Lawyer Stephen Curran wins federal Conservative nomination in North Vancouver

A North Vancouver lawyer and longtime Conservative party volunteer has been nominated as the Conservative Party of Canada’s candidate in North Vancouver for the next federal election.

Stephen Curran, 48, was declared the candidate following a nomination contest April 13 where Curran bested former party candidate Les Jickling.

Now Curran, who moved to North Vancouver with his family 10 years ago, is focused on taking on Liberal incumbent and cabinet minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who has represented the riding since 2015.

Curran said he’s put his name forward because under the Liberal government, “I firmly believe we’re on a path to handing over a country that is less well off, less secure and less prosperous than the one I received from my parents,” he said. “I look at my kids and their generation, I look at the opportunities that they’re going to be missing.”

Curran grew up in Alberta, where he first became active in Conservative politics as a university student. Later he studied at the London School of Economics and worked for a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. that focused on diplomacy and resolving conflict around the globe. Back in Canada, he worked with businesses on trade missions to the World Bank before opting to study law at McGill University. Curran then worked as a commercial lawyer for five years in New York before moving to the Vancouver area in 2010.

He now works with local law company Lakes Whyte.

The married father of two said he’s heard a lot of frustration from average people during door-knocking sessions.

“Everyone is really struggling with affordability which has been stoked by a lot of overspending by this government,” he said. “The economic arguments against this government are pretty strong.”

Curran pointed to a decline in productivity and standard of living across Canada as issues the federal government is playing a key part in.

Curran joins Realtor Keith Roy, who has been nominated as the Conservative candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, as party hopefuls on the North Shore.

Historically, both ridings have swung between Liberal and Conservative parties, and political pundits often regard the ridings as among the bellwether electoral districts that determine the outcome of federal elections.

The North Vancouver riding was Conservative dating back to the 1980s, then Liberal under MP (and now city councillor) Don Bell from 2004 to 2008 before being taken back by the Conservatives under Andrew Saxton from 2008 to 2015.

Wilkinson has represented the riding since 2015, winning the last election with 45 per cent of the vote.

Since the last election, electoral boundaries have been changed on the North Shore, which has resulted in the main business district of West Vancouver, including Park Royal, Sentinel Hill and all of Ambleside (everything east of 21st Street) – being cut from the West Vancouver electoral district and added to the North Vancouver riding.

Politically, removing Ambleside from the West Vancouver riding and adding it to North Vancouver isn’t expected to dramatically benefit either Liberals or Conservatives, as the area tends to split its votes between those parties.

Chunks of Lynn Valley previously in the North Vancouver riding – including much of the area to the south of Lynn Valley Road and upper Lynn Valley to the east of Mountain Highway, as well as Capilano University – have also been taken out of the North Vancouver riding and added to the Burnaby-North Seymour riding.

The next federal election is set to take place in October 2025.