http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/712556--ex-top-soldier-hillier-fought-taliban-tories
OTTAWA – Canada's former top soldier waged war on many fronts during his long march to the post of Chief of Defence Staff.
But the most intense were the counter-insurgencies waged on Parliament Hill against Conservative officials who wanted him silenced and bureaucrats who tried to stifle his ambitious agenda to rebuild the military.
"We in the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence were at war but the rest of the government was not, and sometimes our war felt like it was in Ottawa, not Kandahar," retired Gen. Rick Hillier writes in A Soldier First, a copy of which was obtained by the Toronto Star.
Hillier recounts the rocky recent history of the Canadian military from the perspective of the ultimate insider.
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A large part of Hillier's final years was spent shuttling between Canada and Afghanistan, but his legacy will be in Ottawa, where he is credited with single-handedly reviving the confidence of the Canadian Forces following what he termed the "Decade of Darkness" — the 1990s — that was defined by massive budget cutbacks and crushed morale.
His folksy manner and ease with the media masked a laser-guided vision for the Canadian Forces when he was selected Chief of Defence Staff by former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin in January 2005.
But Martin's successor, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, wasn't as comfortable with Hillier's ease in front of the television camera.
Harper was a "very quick study" when the two men first sat down to discuss the Afghan mission after the Conservative election victory of 2006.
"He grasped the military situation quickly and had obviously been following the mission, though he didn't have as many details as I was now giving him," Hillier writes. "It quickly became apparent to me that he supported the mission and what Canada was doing in Afghanistan."
Gordon O'Connor, Hillier's former commanding officer, was a different matter.
O'Connor had an "out-of-date understanding" of the military and went around senior officers when seeking advice "to get the answer he wanted."
While Hillier says they were able to resolve most of their differences, interference from officials in the Prime Minister's Office was a constant during his three-year-term as CDS.
It began on March 4, 2006 after a series of newspaper and television interviews to promote the Canadian Forces and to try to boost recruiting efforts. Hillier was pulled into O'Connor's office for a private chat.
"We want to see less of you," O'Connor told a stunned Hillier.
"While he was never specific about who had been complaining about my profile, there was no doubt in my mind this `request' was coming from the Prime Minister's Office staffers and that Gord was acting as the front man, loyal soldier that he was."