2012-06-12 Elections Canada Notice of By-Election in Calgary Centre. Conservative Member-of-Parliament Lee Richardson resigned May 30. Calgary Centre figures from last election.

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper is losing a popular member of his caucus, but Alberta Premier Alison Redford is gaining a principal secretary.

Lee Richardson, the Conservative MP for Calgary Centre, announced on Wednesday that he was stepping down from his seat to work for the Alberta premier — in part as a link between the two governments.

Richardson is one of the most experienced members of Harper’s caucus, and also one of the most-liked MPs, with friends on all sides of the House — an increasing rarity in hyperpartisan Ottawa.

“The House just got a little less friendly, a little more mean,” MP Justin Trudeau said on Twitter after Richardson made his announcement.

Richardson, 64, served as an MP when Brian Mulroney was prime minister and also worked in Mulroney’s PMO. He returned to elected politics in 2004 and has been sitting as a Conservative MP for Harper since then, in opposition and in government.

It’s Richardson’s long experience, dating back to a time when relations were more collegial on Parliament Hill, that distinguished him in the current political climate — and may have made him more popular with Conservative critics than with the PMO.

When he ran for the Commons’ Speaker’s job last year, for instance, he won many supporters on the opposition benches for his promises to rein in some of the nastiness that’s now a standard of debate in the chamber. He departed on Wednesday with a similar appeal.

“If I could share one thought with colleagues, it would be this. While we advocate for different ideas of Canada, we are all Canadians and we all love our country. We would all, I think, do well to remember that and leave the partisan furies at the water’s edge,” Richardson said.

In a statement, Harper praised Richardson’s experience and said he would be missed, especially on issues related to trade.

“We will miss Lee’s wisdom and insight as we look to open new markets for Canadian goods,” Harper’s statement said. “A proud Calgarian, Lee’s commitment to his city has been clearly demonstrated through his work with the Calgary Stampede, Calgary Homeless Foundation and other charitable groups.”

Richardson said he had met privately with the prime minister to let him know he was leaving.

“My sense was that he was a little disappointed that I’m leaving but I think he was happy for me that I found this challenge and — and he’s as anxious I think as I am to maintain the relationship between the provinces and our government here in Ottawa and I think that’s important and I can help provide that link and that close bond between the provincial government and Ottawa.”

In 2009, when Harper declared that no Conservatives were allowed to speak to Mulroney — a fallout of the inquiry into the former prime minister’s dealings with German lobbyist Karl-Heinz Schreiber — Richardson was one of the few to protest the gag order. He was reportedly first up at the microphone in Conservative caucus to condemn how Mulroney was being treated.

Richardson told reporters he would be trying to use his experience in Ottawa to help his new boss.

“This is an exciting challenge at a moment when Alberta’s new premier is claiming Alberta’s leadership role in the Canadian federation in a way that only (former premier) Peter Lougheed, among her predecessors, has done,” Richardson said during his farewell to the Commons.

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