
Ten days before this stage, National Bank did something Canadian banks don’t normally do — it hired a retired Chief of Defence Staff to advise it on defence. This move is a signal. In this solo session, General (Ret’d) Rick Hillier makes the case, on National Bank’s behalf, for why Canada’s defence industrial base is now a genuine institutional priority for the country’s capital markets — and what founders should read into it when the money side of the industry starts making hires like this one.