OTTAWA - The military has picked Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie to redesign and rebuild the Canadian Forces after the Afghan mission ends.
The appointment stifles rampant rumours he would lead a peacekeeping mission in the Congo.
Leslie leaves his job as army commander and takes over as chief of transformation on June 22.
Rumours had been rife that the 52-year-old Leslie would be tabbed to head the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Congo.
A massive shuffle of the military's senior ranks last month left Leslie without a command.
He had once been considered a leading candidate for chief of the defence staff, the top military job.
In his new role, Leslie will oversee the restructuring of the Forces as they wind down from a decade of war in Afghanistan.
The post was a stepping stone to the top for a least one general.
Gen. Walt Natynczyk was named chief of transformation in May 2005 and went on to head the entire military.
Leslie, whose grandfather led the Canadian army in Second World War, commanded the Kabul Multi-National Brigade in Afghanistan from July 2003 to January 2004 and was deputy commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
He was appointed army commander in 2006.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon's office would not say if Leslie's new job means the government has made a decision on participation in the Congo operation.
The UN mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, has been in the African nation since 1999. It is the largest in the world with about 16,500 troops and 3,000 civilian staff.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest and most violent places in the world, has been ravaged by wars since its inception in the late 1950s. The latest wave of fighting has claimed an estimated five million lives since 1998.
The government there has asked the UN force to leave by mid-2011.
