It will be the end of an era in federal politics as former Prime Minister Stephen Harper will step down from his seat in the House of Commons this fall.

Harper served as Canada's leader for ten years before falling in last year's election to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party.

Foothills MP John Barlow who stood beside him in Ottawa says Harper has left a legacy when it comes to the Conservative Party.

"He played such a critical role in the conservative movement in uniting the two conservative parties at the federal level," he says. "I hope people years from now will consider him one of the great prime ministers we've ever had."

Harper helped form the then Canadian Alliance and PC's together in 2004 becoming the Conservative Party.

Barlow says with Harper's riding of Calgary-Heritage being so close to the Foothills there were plenty of conversations exchanged on how local riding were doing even when he was dealing with national matters.

"The first question that he always asked was 'What's going on in your riding? What are some of the issues that are happening there? Is there anything we need to be on top of?' So despite somebody who has the issues of all Canadians on the top of his mind, he always wanted to know what was happening in ridings."

Barlow says even when Harper stepped down as party leader after the 2015 election he still stayed on his post in the House and has been and will be a great resource for MP's of all experience levels.

"He's been a mentor to a lot of the new members of parliament, I still consider myself fairly new. All of us have booked meetings with him in his office and he's taken a half hour or hour to sit and talk with you and answer some questions about whether it's issues that have come up or coming up, the leadership and just for him to share that knowledge with us with that knowledge and experience is absolutely invaluable."

Harper has been in politics since 1993.