We had a very successful first night of the year on 16 January when The President Lieutenant-General Guy Thibault (Retired) of CDA and CDAI came to speak to our RKUSI team. We filled the Amiens Theatre and Guy gave an inspired talk on his focus for his CDA and the security and defence challenges that Canada faces today. Guy spoke about how there have been some efforts by our government to adjust, but that these have often been reactive, fragmented, and lacking a cohesive long-term strategy. He emphasized that Canada’s defence posture has weakened compared to a decade ago, and the country’s influence on the global stage has diminished. In his view, and we all agree, the government has not effectively addressed the growing international challenges and we have been complacent about increasing our defence capabilities to deter new threats and become a more effective NATO partner.

I was very happy with our turnout (although we had members forced to stand and will likely need to use the bigger Korea Hall for our next speaker) and it was great to see some aspiring MPs, some serving officers and cadets, and a very good turnout from our membership. We still have plenty of work to do to further recruit and connect with our local community. I have invited the Mayor and local MP as well.

We are currently speaking to and getting information from other RUSI’s across the country. We are also looking at improving our website in the short term and planning for a defence and security conference and centennial dinner on and around 17 October. Our constitution is good and over the coming months I will focus the Executive Committee on a strategy to implement our goals and objectives over the coming years. We have a solid Executive team and Bruce Ewing, who is now responsible for our Bulletin, will be putting out a monthly bulletin which will soon be added to our website.

We have a great list of speakers coming up over the coming months and I encourage all of you to help recruit more from the Kingston area to join us. Lieutenant General Steve Kelsey, the Vice Chief of Defence Staff for the Canadian Armed Forces will speak to us on 27 February followed by Lieutenant-General Michel Maisonneuve (Retired) on 20 March and General Walt Natyncyzk (Retired) 17 April.

Do not hesitate to reach out if you have any recommendations or if you would like to write or provide a link to relevant content for our bulletin. We are still looking for some-one who would like to run our website. Please renew your memberships for this year if you have not done so already. Bryan Bailey and I will attend the CDA conference 5-6 March with the conference fees supported by CDA and our RKUSI.

I look forward to seeing you on 27 February!