 Newspaper cartoonists frequently ridiculed the officers who resigned as an absurd Colonel Blimp types who were anachronistically clinging to British traditions and old-fashioned ideas about war in the modern age while Hellyer was depicted as a bold visionary and a technocratic elitist whose plans to merge the three services into one were in tune with the "zeitgeist".An ambitious man, Hellyer had championed unification to present himself as an innovative leader as he openly aspired to be prime minister one day, and in general the media took his side against his military critics.In a 1966 editorial, the "Winnipeg Free Press" stated that Hellyer had "earned the nation's gratitude and its continued support" while in the same year the "Vancouver Sun" in an editorial declared that "young Mr. Hellyer seems to be quietly pulling off what may in time be recorded as this government's greatest achievement".