Persichilli quits PMO after only 7 months
OTTAWA— Angelo Persichilli has resigned from his job as the Prime Minister’s communications director after less than a year on the job.
Persichilli, a former journalist who wrote a weekly column in the Toronto Star, made his resignation letter public on Friday morning, just as the government was beginning its public-relations campaign to promote Thursday’s budget.
He was the sixth communications director to work for Prime Minister Stephen Harper since the Conservatives took power in 2006 and he will leave the job, he says, when the seventh is appointed.
The letter offered no specific reasons but noted his “considerable regret” in leaving, alluding also to the strains of the job on someone of “a certain age.” Persichilli is 64.
“With considerable regret, I have informed Prime Minister Stephen Harper that I am resigning from my position as Director of Communications, effective once my successor is appointed,” the letter states.
“This is a prestigious position that requires extremely intense effort and very long hours, which at a certain age, are not an option for a long period of time.”
It was only last August that Persichilli left his journalistic career to become Harper’s communications chief.
Persichilli, a former editor of the Italian-language Corriere Canadese newspaper, kept a low profile in his PMO — some Conservatives grumbled that he was too invisible.
Certainly he was far less public than his immediate predecessor, Dimitri Soudas, he left last summer to become communications chief for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Soudas, reached on Friday, said he could attest to the harsh demands of the job, which requires the communications chief to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.