Dual loyalty a fine balance, top soldier says

After four decades of service, Gen. Wayne Eyre set to step down as chief of defence staff

- STEPHANIE LEVITZ

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Gen. Wayne Eyre following a news conference at CFB Trenton in April. Eyre informed Trudeau months ago that he would retire this summer, laying out a detailed plan so there would be ample time for a proper handover.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau grappled last week with how Canada could hit NATO's defence spending target, he went out for a drink with the country's top soldier.

For about an hour, Trudeau and Gen. Wayne Eyre tucked away at a Washington bar on the sidelines of the NATO summit. It was likely their last face-to-face conversation: on Thursday, Eyre steps down as chief of the defence staff and Lt.Gen. Jennie Carignan assumes command.

But like the single-barrel bourbon in his glass that night, most of Eyre's life has been steeped in one placethe Canadian Armed Forces.

And so, even with packing boxes piling up and goodbye gifts on his office window sill, Eyre wasn't going to disclose what he told Trudeau, who would go on to announce plans to meet NATO's two per cent of GDP spending target by 2032.

That Eyre, 57, won't dish is why some who've served with him call him a "warrior monk"-he puts his duty to the country and the military's subservience to political masters above all else.

Still, how he characterizes his conversations over the years with political leaders lays bare a tension he dealt with and one his successor will, too: a dual loyalty.

"It comes back to being able to look yourself in the mirror afterwards and know that you've spoken the truth," he said in a wide-ranging and lengthy conversation with the Star this week, his last media interview before his retirement on Thursday. "You have to thread the needle of being loyal to those below you and loyal to the country, and sharing the truth of the country and keeping on side with the government.