I still remember the call. It was nine years ago and it was summertime. The call came from Dimitri Soudas in Stephen Harper's office and he wanted to talk about Toronto and minorities. I thought it was just a routine call from a political player and agreed to meet him, even though I expected it to be a waste of time.

I didn't change my opinion when Soudas walked into the Corriere Canadese office. At the time he was 22 years old, but he looked younger. I remember it was a busy day and thought I'd be able to get rid of him in a few minutes.

I was wrong. It was enjoyable. He asked a lot questions which is uncomfortable for a journalist. He asked questions about ethnic communities, the media and their relationship with political parties.

I started answering his questions and our meeting got longer. I cancelled one meeting and my "presentation" become very passionate and detailed.

I was thinking this might be more than an opportunity to vent my frustration with federal parties, especially with the Liberals who I felt were taking advantage of the ethnic media, than an opportunity to change things. How can, I thought, a 22-year-old address all those important issues? Again, I was wrong.

First in opposition and later in government, I could see the relationship between the Conservative Party and the ethnic media changing radically. There were no more patronizing wine and cheese parties with the minister of multiculturalism delivering generalities to us, but real press conferences with ministers and the Prime Minister debating real issues. There's no doubt that the political activity in this sector by Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney has been important and that in the last election it delivered a lot of support to the Conservative Party directly stolen from the stale Liberal Party unable to refocus its attention towards minorities. But Kenney's actions were greatly gained from the new approach with media promoted by Soudas.

It is in this context that some tension between the PMO communications and the Parliamentary Press Gallery has developed and increased.

Some decisions, like banning the Cabinet "ins" and "outs" from the media, have understandably not been praised by members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, but the main change in the attitude of communications in the PMO has been widening the access to the so called " ethnic media" and allowing more access to regional media.

As Soudas said during an interview last week with CTV's Don Martin, during the last election the Prime Minister gave 84 interviews to many Canadian outlets, not just to those represented in Ottawa by the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

So Soudas, at an age when most people move up in their career by taking the position of director of communication to the Prime Minister of Canada, he's going to step down. And he is doing so in order to take care of the only other thing he is more loyal to other than Prime Minister Harper: his young family.

In announcing his resignation last week, during the Conservatives caucus meeting he said: "If there is a list of burnout jobs in politics, director of communications to the Prime Minister of Canada is probably near the top—especially when it comes after a gruelling leadership race and four election campaigns in seven years."

Soudas is only 31 years old and he still looks younger than he is, but he is very attached to the traditional values of family and friendship. He said that "family, friends, and life in general take a back seat, because getting up at 6 a.m. before the sun is up and going to bed at one in the morning, a few hours before it comes up again, hasn't left much time to do much else other than serve."

That's the only way you can approach a job like that "and when one decides to serve, he must give it all he has with dedication, commitment and loyalty."

In his remarks, Soudas stressed that "it has been a tremendous honour and an immense privilege to serve Prime Minister Harper each and every day—for almost a decade now," and it is time to go.

Soudas, as is known on the Hill by anybody, is a hard-working young guy, proud of his heritage and culture but is a Canadian first and foremost.

He has strong opinions, but he's also very humble. He has been able to reach the top never while forgetting where he came from.

His resignation will be a loss for the Conservatives and for the Harper government.

But one thing nobody will be able to take away from him: "On Sept. 6, I will be able to take my daughter Georgia to her first day of school—another first I would have surely missed as in the past. I will be able to play with my son Theodore and my baby daughter Katherine. Rather than kissing them in their beds because I was leaving so early or coming back so late that they were asleep," he told the caucus.

But, at the same time, he said, "I would not trade the last nine years for anything in the world, despite the lonely walk in the desert, the hardships and the Herculean challenges, because I had the privilege to walk by the side of a great man."