Hillier a leader to follow

General Staff Chief Gen. Rick Hillier will leave his post in July, having helped form the Canadian Armed Forces into the successful organization it has become.

A cavalryman with service in the 8th Canadian Hussars and the Royal Canadian Dragoons prior to higher appointments, Hillier has shown traditional elan in his actions - and quite a bit of colour in telling the government what he was sworn and paid to tell it: not always what it wanted to hear.

Appointed by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005 to reform the military, including defending Canada's increasing international interests and overseeing the ongoing Afghan mission, Hillier has achieved his goals.

Martin was done in by the residue of the Trutopian era and its Chretien aftershock still extant in his party, but Hillier has served his successor Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper well, too. The Afghan mission is on good footing, the country has a Canada-first strategy and the military is closer to being at one with Canadians than it has for decades. There are successors to Hillier available, too; the one chosen will, without doubt, serve well in the new environment.

That's how well the affable Newfoundlander Hillier has done his job over the past three and a half years.

Some of those out of the know, or maybe just out to cause mischief, say the Canadians are in Afghanistan at the behest of the Americans and are running some sort of a parallel operation.

This can't be farther from the truth.

Whereas the Americans have apparently sent some pretty challenged individuals to theatre in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past six years and failed to support them materially, the Canadian government - particularly the current one - can in no way be accused of that. Our troops have included young people from all classes - even politicians’ children - and have proved well-trained and heeled servicemen and women, with futures when they get back home. The young people receive top-notch training before they go in theatre, allowing the country to keep tours to a manageable six months. When there, the troops receive whatever is available (see the graduation of vehicles from jeep-like ones to armoured trucks, to newer Leopard tank models).When something was or is lacking, the government has been told; and the government has seen that it's realized - even to the point of twisting arms internationally. Nothing but the best to meet changing challenges.

Yes, Hillier leaves the military in good stead.

Now, we need the same leadership in other sectors of our society. As a country, with our infrastructure and heavy industry needing a boost in the most urgent way, we need someone similar to go to bat for the trades and building and manufacturing.