PMO fires and hires top communications aide

William Stairs, the subject of a nice profile in his hometown paper just yesterday, has departed the Prime Minister's Office as its Director of Communications. He is to be replaced — immediately — by Sandra Buckler, who, until yesterday, worked one floor down from CTV's Ottawa bureau at GPC Public Affairs (where, incidentally, one of her colleagues was Duncan Fulton, the tall gangly fellow who was once press secretary to former prime minister Jean Chretien), which recently became a business unit of multinational PR and communications firm Fleishman-Hillard.
“I think what this means is obviously that the prime minister is recognizing that they have had some communication problems in the first couple of weeks of his mandate, and that's why they are making a big change at the top of their communications staff,” my colleague Rosemary Thompson reported last night.
Several Conservative MPs and many communications professionals in Ottawa who worked on the campaign have complained that the PMO's communications strategy so far as the Emerson and Fortier appointments go were a disaster. Just to emphasize: These are complaints coming from MPs — and I'm not including Garth Turner among them — and Conservative strategists, not from disgruntled press gallery types.
Ms. Buckler will be a familiar face to political junkies. She was a designated Conservative spokesperson for the party on the various talking head shows, such as Mike Duffy Live, during the recent election.
Turner says the move is a reminder of how tough life can be working in the top political office in the land: “This is a surprise, of course, coming just two weeks to the day after the Harper administration was sworn in, and after Stairs came to wear a lot of the credit for the Conservative election win.”
Buckler, who grew up in Hamilton, Ont., was a registered lobbyist for several years acting on behalf of firms like Coca Cola, the Canadian National Railway, Rogers Wireless Inc., ConocoPhillips, and Power Financial Corp. She de-registered and ended her federal lobbying activities on Nov. 25, a few days before election began.
I cannot find the release — distributed after 9 pm last night — from the Prime Minister's Office. It is not yet posted under the news release section of the PMO's Web site but I reproduce it below:

PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE NEW DIRECTOR OF
COMMUNICATIONS

The Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, Ian Brodie, is pleased to announce
that Sandra Buckler will be joining the Prime Minister's Office as Director
of Communications effective Tuesday, February 21.
“Sandra brings a wealth of communications experience to her new post. She
has advised national and international companies and agencies on
communications matters for several years. Before that, she worked as a
communications advisors to several cabinet ministers,” said Mr. Brodie.
“During the recent election campaign she worked as a spokesperson for the
Prime Minister.”
Mr. Brodie also took the opportunity to thank William Stairs for his
excellent work and personal dedication to the Prime Minister. “William
played an important role in the creation of the Conservative Party and the
recent campaign.”
Mr. Brodie looks forward to continuing to work with William as he moves on
to new opportunities.
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