Go Bold #14: Major-General Michel-Henri St-Louis, Commander of the Canadian Army (Acting)

Our guest is Major-General Michel-Henri St-Louis, who at the time of our chat on 10 June 2022 was acting Commander of the Canadian Army and Chief of the Army Staff, a position which he has held since 19 April 2021.In this interview, the General speaks about his career in the Canadian Army, its organizational structure, and how the Army has changed over the 30+ years of his career. We discuss how training has evolved, and how the Canadian Army is postured in light of current world events. We also discuss capability gaps that the Canadian Army is looking to address; and his thoughts on the future of land warfare.Throughout our discussion, the General is thoughtful and he shares candidly about his approach to leadership and how that has evolved as he leads the Canadian Army.A bit about the General's history:Major-General St-Louis is an infantry officer from the Royal 22e Régiment.He has deployed on 6 different missions, to such places as Srebrenica (Bosnia), Rastevic (Croatia), Zgon (Bosnia), Kabul and Kandahar (Afghanistan) and the Middle East.Prior to leading the Canadian Army, the General was Commander of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre (CADTC); and prior to that he commanded Joint Task Force IMPACT -- a deployed joint force that provides, from Kuwait, the national command and control node to the Canadian Armed Forces capacity building efforts in Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.Before assuming command of JTF-IMPACT, MGen St-Louis was the Deputy Commanding General for Operations of America’s First Corps (US Army) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington State.He has attended the US CAPSTONE Leadership Program, followed seminars at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NDU) and the US Army War College. He graduated from the National War College (Washington, D.C.), the Canadian Forces College, the Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean, the Royal Military College in Kingston, and the Canadian Army Command and Staff College.His three master degrees have focused on war, defence and strategy. He served at the operational level in the 1st Canadian Air Division. Served three times at the strategic level with the Director General of Strategic Planning, for the Canadian Armed Forces, within the Canadian Army Staff and with the Strategic Joint Staff.We want to thank Major-General St-Louis for his time, his professionalism and his candor.Go Bold!