Ask McAfee‘s top Canadian partners, and they’ll almost unanimously give credit to CEO Dave DeWalt for the security vendor’s renaissance in the channel over the last few years.

There are signs that trend will continue. At the company’s Focus 10 conference last month, worldwide channel chief Alex Thurber told partners that “channel success” is one of the five key goals for the company’s board of directors in 2011.

ChannelBuzz.ca caught up with DeWalt while he was in Toronto earlier this week and gathered his thoughts on a variety of subjects, including why the company’s Canadian operations are so important, what McAfee partners should expect next, and DeWalt’s personal requests for his channel community. Catch the video after the jump.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-EXvkikB4

Here’s a rundown of what we cover in the video:

0:06 – McAfee’s Canadian operations
0:56 – McAfee’s (and DeWalt’s) channel philosophy
2:37 – Making channel a board-of-directors-level priority
3:53 – What McAfee partners should expect next
5:20 – The channel’s role in responding to this year’s 5958 DAT problem
6:43 – DeWalt’s personal requests of McAfee partners.

You can find ChannelBuzz.ca’s full coverage of DeWalt’s presentation in Toronto earlier this week here.