Vanguard Magazine

IntervIew 24 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com Lieutenant-general (retd) J.o. michel maisonneuve, cmm, msc, cd I InTerVIew wITh The CDS had been in his position for 10 months when he agreed to an interview. Over the hour LGen Michel Maisonneuve (retd) spent with the general, the two main themes the CDS spoke on were support to the troops, and relations with the government. In this first installment, Gen. Vance talks about the importance of adjusting personnel policies to today's world. GenerAL JonAThAn h. VAnCe Chief of the Defence Staff Q: Everybody arrives in a new job with a vision of what he or she wants to accomplish. What is your vision for the future of the institution and has it changed over the last months? Honestly, no. I saw my role and any good that I can do fall in two or three categories. One is operations, with which I was quite comfortable and remain so. There is something that I'd like to do better in this regard, and that is trying to get us to more thor- oughly understand the environment before we launch operations. Then we should try to determine what it is that we are going to deliver as a military force in a world where military force by itself is becoming less and less decisive. So I am committed to making certain, as we develop options for government, that those options have tangible deliverables – that we don't over promise. Secondly, as the steward of the profession of arms, we are mak- ing certain that we envision how the Armed Forces develop into the future; what kind of environment we are going to be operat- ing in and making sure that we gear all of the policy decision- making around that. This includes how we will nurture the force and build the force, keeping in mind all the really important stuff such as service before self, that binds us together in the profession of arms. We have to become much better at determining first what we can achieve and then delivering results. We are now on highly tailored missions to deliver specific results.

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