General

PM names Andrew MacDougall as new communications director—his seventh since 2006

Andrew MacDougall has been named director of communications by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Until now, MacDougall, 36, had served as press secretary for the prime minister’s office.

“I am pleased to confirm that, effective today, Andrew MacDougall has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s director of communications,” said Julie Vaux, another press secretary for the PMO in an email to the Ottawa Citizen.

MacDougall is taking over a week after Angelo Persichilli resigned just seven months after taking the job. Speaking last week with Postmedia News, Persichilli said his doctor had counseled him to step down because his workload was taking a toll on his health. “I’m not young,” he said. “That’s the reality. That’s the way it is. I was working hard, I was doing what I was supposed to do. It was not fair for me, it was not fair for my family.”

MacDougall will be Harper’s seventh communications director since he took power in 2006.

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