It truly is a beautiful day in the city of Toronto. The sun is shining, the Jays are soaring! And controversial Generals are retiring?
In Ottawa, Canada’s outspoken Chief Of Defence of Staff, Rick Hillier, a.k.a. “Ranger Rick”, a.ka. “Big Cod”, will not have his tenure extended beyond July 1 2008.
Nobody asked me, and nobody told me, but considering the past year this is a bit of a surprise.
The native of Newfoundland and Labrador has been in the job since February 2005, appointed by former prime minister Paul Martin. The role doesn’t have a defined length, but the average tenure is three to five years…Hillier had been a strong advocate of Canada’s military intervention in Afghanistan and is said to have been the driving force behind an increased Canadian military presence in Kandahar province.
Last October, it was reported that the Conservatives were seeking to push the outspoken senior military commander out of his job.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied the report, praising Hillier as an outstanding soldier and saying there had been no discussion about the possibility of changing the chief of defence staff.
Hillier had also said then his work as defence chief was unfinished.
“I love being a soldier,” Hillier said in October. “I still have things to do here in the immediate future, and I intend to do them.”
Hillier has been known for his blunt talk, making headlines, for example, when he referred to the Taliban as “detestable murderers and scumbags.”
Outspoken for a Canadian General and admired by a great deal of the ranks for just that. He was also perceived as not being easily controlled by politicians on all sides. He was able to lobby for increased spending on the CF after the budget cuts in the 90’s. He restructured the command of the entire Canadian Forces.
He was equally criticized by those who felt he was too influential in the public with respect to Canada’s presence. His stance on transfer of detainees and pushing to have Canadians move into the volatile southern region of Afghanistan has made more than its ripples in the headlines.
Let’s face it, if he was asked to retire someone didn’t like the job he was doing.
If he chose to retire, what didn’t he like that would cause him to change his mind from what he said back in October when asked if he’d step down.
Gen. Hillier says he’s 100 per cent focused on his job, has no plans to leave his post at this time, and that he’s received no word the government is planning to end his term.
“Truthfully, I look at it this way,” Hillier told reporters after a luncheon in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“I’m the chief of defence staff. We’re into a pretty intense period of operations in our country right now, and for me to be focused on anything but looking after Canada’s sons and daughters and meeting my responsibility to Canada’s moms and dads, would be wrong. So I’m 100 per cent focused on that.”
He pointed out that his position is not subject to a three-year term. Instead, he serves at the pleasure of the prime minister for as long as both parties feel it is appropriate
Hmmmm.
Why is he retiring? Although not ahead of schedule, one has to wonder why such a motivated individual wouldn’t have stayed on longer. Especially after the mission had been extended at least until 2011. Especially after Canadian troops had been promised US support in the southern region of Afghanistan.
Or maybe the reason lies in those details.
Chances are Rick will seek employment in politics (more so even) the day after he retires. Many questions are unanswered, and many of them will remain unanswered.
Does this have anything to do with the flak he received on dealing with detainees?
Was he too involved in Afghanistan and not any of the other facets of the CF’s responsibilities such as sovereignty?
What will he do next?
In the archives you’ll find a post where I once discussed what peoples’ opinions of the General were, and the opinions crossed the spectrum.
It’s probably too early to tell, but this will probably get interesting before it gets boring.
Stay tuned.
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Now that there is an opening, its time that you think about getting that commission back…
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Hell fucking no
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you gotta love it - retiring on July 1st….add another nickname to his list:
Captain Canuck. Maybe we can name a highway after him….or better yet…a dough nut at Tim Horton’s.
We went from Dallaire’s shake hands with the devil and awareness of PTSD and genocide in Africa to “terrorists are scumbags”, tanks in Afghanistan and questionable prisoner transfer.
(Yes I know Romeo was never a CDS)
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The question in my mind is what kind of donut would the Captain Canuck be? Chocolate raspberry filled? A cherry donut with white icing sugar?
Seriously though… for whatever people think of Hillier, I will credit him with being the only CDS whom I can name without having to look them up (with the exception of Boyle, but only thanks to the ‘Somalia Affair’). If he did one thing right, I think it was being outspoken and present to the public at large concering current operations. Let’s hope who ever follows him continues that tradition.
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Dallaire’s got a way better moustache too.
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K- yeah but he’s a star the way Nickelback are stars. A lot of fizz, but maybe you don’t like the taste of the gin. In large part because of Hillier the CF lost some of it’s esteem as a professional soldiering force that is capable of being more than just war fighters. If not for Hillier the CF might not have made the move to extend it’s ops in Kandahar.
While the CF got a makeover to look tougher - the expense has been at the lives of soldiers who history will determine if they died in vain.
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No argument there Patrick. Hillier has enamoured me only due to his putting a public face on the CF, which I think has hid for far to long and let the public (and politicians) play up the ‘peacekeeper’ image with which I believe has contributed to the overall degradation of the CF. Not to say that I’m against peacekeeping. Rather, I think that the image promoted within Canada about peacekeeping has been more harmful to the CF then helpful.
As to Hillier’s impact on the CF, I leave such speculation to those like yourself who are in a far better place to pass judgement then I.
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You seem strangely adamant about that…
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K- I see what you’re saying, but what image do we have now? War fighter or American puppet? I know some may think that an excessive involvement with the UN from the mid-80’s onward set the conditions for budget cuts but thats a myth.
The Swiss have a very professional and well equipped army and have not fought in a war in the last 2 centuries. In Canada’s case, it was simply bad politics and neglect by the liberals that the CF fell into the state of affairs it did.
Do you know more Canadians died in the Balkans than Afghanistan thus far? UN missions are plenty dangerous and it takes a warfighter and a diplomat to succeed there. There’s an argument to be made that getting away from the “Peacekeeper training” has stalled progress in the asymmetric non-contingent, non-linear battle space that is Kandahar.
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Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t agree more with regards to the state of affairs the CF found itself in under the tenure of the liberials. It was our own government that set the conditions for budget cuts, and not our involvement with UN (or other) peacekeeping operations. I view the liberals as being chiefly responsible for the misappropriation of the ‘peacekeeping’ image and promoting peacekeeping operations as being something akin too, but not quiet like, policing. By presenting a watered down and erroneous image of what peacekeeping is to the public, they could then justify decreases in military spending under their leadership. Why does the CF need a new fleet of helicopters if their use in peacekeeping operations is limited to secondary and non-combat roles, and if CF deployments are primarily in support of UN peacekeeping operations, right? While something of an over simplified statement on the subject, this is how I’ve always understood the liberal train of thought from that period when it came to military spending (and one I disagree with).
Likewise, I think that your point about our getting away from the ‘peacekeeper training’ has stalled progress in Kandahar is very poignant. The last thing we should be doing is getting away from this sort of training. I believe soldiers to be the front line of diplomacy in areas of conflict, and they should be provided the training and skills to act as diplomats in situations that demand it. As the representatives of our nation in the field the CF can set the tone for how our intentions as a nation are perceived by those we are there to help. To ensure the right tone is set with the local populace our soldiers should be equally schooled in the arts of diplomacy as well as those of war, no matter the type of operation they are engaged in. When it comes to operations centred around the concept of ‘winning hearts and minds’, as we seem to be repeatedly told about those in Kandahar, this becomes all the more important.
As to the image of the CF… that’s a hard question to respond to and gives me pause for thought. In my eagerness to see the CF move away from a public image that I view as having allowed for the neglect it saw under the liberals I realize I probably threw the baby out with the bath water. That is to say, instead of moving away from the peacekeeper image, perhaps we should look at refining it so that it accurately presents and represents the Canadian Forces.