Eminence Grise: Italian Immigrant

Twinkly Eyes Dept: Persichilli is, as Jason Kenney tweeted, the "eminence grise" of the Canadian ethnic media. An Italian immigrant to Toronto, he is a charming raconteur with twinkly eyes, a worldly Mediterranean shrug and a reputation as a player with sharp elbows and a taste for vendettas, according to Calgary Herald. But the column that made headlines wasn't his piece in the Toronto Star two weeks ago, in which Persichilli compared Harper favourably to Pierre Trudeau, but one from April, in which he complained about Quebec and spin doctors are never supposed to become the story, so it was bad news for Angelo Persichilli that his appointment as Stephen Harper's new director of communications has made so many headlines in Quebec. Like his friend Mike Duffy, who Harper appointed to the Senate, Persichilli gave the prime minister favourable journalistic treatment in the months before going to the dark side, a kind of long job interview in ink. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.