Conservatives and Greens Challenge the Liberals in a North Shore Byelection

For a decade, Jonathan Wilkinson symbolized the new Liberal party that Justin Trudeau had built.

A former New Democrat and clean-tech CEO, Wilkinson arrived in Ottawa surfing a Liberal wave built on sunny ways and bold ambition, especially on climate change. He would emerge as a point person in the Trudeau cabinet, first as minister of the environment and climate change, then as minister of energy and natural resources, treading a fine line between climate action and resource extraction.

Prime Minister Mark Carney took a different approach. A month after the 2025 federal election, Carney dropped Wilkinson from cabinet and replaced him with Tim Hodgson, a former Goldman Sachs banker and adviser to Carney when he was governor of the Bank of Canada. With Hodgson racing around Canada to negotiate a new West Coast pipeline and former environment minister Steven Guilbeault quitting cabinet in protest, it became clear that this government would not simply be a continuation of the Trudeau years.

Wilkinson resigned as an MP and is now Canadian ambassador to the European Union. Carney’s minority government became a majority earlier this year with successive floor crossings from both former Conservative and NDP MPs; the party also added seats when it won three byelections this April. With the Conservatives in the doldrums and an uptick for both the New Democrats and the Greens, North Vancouver-Capilano will be a good barometer for just how popular the Liberals are. Voters will go to the polls on Aug. 31 to choose a replacement MP for their North Shore riding, which includes all of the city of North Vancouver and parts of the district of North Vancouver and eastern West Vancouver.

The Liberal candidate, Braeden Caley, has had a hand in shaping both the Trudeau and Carney governments. (Politically obsessed Vancouverites might also remember Caley as director of policy and communications to former mayor Gregor Robertson — Robertson himself is now a Liberal MP and federal minister of housing and infrastructure.)

After years working as a Liberal staffer in different capacities, Caley was appointed president and CEO of the progressive think tank Canada 2020 in 2022 — the same year Mark Carney joined its advisory board.

In the twilight of Trudeau’s leadership, it was Caley who reached out to the producers of The Daily Show to launch Carney’s political career into prime time. He would spend the next year and a half by Carney’s side, first as his leadership campaign director, then as the Liberals’ national campaign co-director and lastly as deputy chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Caley grew up in Richmond, lived in Vancouver for most of his adult life and recently moved to Central Lonsdale after time away working in Ottawa. Now, he wants to step out of the backrooms.

“As this year went on, the economic opportunity of the country kept coming back to my home, British Columbia, where the most potential was,” he says.