Our speaker in March was the charismatic LGen Michel Maisonneuve (Ret’d). The talk was very well attended, and Michel gave us a spirited talk about his patriotic view of what Canada needs to do to improve our defence and security capabilities. He has written an inspiring book titled “In Defence of Canada” and it is an excellent perspective on how Canada needs better leadership and a vision to regain our standing in the world. He emphasized that our country is now talking more about defence based on our challenges with the Trump administration, but he also articulated that there is still no sense of urgency to improve our Forces. We have a long way to go and he mentioned that it is not about spending two percent on defence but more importantly coming up with a defence Strategy and spending what it takes to achieve that strategy. Michel, since becoming a laureate of the Vimy Award a few years ago, has been an influential voice speaking about improving our Defence capabilities.

Certificate from Kingston and the Islands Member of Parliament Mark Gerretsen marking RKUSI 100th Anniversary.

Your Executive has been busy over the last month improving our website. You will soon see a significant improvement in our website and I would like to thank Bryan Bailey for his hard work in coordinating the design of the site along with Bruce Ewing, John A. MacDonald, and Ron Blank. The transition to the modernized website is scheduled for next month.

Denis Levesque, our Membership Secretary, continues to work hard finalizing our list of members and confirming contact information. We continue to expand our membership and I encourage those that have not done so yet to officially join the RKUSI team. Our membership has been growing steadily since December.

Our next speaker on 17 April is General Walt Natyncyzk (Ret’d), former Chief of Defence Staff. We are extremely fortunate to have Gen Walt as a member of our RKUSI team and he will speak to us about Defence Strategy, Procurement, and Recruiting. At our next meeting all new members will receive their RKUSI tie!

Our intent for the May speaker is to combine with RCMI Kingston and do an event at the Kingston Yacht Club on 28 May. We will have a couple speakers who will focus on the recent Canadian Military Colleges (CMC) Review Board report. Details to follow but mark your calendars as it should be both an informative and enjoyable event.

I encourage you all to help recruit for our RKUSI and to continue advancing the understanding of Canadian national security and defence in our community.