Carney shuffles PMO as aide leaves to run in B.C. byelection

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is shifting around some of the senior advisers in his office in a series of moves some Liberal strategists said shows he is putting his own stamp on government.

Scott Gilmore, Carney’s senior adviser on foreign, defence and security policy, will become the prime minister’s principal secretary on July 22. He replaces Tom Pitfield, who was named to the Senate in Carney’s first batch of appointments to the upper chamber last week.

Also, Maia Johnson will assume the new role of chief operating officer in the Prime Minister’s Office while remaining a senior adviser on Canada-U.S. relations.

The COO role is a new one for the Prime Minister’s Office, and comes with a nod to Carney’s business background.

The moves were confirmed by a senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the topic.

The Globe and Mail first reported the moves by Johnson and Gilmore on Monday.

In addition to Pitfield’s departure, Braeden Caley, Carney’s deputy chief of staff, announced in a letter posted to social media late Sunday that he’s stepping down from his role. He plans to run for a seat in Parliament in the forthcoming byelection in North Vancouver—Capilano.

In the letter, Caley thanked the prime minister for what he called “the honour of a lifetime.”

Caley, who has roots in British Columbia, previously worked as a Liberal party spokesman and headed up the Canada 2020 think tank as Carney chaired the organization’s advisory board. He and Pitfield were both key members of Carney’s campaign team.

In his letter, Caley recalled his two-decades-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.

Andrew Perez, principal of Perez Strategies and a Liberal commentator, said he thinks Caley’s move is “great news” for the party.

While Caley has substantial political experience behind the scenes in Ottawa, Perez said bringing him into a possible MP role could allow Carney to add someone to caucus who is already aligned with his vision.

North Vancouver—Capilano had been held by former cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who resigned this spring to become Canada’s ambassador to the European Union. The riding has been held by the Liberals since Wilkinson was first elected in 2015.

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

Perez said these byelections are an opportunity to bring “new blood” into caucus, with the next general election likely two or three years away.

One of the challenges facing Carney is that many of his MPs and cabinet ministers were first elected under the banner of former leader Trudeau, who had a sharply different policy agenda.

Movements within the Prime Minister’s Office, shifts in caucus and other political appointments offer Carney opportunities to distinguish himself from his predecessor, Perez said.

That helps him present a revitalized Liberal party to voters after more than a decade in power, he argued.

“Mr. Carney continues to put his own stamp on this government, whether it be through personnel and the PMO … or through future cabinet shuffles,” Perez said.

“Carney now has the opportunity to continue to make these changes and I think we’ll get to a point where the cabinet will increasingly look different and that’s probably a good thing.”

Liberal strategist Greg MacEachern said recent shuffles in Carney’s office might reflect his longer-term ambitions.

Carney’s office might be taking on a more permanent shape now following his first year as prime minister, when he had to stand up a team quickly after winning the Liberal leadership and the federal election.

“There is not one style of running a PMO. It has to really suit that individual,” said MacEachern, senior vice-president, federal, at Sussex Strategy Group.

“The type of PMO that Justin Trudeau had might not be the type PMO Jean Chrétien had. They have to find something that allows them to achieve what they want to get done.”

Perez said he’d like to see the Liberals run open nominations for the upcoming byelections.

But he said whether Caley represents the party in North Vancouver—Capilano or not, he considers it a safe Liberal seat.

Four candidates are seeking the party’s nomination in Beaches-East York. The Liberals set a nomination meeting for July 18 in that riding, which was recently vacated by Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.

There is no date yet for the byelection there or in half a dozen other ridings where the MPs have recently departed or declared an intention to do so within the next few months.

MacEachern said all politics is local in the end and Caley will have to lean on his connections to his home province to make the case to voters.

He added that Caley likely will benefit from Carney’s robust poll numbers and would enjoy an edge as a candidate if he can brand himself as an insider in Carney’s office.

“Implicit in that is somebody that had the ear of the prime minister and would do so as a member of Parliament,” said MacEachern.

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

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press