Lieutenant-General (Retd) Michael Jeffery, CMM, CD
Honorary Chair, Royal Canadian Artillery Heritage Campaign

I am honoured to serve as the Honorary Chair of the Royal Canadian Artillery Heritage Campaign. I can think of no more important role than of honouring our past and making it relevant for today and the future.

As with many organizations, we face major challenges to preserving our heritage and making it accessible to Canadians. But we are committed to doing so. We can meet our objectives of interpreting, preserving, telling and promoting the story of the gunners of Canada, now and into the future.

The vision of the RCA Heritage Campaign is “To bring the story of the Royal Canadian Artillery to all Canadians” and in so doing impart the values of service, commitment and sacrifice, so evident in past generations and so vital for our future.

The project’s intent is to develop a sustainable ability to interpret and preserve the history of The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery but also to tell and promote the story of the Gunners of Canada to all Canadians. In so doing we will communicate an important message of the values of service, commitment and sacrifice, which all gunners have demonstrated throughout history. We will achieve this vision by Interpreting, Preserving, Telling and Promoting ”The Story” of the Gunners of Canada to all Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

History is not only about the past, but is very much about today. The challenge is to present the lessons of history to Canadians in a manner understandable in the current context, while respecting and portraying accurately the events of the past. In this vein, the Heritage Campaign will ensure effort to continually “Interpret” the story, in order to keep our history current and to develop the means to communicate it to Canadians.

In order to honour our past we must “Preserve” the story. This means first and foremost ensuring appropriate venues to secure and preserve the Regiments artefacts’ for future generations. Most Canadian artillery artefacts are now held in The Central Museum of The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery (The RCA Museum) at CFB Shilo, which has the second largest military collection in Canada with over 65,000 items, and in numerous smaller artillery museums around the nation. In order to realize the required level of preservation and presentation, the Heritage plan will ensure the development of the RCA Museum into a world class facility and the improvement of the smaller museums through the confederation of Artillery museums. But preservation is about much more than artefacts, which really serve only to remind us of the lessons of history. It is these lessons illustrating out traditional values of service, commitment and sacrifice that must also be preserved. This too will be a principal objective of the confederation of Artillery museums.

The primary objective of the heritage Campaign is to “Tell” the story of the artillery to Canadians, with the intent of making it available to the largest number possible. The foundation will be the confederation of Artillery museums which will be supported by a variety of different programmes. Technology will be exploited to create virtual access to all aspects of the artillery collection and will include collaborative efforts with Provincial and National archives. We have begun the task of putting The RCA story online (www. gunner.ca) and ultimately every aspect of our heritage will be accessible through this medium. Interactive DVDs and other electronic media will be utilized to facilitate wider public access. Our capacity for National level outreach will be expanded through the creation of traveling exhibits to celebrate significant events in the RCA. In addition to providing displays to assist Regimental organizations in locations such as Victoria, Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax to celebrate their heritage, we plan to also tell our story to the Canadian population through exhibits at functions such as The Nova Scotia Tattoo and The Calgary Stampede

As a full participant in Canadian society, we will, through our Heritage plan, “Promote” the story of Gunners and in so doing contribute meaningfully to Canadian society. A major initiative will be the development of collaborative efforts with the Canadian War Museum especially, and with other like-minded institutions, to promote and celebrate Canada’s military heritage and the part the artillery played in it. An important first step in this initiative was the inclusion of a special Artillery display as a feature of the official opening of the War Museum in 2005. This has been followed by 6 month displays at the Maritime Command Museum in Halifax and the Stewart Museum at Fort de l’ile Ste Hèlene in Montreal. Future shows are planned for Victoria, Edmonton and Quebec City. Finally it is our intention to prepare electronic packages which can be used in schools across Canada, to assist in the teaching of Canadian history

• The Charitable Campaign
  
• Heritage Campaign Donors