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Nicol will be responsible for selling the Conservative government’s message leading up to the Oct. 19 election.

Harper’s Conservatives and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have been neck-and-neck in many polls as the parties prepare for the campaign.

Tim Powers, a Conservative strategist and vice-chairman of Summa Strategies in Ottawa, said people shouldn’t put too much weight on what the loss of the prime minister’s spokesman means to the government because it happens so frequently.

“Given this particular position and the fact that eight obituaries have been written already, I hardly think it will be seen as a moment where the government’s longevity is threatened, or ability to get re-elected is threatened because this position has changed again,” he said.

Powers said he knows Nicol and believes he has done a good job selling Canadian Tire’s message and product to Canadians – a skill that will be portable to the PMO, as the government looks to sell itself once again to the Canadian public on the election trail.

Nicol’s biggest challenge will be to quickly integrate into government and understand the environment in a critical election year, he said.

“He’s coming into an environment where the subject of the election, the focus of the election is going to be in part, if the opposition succeeds, the prime minister,” Powers said. “So he’s going to be playing a lot of defence and he needs to be ready to put on his Bobby Orr skates.”