written consent. High quality reprints of articles and additional copies of the magazine are available through circulation@netgov.ca PRIVaCy POLICy: We do not sell our mailing list or share any confidential information on our subscribers. VanGUaRd OFFICE 23-4 Vata Court, aurora, On L4G 4B6 Phone: (905) 727-4091 Fax: (905) 727-4428 I TEND TO VIEw mOST GLASSES as half full rather than half empty. But as you read through copious government reports and think tank papers, it can be a chal- lenge to suppress your inner cynic. Too often, these papers tell the story of ideas that never came to fruition. But grand ideas matter. I was reminded of this during a recent Canada 2020 event that brought forward five big ideas for this country. The last speaker of the evening was Colonel (Ret'd) Chris Hadfield and he ably put the previous four ideas into perspective with a few thoughts on just where Planet Earth and all its problems really stand in relation to the rest of our much larger universe. He spoke of the intellectual curiosity that has driven our innovation in robotics and their application in space. He reminded us that a piece of Canadian technol- ogy, the Canadarm, effectively built the International Space Station. He noted that the critical barrier to greater activity in space is launch – the ef- fort and cost of getting ourselves out of Earth's orbit – which may soon be far less of an issue as innovators and investors like Elon Musk and Richard Branson drive for new solutions. Once – not if – they break those barriers, the price to access space will drop dra- matically, opening a new frontier. "A tremendous market is about to erupt," Had- field said, creating unprecedented demand for space technology, an area where Canadian companies are already well positioned. "Canada could lead the world in that," he said. We just need to inspire our people. Space was not specifically one of the six key industrial capabilities captured in the Jenkins report, but it is a critical element of one of the KICs, Arctic and mari- time security, and the KICs will be further refined over time as the government's Defence Procurement Strategy takes shape. It might be tempting to read the DPS as another doomed effort at procurement reform that will shake up the landscape for a brief while, but ultimately struggle to change the procurement process in a transformative way. For now, however, I'll see it as a glass half full, an opportunity to inject new thinking, money and research into processes and Canadian capability. As Christyn Cianfarani of CADSI noted at a recent briefing on the Value Proposition Guide, "the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good." Perhaps that's reason enough to treat the DPS as a grand idea. ********* It is with sadness that we honour the memory of Lieutenant-General (Ret'd) Wil- liam Leach, former commander of the Canadian Army. Bill passed away in Ottawa on April 1. He was a valued member of Vanguard's editorial advisory board and helped shape the direction of the magazine. His insights will be greatly missed. Chris Thatcher, Editor E EDITOR'S nOTE 4 aPRIL/May 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com The value of a big idea 11.125 in. Bleed 10.875 in. Trim 9.5 in. Live