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Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is shown in Ottawa on Dec. 19, 2014.SEAN KILPATRICK/The Canadian Press

John Baird is leaving cabinet, and Stephen Harper is losing one of the last heavy hitters who was at his cabinet table from the beginning – and the man who finally put Mr. Harper's tone into Canadian diplomacy.

At 45, Mr. Baird has never done anything but politics – as an aide to Tory minister Perrin Beatty, an Ontario MPP and minister in Mike Harris's conservative "common-sense revolution," and a front-bencher under Mr. Harper. Now, after what one political staffer called an "epic run," he's making a sudden announcement he's leaving – scheduled to speak in the Commons Tuesday at 10 a.m.

For Mr. Harper, it marks the loss, after last year's death of former finance minister Jim Flaherty, of one the few who came into his government with his own political stature, got the PM's respect, and became a defining figure.

In Mr. Harper's cabinet, where ministers are typically treated like they are under strict bail conditions, Mr. Baird was one of the few released on his own recognizance.

He could speak in public, even to the press, without a script – and later, could deal with foreign governments without calling HQ for every play. Part of that was that he was brash enough to take risks. Part of it was that he was close to Mr. Harper, having been one of his early supporters among Ontario's provincial Tories. Most of it was that the PM trusted him.

His style wasn't universally loved. He was known for partisan attacks, especially in his younger days, in Mr. Harris's cabinet. But that was a characteristic Mr. Harper evidently liked. And it was fitting for the new tone Mr. Harper sought to bring to foreign policy.

Mr. Harper's previous foreign ministers had never seemed to echo what the prime minister wanted in Canadian foreign policy: dropping the traditional Canadian diffidence. Mr. Harper didn't want Canada to project itself as mediator and peacekeeper, he wanted strong opinions. Mr. Baird could do that.

There was often political grandstanding involved in that, or a kind of ward-heeling for diaspora communities, like Ukrainian-Canadians – and that suited Mr. Baird's brash style, and political savvy. Mr. Baird also shared most of Mr. Harper's own beliefs about foreign policy, like staunch support for Israel. He didn't need to have the Harper view of issues explained to him – Mr. Baird's predecessor, Lawrence Cannon, had once or twice been forced to reel back statements on Israel, for example, but not Mr. Baird. He was, in short, the foreign minister who finally made Canada's foreign policy sound like Mr. Harper – less polite, more strident.

As foreign minister Mr. Baird also showed another side beyond the so-called bullhorn diplomacy of complaining about adversaries like Iran. He was a tireless traveller, meeting counterparts to build relationships. He championed human-rights causes like ending forced marriages. He quickly embraced changes in Myanmar, once the Conservatives' favourite pariah. And he developed patient maturity in dealing with consular cases. One of his last acts was to work for the release of Mohamed Fahmy, the Canadian Al Jazeera journalist jailed in Egypt; yesterday, he said that release was imminent.

Now Mr. Harper has lost another one on the small list of cabinet figures who started with him in his first cabinet and helped defined his government. Peter MacKay, the justice minister, is still there, but as a minister, never really defined the tone, and was never Mr. Harper's trusted lieutenant. Treasury Board President Tony Clement has less profile outside of Ottawa; Defence Minister Rob Nicholson is barely noticeable even in Ottawa.

But Mr. Flaherty defined Mr. Harper's fiscal policy, and economics, and he's now gone. Mr. Baird was central to Mr. Harper's minority-government politicking, then symbolized his foreign policy. Now he's leaving. The big figures from that cabinet cohort are gone, except the PM.

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