Minister Of National Defence (Canada)
The Minister of National Defence (French: Ministre de la Défense nationale) is a Minister of the Crown and is the Canadian politician within the Cabinet of Canada responsible for the management and direction of all matters relating to national defence and the Canadian Forces. The Department of National Defence is headed by the Deputy Minister of National Defence, the Department’s senior civil servant, while the Canadian Forces are headed by the Chief of the Defence Staff, Canada’s senior serving officer. Both are responsible to the Minister. Although the Governor General of Canada is the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces, the minister is ultimately responsible for "the management and direction of the Canadian Forces", while all orders and instructions are issued by the Chief of the Defence Staff. The Department of National Defence exists to aid the minister in carrying out his responsibilities, and acts as the civilian support system for the Canadian Forces.
The current Minister of National Defence is The Honourable Peter MacKay.
Read more about Minister Of National Defence (Canada): History, The Defence Portfolio, Ministers, Ministers With Military Experience
Famous quotes containing the words minister, national and/or defence:
“Just let him be minister if that’s what he desires, but without his brother and his brother-in-law.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.””
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)