l'Actualité

Jack Layton had just become leader of the NDP when our French-language sister publication (and occasional sparring partner) L’actualité turned its gaze toward English Canada’s newly minted social-democrat-in-chief. The year was 2003 and the late Michel Vastel, not usually given to romanticizing federalist anglophones, came away impressed:

Our colleagues at l’Actualité are chuffed about their new interview with Jim Prentice (conducted by Alec Castonguay, who is generally spotted in the pages of Le Devoir). In it, the environment minister says, in regard to the Americans, “We cannot have incompatible plans.” And he says he’s “not interested in getting lost in numbers:” if the Americans can come up with a carbon-reduction strategy, which he sounds like he very much doubts, he’s in the business of making sure Canada follows along.