Vance an attractive CDS for Tories
Lt.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, who has emerged as the frontrunner to be Canada’s next top military commander, has experience as a combat veteran and a reputation as a team player.
Both attributes make him attractive to the Conservative government in the midst of a war in Iraq and Syria.
Vance is head of Canadian Joint Operations Command and has been one of the key officials involved in directing Canada’s role in the Iraq war, a mission that has now expanded to Syria. He has also served in key command positions during Canada’s war in Afghanistan, formulating strategy used by Canadian troops in Kandahar.
Vance recently had a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, fuelling speculation he is on the cusp of being selected as the country’s next chief of the defence staff, or CDS.
Lt.-Gen. Marquis Hainse, the commander of the army, and ViceAdmiral Mark Norman, who heads the navy, were also being considered for the job.
Vance’s candidacy has been helped by the decision of another combat veteran, Lt.-Gen. Mike Day, to withdraw from consideration for the CDS job, military sources say.
Day, deputy commander of Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy and a former special forces soldier, had both operational experience and the political savvy to be a strong contender for the position. He has, instead, decided to retire this year.
“As many of you know, and certainly those of you who know me best, I have never aspired nor desired to be the Chief,” Day recently wrote to fellow soldiers. “In fact when asked by the selection board ‘Why do you want to be the Chief ?’ I started my reply with ‘I don’t’.”
The successful candidate will take over from the current chief of the defence staff, Gen. Tom Lawson, sometime in the summer. Lawson informed the government in March he would be stepping down in the fall rather than hoping to renew his term.
Sources say Lawson is not being forced out: he is leaving because he is tired of the job and having to deal with ongoing cuts to the Canadian military. Even tougher decisions loom, and Lawson feels it is time for someone new to take on the role, according to sources.
Lawson, a former fighter pilot, took the helm of the Canadian Forces in October 2012.
Lawson has been extremely lowkey as CDS and the government has been happy with that quality, and with Lawson’s performance overall, said defence analyst Martin Shadwick.
The general steadfastly protected the government when allegations arose earlier this year that Harper and various cabinet ministers had misled Parliament on the Iraq mission.
Lawson actively defended the Conservatives, claiming that Canadian special forces were not in a combat role when they called in air strikes and engaged in gun battles with Islamic extremists in northern Iraq.
Lawson also recently took the blame for Defence Minister Jason Kenney over inaccurate claims by the politician that Arab allies in the Syrian air campaign did not possess smart bombs.
Like Lawson, Vance is viewed inside National Defence headquarters and the Conservative government as a team player.
In 2009 he publicly rebuked then-Liberal Sen. Colin Kenney, who suggested the Afghan war was lost and “hurtling toward a Vietnam ending.”
Vance was the government’s point man the next year to take over the Afghan mission when another general was relieved of his command amid allegations he had an intimate relationship with a subordinate.
In 2012, Vance was ready to take the blame after then-defence minister Peter MacKay was accused of misleading the public on the cost of the Libyan war, according to documents obtained by the Citizen.
Vance’s appointment would continue the lockout of naval officers from the top military job. Air force and army officers have held the position since 1997.
That fact had prompted optimism in the ranks of the Royal Canadian Navy that Vice-Admiral Norman, an officer with strong administrative skills, would be first choice for the CDS position.
Navy officers had also argued that the next CDS would need to be a strong advocate of the maritime service, which has found itself in a dire situation with aging warships and the likelihood of replacements still years away.