Surrey Election Results: Brenda Locke unseats Doug McCallum as mayor
Surrey #Surrey
Follow our B.C. municipal election live blog throughout the night for the latest election news from around the province, and we’ll update this story with Surrey election results as they come in.
Surrey council’s most vocal critic will be its new mayor.
With only seven polls left to be counted, Brenda Locke will be the mayor-elect in B.C.’s second-largest city with 28 per cent of the votes. McCallum placed second with 27.5 per cent of the votes and Gordie Hogg third with 21 per cent.
About 700 votes separated the two frontrunners with 127 out of 130 polls reporting.
In her victory speech, Locke said Surrey had voted for change.
“You said you wanted a very big change and boy did you ever get it … A big change for public safety, for ethics, for development and for transportation in our city. A big change.”
“Surrey rocks,” Locke told the crowd.
“But still, we have work to do and we have our work cut out for us …. first of all we have to keep the Surrey RCMP right here in Surrey,” she said to cheers and whistles.
Locke, who was first elected as a councillor with Doug McCallum before breaking with his Safe Surrey Coalition, vowed to retain the RCMP and reverse the transition to a municipal police force.
But the ability to carry through on that promise hinges on whether her Surrey Connect slate can secure council majority. With 127 out of 130 polls reporting, Surrey Connect council candidates occupied four of the eight spots for council.
Gordie Hogg’s Surrey First, which promised a review of the police transition, held two spots and McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition sat in seventh and eighth spot.
In his concession speech McCallum thanked voters.
“They made that decision tonight and I respect it because I respect the residents of our great city,” he said.
“As I stand here tonight, I do have a bit of a smile on my face because I’ve worked hard for the city for many years.
“Maybe it’s time for me to finally put my feet up a little bit and enjoy life.”
Asked what he thought about Locke’s promise to reverse the police transition, McCallum said that decision was not up to his opponent, but would lie with the provincial government.
“I’m not sure she can,” he said.
McCallum said he didn’t know how much the policing issue had impacted the vote.
“There is a very vocal segment of the population that is against the changeover …”
“I don’t know whether it had a big effect or not.”
Nonetheless, many of the leading council candidates have vowed to either reverse the transition or at least consider it.
With seven polls to go, Linda Annis, an incumbent with Surrey First, was leading, followed by Harry Bains with Locke’s Surrey Connect, Mike Bose with Surrey First, then Gordon Hepner, Rob Stutt and Pardeep Kooner with Surrey Connect.
Safe Surrey incumbents Doug Elford and Mandeep Nagra appeared poised to hold onto their seats. They were followed by three Surrey Connect candidates.
With a field of strong candidates for mayor, Surrey voters hoping for change had many options.
That led experts to shy away from predicting a front-runner, although polling showed Locke with a slight lead.
Locke left Safe Surrey shortly after winning her seat on council in 2018, citing issues of transparency related to the police transition. She became a fierce critic of the plan and ran for mayor with a promise to reverse it.
The policing issue, as well as concerns about housing affordability, property tax rates, and government transparency, featured prominently in the current election campaign.
McCallum could have had a path to victory if the votes were split between his challengers, said Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley.
“With four strong opponents, he doesn’t need a strong plurality,” he said in an earlier interview.
In 2018, McCallum, who was also Surrey’s mayor from 1996 to 2005, beat out his closest competitor, Surrey First’s Tom Gill, by more than 17,000 votes and 41 per cent of the vote.
Seven of his Safe Surrey Coalition also won seats.
The party offered bold proposals — doing away with RCMP for a municipal police force and cancelling the green-lit LRT in favour of SkyTrain. McCallum stuck to his promises during his four-year term, but not without significant controversy.
Three of his Safe Surrey councillors left the party over issues related to transparency and the police transition, including Locke.
McCallum also faces a charge of public mischief after accusing a woman of running over his foot with a car in a grocery store parking lot. The trial is expected to begin later this month.
Challenging the incumbent mayor, Surrey First fielded Hogg, the former mayor of White Rock, the former B.C. Liberal MLA for Surrey-White Rock and the former Liberal MP for South Surrey-White Rock.
Hogg vowed to increase co-ordination among local, provincial and federal governments to address housing affordability, improve transit and create more neighbourhood amenities.
Incumbent councillor Linda Annis was also running for re-election along with Mike Bose, Bilal Cheema, Sargy Chima, Paul Orazietti, Ajit Mehat, Kulwinder Saini and Mary-Em Waddington. Annis boycotted the final land-use meeting before the election as McCallum moved 45 applications through council.
Dhaliwal, the Liberal MP for Surrey-Newton, was running with United Surrey, which includes former federal NDP MP Jasbir Sandhu, as well as Nicole Bennett, Jeff Bridge, Andy Dhillon, Margaret Lange, Zubeen Sahib, Julie Tapley and Becky Zhou.
Dhaliwal promised to implement his “333 plan” to address housing affordability: Approvals on renovations in three days, single-family homes in three weeks, and multi-unit buildings in three months.
“We believe the city has a role to play on the supply side, ensuring housing of all types gets to market,” he said.
Sims, former head of the B.C. Teachers Federation, former NDP MP and current NDP MLA, was running with Surrey Forward, which included Philip Aguirre, Ramon Bandong, June Liu, Arsh Mander, Paramjit Malhi, Theresa Pidcock and Jody Toor.
Sims committed to working with other levels of government to make sure Surrey gets its “fair share” of funding.
“We can’t be going to Vancouver for nightlife and Abbotsford for a show,” she said. “The resources are there, but we’re not accessing them.”
McCallum was running with a Safe Surrey Coalition slate that includes incumbents Doug Elford, Allison Patton, Mandeep Nagra and Laurie Guerra, as well as Debra Antifaev, Stuart Drysdale, John Gibeau and Raman Jassar.
McCallum promised to build a 60,000-seat stadium and complete the police transition.
McCallum was first elected to council in 1993, and was elected mayor in the following election. He spent three terms at the helm before being unseated by Dianne Watts, an Independent who later formed Surrey First.
After nine years away from politics, McCallum ran in the 2014 election, coming in second with 27 per cent of the vote and losing to Surrey First’s Linda Hepner.
But in 2018, he was the comeback kid. Surrey First lost all but one of eight council seats and McCallum’s Safe Surrey swept to power.
Also running for mayor in this election were Amrit Birring with People’s Council Surrey and Independents Kuldip Pelia and John Wolanski.
Coun. Steven Pettigrew was seeking re-election as an Independent candidate. Pettigrew won as part of the Safe Surrey Coalition in 2018.
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