Rick Hillier

Rick Hillier (born 1955, Campbellton, Nfd., Can.) is a 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. After finishing his armour officer training, he joined the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) regiment in Petawawa, Ont. He then attended the U.S. Army Armour Officer Advanced Course at Fort Knox, Ky., and the Combat Training Centre’s Armour School in Gagetown, N.B. Later he served with the Royal Canadian Dragoons regiment in Germany, becoming a squadron commander in 1985. Hillier attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Toronto in 1988. Upon promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1989, he was posted to Land Forces Command Headquarters in Ottawa before taking command of the Dragoons in Petawawa in 1990. The next year Hillier was posted to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, where he served in several administrative positions, becoming a colonel in 1994. He was chief of operations with the United Nations peacekeeping force in the former Yugoslavia in 1995. Upon his promotion to brigadier general (July 1996), he was put in command of the 2nd Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group in Petawawa.

Hillier 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: “We’re not the public service of Canada. We’re not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people.” He retired as CDS in July 2008. Hillier’s honours included Commander of the Order of Military Merit, the Meritorious Service Cross, the Canadian Forces’ Decoration, and the U.S. Legion of Merit.