OTTAWA—Environment Minister Jim Prentice, long thought of as a possible future Conservative leader after Prime Minister Stephen Harper steps down, has suddenly resigned to go to Bay Street.

“I am resigning from cabinet effective immediately,” Prentice told MPs in a surprise announcement in the House of Commons following Question Period Thursday.

Prentice said he will take a position as vice-chair and senior executive vice-president of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce early in 2011.

Attempting to head off questions about how he could have been negotiating a new job with a bank while a cabinet minister, he also told MPs he had discussed the move with the federal ethics commissioner before making the announcement.

Prentice said he will resign his Calgary Centre North seat by the end of this year.

Government House Leader John Baird will be the acting environment minister, a position he once held.

The resignation of one of the Harper government’s senior ministers will be a blow to the Conservatives, who have been battered by a series of miscues and high-profile problems in recent months.

To explain the surprise move, Prentice said he is doing it for family reasons.

“When I entered into politics in 2001, I made a commitment that my time in politics would last eight to 10 years. It has now remarkably been nine years. And it is time for me to pursue new opportunities outside of public life,” Prentice said.

NDP leader Jack Layton said he is worried about the way this departure appears to confirm the close ties between the government and the banks.

“It does cause us concern,” Layton said outside the Commons.

Prentice is the second senior minister to leave Harper's cabinet in the past few months. Former government House leader Jay Hill also stepped down earlier this year after 17 years as an MP, saying he wanted to pursue opportunities in the private sector.

Prentice, considered one of Harper’s most capable ministers, handled the Indian affairs and industry portfolios before being moved to the difficult environment portfolio in 2008.

There has long been talk that Prentice’s leadership ambitions did not sit well with Harper.

But Harper stood to praise Prentice and wish him well after the resignation was announced.

“He has earned the highest respect, not just of me, (but) of all his colleagues in government, of all his colleagues in Parliament and of all Canadians who have worked with him or dealt with him in the numerous positions which he has held,” the prime minister told MPs.

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Liberal House Leader David McGuinty paid his party’s respects to Prentice and Heritage Minister James Moore issued a farewell statement on Twitter: “Jim Prentice is a gentleman of the first order and has been a great colleague. I wish him all the best,” Moore wrote.

Prentice's departure creates an Alberta vacancy in cabinet – rare and precious in a government that has an abundance of seats in that province. Conservative sources are speculating that it paves the way for Ted Menzies (Macleod) or James Rajotte (Edmonton-Leduc) to get promoted from the backbench.

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