Caroline Elliott, who narrowly lost the B.C. Conservative leadership race in May, will be a candidate in West Vancouver-Capilano for the Oct. 24 provincial election.
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Caroline Elliott, a former B.C. Conservative leadership contender who lost the party’s May final run-off by just two per cent, says she will run for the Conservatives in the Oct. 24 provincial election in the riding of West Vancouver-Capilano. She made the announcement following B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s decision last week to quit the party and say she would not seek re-election for the provincial Conservatives after the snap election call from NDP Leader David Eby.
Elliott’s candidacy shifts the party’s slate in the North Shore corridor. West Vancouver-Capilano was won by Conservative Lynne Block in the 2024 provincial election, while Block will instead run in North Vancouver-Seymour, where incumbent New Democrat Susie Chant is the sitting MLA.
The leadership race field will also be present across several ridings. Elliott becomes the second of the five final Conservative leadership contestants to publicly announce plans for the snap election, joining former legislator Peter Milobar, who will run again in Kamloops-Centre.
Additional Conservative leadership finalists and earlier contenders are also returning to election contests. Harman Bhangu, Bruce Banman, Sheldon Clare and Steve Kooner are all running again for their seats, while leadership finalist Iain Black was seen with interim leader Lorne Doerkson during Doerkson’s introduction but has not issued an announcement yet.
The Conservatives’ nominations also include Ayla Dumais in West Vancouver–Sea To Sky, where she will face Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote. Dumais’s nomination places the party in a contest that had previously drawn attention during the leadership campaign era, including Yuri Fulmer’s earlier leadership-race involvement; Fulmer also later said in late August that he was proud to stand with Findlay after defending her following departures and expulsions that affected sitting members.
In addition to the Conservatives, other right-wing activity will feature through OneBC, a separate party operating under former Conservative MLA Dallas Brodie. Warren Hamm, the first OneBC leadership candidate to declare his intentions in late 2025, is running for the party in Penticton-Summerland, one of four official OneBC candidates under Brodie’s leadership. Other OneBC nominations include Brent Chapman, Findlay’s husband, who will run in Surrey South, where he won for the Conservatives in 2024, and a matchup with Elenore Sturko, the leader of CentreBC and current White Rock mayor, who will run for the Conservatives.
Sturko said in a statement, “I’m embarrassed by the fact that he has been my MLA, and I plan to remedy that,” referencing the 2024 election outcome for Chapman. In 2024, Chapman was among 13 Conservative MLAs who called on then Conservative leader John Rustad to discipline Sturko for comments she made about a former Vancouver Police Board member. The entrepreneur has not immediately responded to questions about his plans for the upcoming election.
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