Memo to Canada: Pay your insurance premiums

 Most Canadians are pretty prudent. They pay the insurance premiums on their homes and their cars. If they have dependents, they probably buy life insurance. It is a logical risk mitigation strategy. However, the country that is Canada has consistently failed to purchase high-quality insurance on the whole enterprise that

(It’s) the impunity, stupid

 I’ll be blunt: the problem with sexual misconduct in the Canadian Forces (CF) is not the sexual nature of the misconduct. To paraphrase James Carville: “(It’s) the impunity, stupid.” While sexual misconduct can represent a particularly pernicious type of impunity, it can be characterized as a symptom, not the broader

The Renaissance of Downtown Ottawa Is at Hand… but the Federal Government Is Still a Hindrance to the Process Rather than a Help

 Downtown Ottawa is undergoing an architectural renaissance. Unsightly parking lots are gradually being replaced by gleaming condos and office towers. Ottawa Life Magazine spoke to city councillor Diane Holmes, who represents Ward 14 Somerset. "When I first was elected in '82, I thought I'd never see people from the suburbs

We dare to compare search and rescue aircraft for DND

 By Dale Hovdebo Canada has one of the world's largest landmasses and, fronting on three oceans, one of its longest coastlines. This nation is not only responsible for monitoring a vast maritime area, but must maintain a large enough presence in the Arctic to support our claim to sovereignty. Search

Trouble in a fool’s paradise: The problems with our Canadian Forces

 By Dan Donovan and Jennifer O'Meara The HMCS Chicoutimi was only days out of port on its maiden voyage when disaster struck. An onboard fire would leave one sailor dead and an entire crew bobbing in the North Atlantic for days as they waited for a towline to take them back

Shaping the Future Part 2

 The HMCS Chicoutimi was only days out of port on its maiden voyage when disaster struck. An onboard fire would leave one sailor dead and an entire crew bobbing in the North Atlantic for days as they waited for a towline to take them back to port. Typically the national

An Interview with Gen Ray Henault: There’s No Life Like It

 In this three-part series on the state of Canada's military preparedness, Ottawa Life's top writers examine Canada's peacekeeping deployments around the world, capacity and equipment challenges, and pressing infrastructure replacement needs. We begin our series on national defense with the first of three interviews with Gen. Ray Henault, Chief of

Chain of command lets Rockcliffe military community down

 By  Colonel Alain Pellerin One of the outcomes of the recent tragedy that took the lives of two Canadian soldiers and injured three of their comrades just outside of Kabul, Afghanistan, was to witness the closeness of a military community as it quickly came to the support of the grief-stricken