Director of Communications (Office of the Prime Minister)

The Director of Communications in the Prime Minister's Office (French: Directeur de la Communication au Cabinet du Premier Ministre) is one of the most senior roles in the Canadian Prime Minister's Office, reporting directly to the prime minister and his or her chief of staff. The person is responsible for selling the government's agenda to the media and public.

Duties

The portfolio thus encompasses everything from speech writing, communications packages, coordinating announcements, creating media appearances for the Prime Minister, crafting communications responses, liaising with the media, coordinating with ministers' and Members of Parliament's offices, and responding to government controversies.

The position's grueling hours are close only to the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff and Director of Policy.[1]

Since 2006 only half of the directors have lasted more than one year, with the average in the position being just 395 days, or roughly 13 months. The longest serving director is Kate Purchase, who served as Justin Trudeau’s first communications director from October 2015 to December 2019. The shortest duration was just 32 days with William Stairs, who left shortly after Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected with a minority government.

Previous Directors of Communications

Name	Prime Minister	Dates Served	Reason for Leaving
Peter Donolo	Jean Chrétien	1993–1999	Resigned
Françoise Ducros		1999–2002	Resigned following controversy
Jim Munson		2002–2003	Appointed to the Senate of Canada
Mario Laguë	Paul Martin	2003–2005	Appointed to a diplomatic position
Scott Reid		2005–2006	Party defeated in 2006 election
William J. Stairs	Stephen Harper	January – February 2006	Unknown
Sandra Buckler		February 2006 – June 27, 2008	Cancer treatment
Kory Teneycke		July 7, 2008 – July 28, 2009	Job with Sun News Network
John Williamson		August 2009 – March 2010[2]	To run for Parliament
Dimitri Soudas		March 2010 – September 5, 2011[3]	Hired by the Canadian Olympic Committee
Angelo Persichilli		October 2011 – April 2012[4]	Job stress
Andrew MacDougall		April 2012 – September 2, 2013[5]	Job in London, England
Jason MacDonald		September 12, 2013 – February 13, 2015[6]	Unknown
Rob Nicol		February 14, 2015[6] – October 18, 2015	party defeated in 2015 election
Kate Purchase	Justin Trudeau	October 2015 – December 2019[7]	Job with Microsoft
Cameron Ahmad	Justin Trudeau	January 2020 – June 2023[8]	Unknown
Vanessa Hage-Moussa	June 2023 – current[9]	Incumbent

References

1. "A (sort of) day in the life of Stephen Harper's director of communications". CBC News, February 18, 2015.
2. "PM to name taxpayers crusader to media role - Canada - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
3. "Harper's spokesman Soudas moving on - Politics - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
4. "Harper's 6th communications director resigns - Politics - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
5. "Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall leaving PMO - Politics - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
6. "Jason MacDonald leaving Prime Minister's Office 7 months before election". CBC News, February 13, 2015
7. Wherry, Aaron (Dec 17, 2019). "Trudeau's communications chief Kate Purchase leaving PM's office". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2019-12-17.
8. Wherry, Aaron (May 2, 2023). "Trudeau's director of communications is leaving the PMO". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
9. https://globalnews.ca/news/10115212/pmo-new-communications-staff-polls/