Lt. General (ret’d) the Honourable Andrew Leslie PC, CMM, MSC, MSM, CD, BA, MA
Andrew Leslie’s family have served Canada in uniform for seven consecutive generations (usually as gunners), and he has been a soldier, a senior business executive and a Parliamentarian. He has led at every level within the Army in domestic support (floods, ice storms, fires, evacuations, Summit and Olympic security), peacekeeping and war. Having served with mechanized, light, and airborne forces, his senior commands include the 1St Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (like his Father), 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, Land Force Central Area/4th Canadian Division, Communications Command, Joint Task Force Afghanistan and the Deputy Commander of ISAF in Kabul. Between 2006 and 2010 he was the Army Commander/Chief of Land Staff at the height of Canada’s participation in Afghanistan, responsible for the 57,000 people, their equipment, training, budgets and related infrastructure. His longer missions include UN duties in Cyprus and various areas of the former Yugoslavia, and he served with NATO in Germany and Afghanistan, awarded both Canadian, U.S., Polish and other international honours and decorations.
After a 35-year career with the Canadian Armed Forces he became a senior Vice President of a large Canadian corporation, working on network security with US and Canadian clients and as a director on several corporate and charitable boards. Elected as the Federal Member of Parliament for Orleans in 2015, Andrew became the Chief Government Whip and a member of the Privy Council of Canada. In 2017 the Prime Minister asked him to focus on Canada-US relations, and he was with the relevant cabinet committees on International Affairs and Trade. He spent considerable time with North American business leaders, business associations and opinion shapers over the course of the NAFTA negotiations.
He chose not to run in the 2019 election, and now sits on several corporate boards. He was a Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and Executive in Residence at the Schulich School of Business, and he now consults on leadership, risk management and governance. A graduate of numerous military and civilian courses on leadership, tactics, ethics, strategy, equipment acquisition and weapons management, he holds degrees in Economics, Strategic Studies/Military History (RMC), as well as executive courses from the Harvard Business School, the Rotman School of Management and the Canadian Forces Colleges. He has three very accomplished and energetic children, lives in Ottawa, and is bilingual.