Carney staffer Braeden Caley to seek nomination in B.C. byelection

Braeden Caley, deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney, arrives on Parliament Hill before a meeting of the federal cabinet in Ottawa, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

One of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s key staffers says he’ll be stepping away from his role as he considers running for a seat in Parliament.

Braeden Caley, Carney’s deputy chief of staff, thanked the prime minister in a letter posted to social media late Sunday for what he called “the honour of a lifetime.”

Caley didn’t specify a timeline or a particular riding where he would seek a nomination in his letter, only that he plans to run in his home province of British Columbia.

The riding of North Vancouver—Capilan will be contested in a forthcoming byelection. That seat had been held by former cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who resigned this spring to become Canada’s ambassador to the European Union.

North Vancouver—Capilano has consistently voted Liberal since Wilkinson was first elected in 2015.

Caley previously worked as a Liberal party spokesman and as executive director of the Canada 2020 think tank.

In his letter, he recalled his two-decade-plus journey from working in an MP’s constituency office early in his career to serving Carney in his Liberal leadership campaign and later as prime minister.

“Thank you, colleagues, for being some of the finest company I have ever kept. I will be cheering you on — and, I hope, soon standing with you again for the same cause and for the same great country that we are working to make even better still,” Caley wrote in the letter.

Carney has yet to call a byelection in North Vancouver—Capilano or any of the other six ridings recently vacated by MPs.

When a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant, the prime minister must call an election between 11 and 180 days after the member’s resignation. A byelection can be as short as 36 days or as long as 50 days, putting the date of voting somewhere between 47 days and seven months after the seat opens up.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2026.