OTTAWA, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Gen. Tom Lawson became Canada's top soldier Monday, replacing Gen. Walter Natynczyk as chief of the Joint Defense Staff, officials said.
Lawson took over in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Canadian War Museum, The Globe and Mail reported.
Lawson is the first member of the Royal Canadian Air Force to hold the defense post since 2005.
Canada's military has been coping with budget cuts and expensive purchases of new planes and ships. Accordingly, this year's ceremony was much stripped-down from the one in 2008, when almost $270,000 was spent on jumps by a paramilitary parachutist team and aerial acrobatics by the Canadian Snowbirds.
This year, videos played on flat-panel screens showed the country's forces in operation.
