Lieutenant-General Andrew B. Leslie,
OMM, MSC, MSM, CD
Chief of the Land Staff

LGen Andrew Leslie joined the 30th Field Artillery Regiment in 1977, and as a student in England he was attached to the Honorable Artillery Company. In 1980 he attended the International Peace Academy UN Seminar in Vienna, Austria. In 1981, he transferred to the Regular Force and served with the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Germany, the regiment that - like his father before him – he eventually commanded. He has completed the British Army Troop Commander and Tactics courses, French Army Commando, the hand-to-hand combat and the infantry company commander’s courses, as well as Army and Joint staff colleges and training in project management.

After a succession of field tours with mechanized and airborne combat units in Germany, Cyprus and Canada and command appointments up to regimental level, in early 1995 he was promoted to Colonel and saw service in the Former Yugoslavia as Chief of Staff Sector South (Brigade Level). He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his actions under fire during the fighting for Knin. He then became the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of UNCRO (Division level), and finally Chief of Staff of UNPF (Mission level). Following the UN hand-over to NATO forces, LGen Leslie returned to Western Canada as the Area Chief of Staff in 1996, and served in that capacity during the Manitoba floods of Spring 1997.

In 1997 he became the Commander of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (1 CMBG), an infantry (heavy combat formation) based in Western Canada, where the focus was on live-fire combined arms training. In early 1998, 1 CMBG deployed to the South Shore of Montreal to assist with ice-storm disaster relief operations. In 1999, he was promoted Brigadier-General while a student on the Advanced and National Securities Studies Courses in Toronto. In 2000, he was appointed the J6 of the Canadian Forces, responsible for commanding the communications field groups and regiments, electronic intelligence functions and supporting various national computer networks. In 2002, he became the Commander Land Force Central Area, responsible for one regular and three reserve Brigades as well as several bases and training establishments.

LGen Leslie was appointed Commander Task Force Kabul and Deputy Commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan as of 2003, for which he was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross. On his return in 2004, he assumed the role of Acting Assistant Chief of the Land Staff. Later that year, he was a full-time PhD student at the Royal Military College during which he was selected as the McNaughton-Vanier Scholar. In 2005, he became the Director General Strategic Planning in Ottawa, responsible for a wide variety of force development and resource issues.

In June 2006, LGen Leslie was appointed as Commander of the Army.