MacDougall now heading Harper's communications team

The Prime Minister's Office has quickly replaced its director of communications, promoting spokesman Andrew MacDougall.

MacDougall, 36, was namedWednesday morning toreplace Angelo Persichilli, whoresigned last weekafter just seven months on the job.

MacDougall will be Stephen Harper's eighth director of communications and his seventh since becoming prime minister in 2006.

The affable MacDougall is bilingual,unlike his predecessor.

He has worked on Parliament Hill since 2006, moving up through the ranks as he gained respect among his colleagues and the media alike.

Most recently, under Persichilli, he was associate director of communications and Harper's spokesman -- the most visible member of the prime minister's large and powerful communications team.

MacDougall will be put to the test immediately. Harper and his cabinet are under intense scrutiny after the auditor-general found that Parliament was kept in the dark about the true cost of the F-35 fighter jet program.

This promotion was not the only politicalstaffing newsspreading around Parliament Hill on Wednesday morning. Veteran NDP press secretary and spokesman Karl Belanger has been named principal secretary to Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair.