General Rick Hillier

Rick Hillier is a retired Canadian army officer who served as the chief of the defense staff (CDS), the top-ranking officer in the Canadian military, from 2005 to 2008.

Hillier joined the army through the Regular Officer Training Plan in 1973 and completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1975. He first gained widespread public recognition in January 1998 when he took charge of Operation Recuperation. This effort involved more than 15,000 military personnel assigned to help New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec recover from a devastating ice storm that had destroyed infrastructure and killed 25 civilians. As an exchange officer, in July 1998 he was appointed the first-ever Canadian deputy commander of the U.S. Army’s III Corps and Fort Hood; he was promoted to major general in March 1999. In 2000 he commanded the NATO Stabilization Force’s Multinational Division (Southwest) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a lieutenant general, Hillier became commander of the Canadian army in May 2003, and in February 2004 he was given a six-month assignment to lead NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. He was promoted to full general and assumed his duties as CDS in February 2005.

Credited with restoring the domestic reputation of Canada’s armed forces, Hillier consistently emphasized the strategic importance of ground troops and openly criticized people who were inclined to think of the Canadian military as nothing more than a peacekeeping force. He retired as CDS in July 2008. Hillier’s honors included Commander of the Order of Military Merit, the Meritorious Service Cross, the Canadian Forces’ Decoration, and the U.S. Legion of Merit.