michel vastel

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:

I’m not convinced Michel Vastel’s is the consensus view in Quebec about Gen. Rick Hillier (or the war in Afghanistan, for that matter). But it’s worth pointing out Vastel may have been the first to write a scathing review of Hillier’s run as defence chief, all while his colleagues in the English press were busy fantasizing about the departing general’s jockstrap: