Harper Chooses Star Columnist as Communications Director

... and every journalist's best friend, Dimitri Soudas, rides off into the sunset.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has selected Toronto Star columnist Angelo Persichilli to be his new director of communications, replacing the outgoing Dimitri Soudas. Persichilli, 63, had also been an editor and columnist at Corriere Canadese, the leading Italian-Canadian newspaper, and spent much of his career at the multicultural broadcaster CFMT before becoming a columnist fulltime. We failed to give a proper sendoff to Soudas yesterday, but let's just say Persichilli, who's just about the only person at the Star who could have even been remotely considered a logical choice for the new gig, has large, angry, doggedly determined shoes to fill. Coming from such a media-heavy background, Persichilli's a bit of a left-field choice for Harper, as he's previously stocked his communications staff with the party faithful. Since Persichilli can't speak French, he won't be acting as the prime minister's spokesman and instead will focus on strategy and the like. This means that Andrew MacDougall, one of those party faithful, will now get the opportunity to defend his party's misdeeds through talking points and obfuscation. Best of luck to them both.