National Defence committee  I think that whole area is really an interesting one. I would say that I take considerable pride as a Canadian in the context of.... Let's talk about Afghanistan. Whatever individual citizens' views might have been about the commitment in Afghanistan, there was never any doubt th

National Defence committee  I think it's a really good question. Certainly it's something that the forces and I think Canada, at some level, have been struggling with for some time: what is the way to the Pacific? Certainly the navy was rebalanced with the Canadian patrol frigates, the submarines, to try to

National Defence committee  I'm not suggesting for a minute that Canada should have aircraft carriers or that we need divisions of troops. We need the joint and special forces, though. They are essential capabilities. To some extent, the task is to try to figure out what are those credible, affordable niche

National Defence committee  I think the only thing discretionary about the latter two missions is that it's up to the government of the day to decide whether or not to commit the Canadian Forces. I can't think of any government of ours that would want to be unable to respond to some kind of awful scenario o

National Defence committee  Within the forces we're doing a much better job. Are we doing a good enough job or not? The professor may have insight into that. Certainly, the staff colleges have been an area of great investment in recent years, both in terms of the course at the major level and the more senio

National Defence committee  I'm no longer a member of the forces, but my observation would be that they have come an awfully long way. One of the things that was a little bit bemusing was around 1990, at the time of the Gulf War. We had been a unified force since 1968. People assumed we were joint and every

National Defence committee  I could say something facetious, like we couldn't be less ready, but I won't.

National Defence committee  I would like to just say a word on the IED thing, because I think that story is an incredible story. It's probably too sensitive still, too classified to be told, but the story of the Toronto coroner's office, the defence scientists, and everybody who has been involved in that, i

National Defence committee  Great. For a number of years, I was asked back to the Staff College on one of their case studies on the Great Lakes region story. The problem with that story is that the problem got resolved. We had a mission, we had constraints, and we had buy-in from allies, but then the probl

National Defence committee  I'll start with the third question. Absolutely, we have to have professional navy, army, air force training, joint training and all of that. But at the end of the day, what's most important is that you have people who are comfortable, capable, well educated, and able to take tho

National Defence committee  Can I just say something, since I'm allowed to be subjective and I'm no longer...? I would also say there's something fundamentally inherently Canadian about it. I think it's to do with our education system before people are in the forces. I've now served in a lot of different

National Defence committee  We're in Afghanistan and we find ourselves, thankfully, having C-17s and ships and sending them to Haiti within a couple of days. We're in Afghanistan, where we find ourselves not just involved in a NATO operation in Libya but commanding it, which means a significantly enhanced p

National Defence committee  I'll start and say it's essential, as I said in response to an earlier question. I think there has been a significant effort to do so, significant investment both in the training and the equipping, and we need to continue to do that, absolutely. I think an additional complicatio

National Defence committee  Thanks very much for that question. I would hasten to say that I retired in 1997, so I'm not an expert in everything that's unfolded in the evolution of that centre, although you're correct that absolutely, in the context of the reform package I mentioned, enhancing that whole ar

National Defence committee  I'll maybe start with General Bouchard.