Posts Tagged ‘Conference of Defence Associations’

This year’s list of attendees was as prestigious as ever for the annual Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) event held March 3-4 at the Chateau Laurier in downtown Ottawa. While, no doubt, the headliner was General David Petraeus, the commander of the United States Central Command and the man widely credited with salvaging some kind of victory in Iraq for the U.S., there were many Canadian luminaries as well. Chief of the Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk was on hand, as were the chiefs of the army, navy and air force. The CDA is an umbrella group of defence associations of which [...]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper used the annual seminar of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute in Ottawa to announce a compromise with the Opposition Liberals to extend Canada’s mission to Afghanistan until 2011. The proposed extension came as the government’s reaction to the report of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan chaired by former foreign affairs minister John Manley. The Liberals had put forward a number of amendments to the government motion. Harper’s surprise move was to withdraw the original motion and put forward a new motion which strongly reflected the intention of the Liberal amendments. “We have examined [...]