Alliance of Canadian Defence Companies launches to give voice to domestic defence industry
As defence and national security continue to be at the forefront of the Liberal government’s priorities, the Alliance of Canadian Defence Companies (ACDC) has entered the stage with the goal of rebuilding Canada’s sovereign defence-industrial base.
“The Defense Industrial Strategy reinforced the need for a defence supply chain in Canada, but also the need to integrate Canadian capabilities into it,” said Eliot Pence, CEO of Dominion Dynamics and co-chair of ACDC, in a Feb. 25 interview with The Lobby Monitor. “We set up [the alliance] in large part because that group of companies was underrepresented, but they are core to the vision that the Prime Minister set in the defense industrial strategy.”
The organization was founded by Pence and Paul Ziade, who is the CEO of North Vector Dynamics and the other co-chair of ACDC. Their goal was to create an organization that could provide their members with a “bullhorn to advocate for what their interests are, but also to connect them to each other.”
Among their members are companies in aerospace, artificial intelligence, autonomous drones, and more, with the main focus being that the companies are involved in the defence industry and are either Canadian owned or controlled. Some of the companies a part of the alliance are Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation, NordSpace, Canada Rocket Company, and Inertia.
Pence told The Lobby Monitor that the recently released Defence Industrial Strategy is a result of the federal government taking defence and national security seriously, but they now have to follow through and actually implement it.
“But it’s not just the government’s job to implement the strategy. It’s the industry’s job. It’s society’s job,” said Pence. “We should all continue pushing for what we believe is the right goal, which is increasing defense spending, increasing our focus on sovereignty and capacity building with Canadian owned and controlled businesses.”
The strategy is set to provide the defence industry with “$80 billion in defence procurement opportunities and $290 billion in defence-related capital investment opportunities” over the next 10 years, according to the federal government’s announcement of the strategy on Feb. 17. The government also claims that the strategy will create “125,000 high-paying careers, increase our defence exports by 50 per cent, raise the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms to 70 per cent, and grow Canadian defence industry revenues by 240 per cent.”
Pence told The Lobby Monitor that currently only 34 per cent of defence acquisitions go to Canadian firms and the goal of the alliance is to contribute to reaching that 70 per cent goal.
As for the most important thing the government can do to help domestic defence companies succeed is to maintain stability and predictability.
“If you start a procurement process, it will take ideally a few years to finish and we want those procurements to be not just one year procurements, but multi-year procurements,” said Pence, noting that it takes time to develop a true sovereign industrial base.
The alliance plans to engage with MPs, bureaucrats and most importantly the Defence Investment Agency, to advocate for its members, provide input on upcoming policies and programs, and secure future procurement contracts.
Crestview, Prospectus hire Atlantic GR experts
Heidi Bonnell has joined Crestview Strategy as a senior adviser, as per the firm’s LinkedIn post.
In addition to her new role at Crestview, Bonnell is also a member of the board of directors at the Canada Media Fund. She has been at the organization since June 2025.
Prior to that, Bonnell spent just short of two decades at Rogers Communications Inc. as its vice president of federal government affairs and the president of the national capital region. She was with the company between August 2004 and September 2023.
From 2002 to 2004, she was the vice president of communications at Hill + Knowlton. Before entering the private sector, Bonnell got her start working for the federal and provincial governments.
Bonnell worked as a legislative assistant in the office of former fisheries and oceans minister Brian Tobin between 1994 and 1996. She followed Tobin after he resigned from his role as minister to become the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1996. She worked there until 2000, as the director of communications. She remained working for Tobin, in the same role as before, when Tobin returned to work in the federal government as the minister of innovation, science, and economic development. She held the position from 2000 to 2002.
Prospectus Associates hired Adam Ross as a senior associate, according to the firm’s Feb. 24 LinkedIn post.
Prior to this role, Ross was working in the office of the premier of Prince Edward Island since May 2019. He started as the principal secretary and senior policy adviser to former Progressive Conservative premier Dennis King, who resigned in February 2025. Following King’s departure, Ross took on the role of chief of staff in the office of the premier for incumbents Rob Lantz and Bloyce Thompson.
