Christopher Hitchens, who died yesterday from cancer at 62, was a proud bad boy who ignored Vancouver’s smoking bylaws, promoted the war against Iraq and branded religion the root of all evil during his 2007 speaking visit to the city.
Tony Blair described him as "a complete one-off, an amazing mixture of writer, journalist, polemicist, and unique character". The author Salman Rushdie, a friend, paid tribute to him on Twitter after the announcement of his death.
"Goodbye, my beloved friend. A great voice falls silent. A great heart stops," he wrote. Mr Blair, the former Labour prime minister, publicly debated religion with Hitchens in November 2010. He said Hitchens "was fearless in the pursuit of truth and any cause in which he believed.
"And there was no belief he held that he did not advocate with passion, commitment and brilliance. "He was an extraordinary, compelling and colourful human being whom it was a privilege to know."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who once worked as an intern for Hitchens, said: "Christopher Hitchens was everything a great essayist should be: infuriating, brilliant, highly provocative and yet intensely serious.
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