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The recent news that Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson will be retiring in the fall has prompted the Conservative government to search for a new CDS.

There were a number of names initially floated out there in public by the government. At one point the list included the current Vice Chief of the Defence Staff Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault.

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Lieutenant-General Thibault assumed the duties of VCDS in September 2013. He is, according to the department and CF, “responsible and accountable to the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Deputy Minister to coordinate and direct activities to ensure departmental defence policy and strategic objectives are achieved.”

But Thibault’s name has disappeared from those lists put out there to the news media by Conservative government sources as potential candidates for the CDS job.

Defence Watch has been told by sources inside NDHQ that Thibault isn’t interested in the job….since he’s essentially been doing most of the heavy lifting over the last 18 months to keep the Canadian Forces running.

Thibault also has a good idea of all the major problems looming on the horizon for any CDS. And it’s not a pretty sight for whoever is selected to take over from Lawson, insiders say.

“I can’t blame him for not wanting the job,” one source told Defence Watch. “You’ve got to wonder who would really want it and do they know what they’re getting themselves into?”