Surrey’s Election Is Drama-Filled. Here Are the Top Issues

It’s been a tumultuous four years in Surrey. Mayor Brenda Locke, who is running for re-election, has weathered criticism and scandals over her handling of a policing transition and sale of city lands for a stadium.

Her challenger is her bitter rival and one-time running mate, former mayor Doug McCallum, a politician who has also seen his fair share of drama and controversy. In 2022, Locke defeated McCallum by just under 1,000 votes.

“‘They do not like each other’ might be the understatement of the year,” said Ross Michael Pink, a political science professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

“You’ve got this tremendous battle between Locke and McCallum, who [have] very different philosophies politically and very, very much dislike each other.”

Public safety and policing, prominent issues in the 2018 and 2022 campaigns, remain two of the hottest topics heading into this month’s municipal election, with several parties emphasizing one or the other in their platforms.

The saga

If you go back a few decades, Surrey had a tough reputation for crime and poverty, Pink said. Now, the city is growing and becoming “socially, culturally, economically stronger as a community.”

But that transition can come with some growing pains. Just look at the most recent council term.

There’s been progress on the SkyTrain expansion to Langley and investments for new recreation facilities and roads. The city also welcomed the first new medical school in Western Canada since 1967.

However, a litany of other headlines shows divisions within the community and other agencies.

During Locke’s administration, the city spent more than $1 million to stop the Surrey police transition. There were requests for judicial reviews of some high-profile decisions: firing the chief of the new police force, and a land swap to build a new arena.

The city even broke with the rest of the region when mayor and council unanimously voted to leave a long-term growth plan led by Metro Vancouver.

News from the campaign trail could make for a stand-alone episode of Parks and Recreation: McCallum alleges the city removed election signs, while mayoral candidate Linda Annis is being sued by a resident for a dog bite.

Locke, a former city councillor and BC Liberal MLA, made her first pitch for the mayor’s chair in her successful 2022 campaign.

Running with Surrey Connect, Locke pledged to “dismantle” the new municipal police force and keep the RCMP, saying that the decision would save the city $500 million. Once elected, she tried taking legal action against the province to keep the RCMP but has since backtracked and voiced her support for the municipal force, the Surrey Police Service. The province kicked in $250 million to help pay for the transition.

That hasn’t ended the saga, though.

In June, Surrey police Chief Norm Lipinski was dismissed following consultation between the province and the city, which also resulted in the replacement of five other members of the police board. Lipinski has since filed a petition and requested a judicial review for his dismissal, alleging that the decision was “motivated by extraneous political considerations” and that Locke was involved in his dismissal. Locke has denied involvement in the decision.

Policing is not the only controversial topic over the last four years.

Near the end of her term, Locke announced plans to build a $360-million, 10,000-seat arena and entertainment district in City Centre with the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants serving as anchor tenant. The property was acquired through a land swap, leading some mayoral candidates to call for greater transparency on the deal and question the tax burden that may be placed on residents.

Surrey agreed to swap three city-owned properties with Wesgroup Properties for the 5.1-acre site in City Centre. McCallum then claimed Locke bailed out the land developer, alleging the property wasn’t worth the price tag. Locke denies McCallum’s allegations.

In this campaign, Locke is committing $625 million to recreation and community facilities, has ambitions of expanding three major parks and building 12 new ones and is promising to develop a $350-million public safety campus that will train and prepare more police and fire and emergency workers. All in all, the Surrey Connect platform is pledging nearly $1.5 billion towards five key priorities.

Elsewhere on the ballot, McCallum has re-entered the fray. McCallum previously shook up the city in 2018 with promises to cancel a planned light-rail transit line in Surrey and build a SkyTrain line to Langley instead — a project that is expected to be finished in late 2029. He also promised to replace the RCMP with a Surrey police force. McCallum carries baggage from a 2021 incident: he was accused of lying to police when he claimed a political opponent ran over his foot with her car. He was later found not guilty of public mischief.

McCallum’s current campaign has a focus on keeping taxes low. He’s promising voters there will be a zero per cent tax increase for the duration of his term, if elected. His promises also include a helicopter and drone fleet for the Surrey Police Service, an independent audit of the city’s land deals and expansion of the SkyTrain to Newton.

Some mayoral candidates have wondered how McCallum plans to realize those goals without a tax increase for four years.

McCallum has also pledged to provide city land to the province for a new general hospital in Surrey, which Kwantlen Polytechnic’s Pink thinks could tilt the election his way. (Locke’s Surrey Connect party has said it would provide the province a “piece of city land to build a women’s and children’s hospital in Surrey.”)

Health care and crime are two of the biggest issues in this campaign, Pink said, suggesting the general hospital and public perception that McCallum is “tougher on crime than Locke” could play in his favour.

While Locke and McCallum are the top contenders, five other candidates are looking to post an upset:

• Linda Annis, a two-term city councillor who also serves as executive director of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers.
• Mike Starchuk, a former BC NDP MLA who represented Surrey-Cloverdale from 2020 to 2024. He also served on Surrey city council from 2014 to 2018.
• Honveer Singh Randhawa, a lawyer who ran for the Conservative Party of BC in Surrey-Guildford in 2024 and fell 22 votes shy of winning the riding.
• Troy Van Vliet, a developer who is running for office for the first time.
• Igal Ammons II, a family counsellor and author.

Haroon Ghaffar, a former journalist who ran for the BC NDP in Surrey South in 2024, agrees that public safety is a recurring concern for Surrey voters, heightened by the spike of extortion threats in South Asian communities in the city and across the country.

Voters may also be curious about the ongoing police transition. However, with the transition underway, Ghaffar thinks it’s time for the city to look ahead and not behind. He wishes all levels of government would come together to map out what infrastructure — schools, transit, hospitals — is needed for Surrey and other growing communities in B.C.

“How many people are coming next year in the province? How many are expected to stay in what city? What infrastructure do we need for them?” Ghaffar said.

Most concerns from Surrey voters are universally felt across the province, he said.

As with people living in other municipalities, the affordability of housing, groceries and gas is top of mind. “I’m paying almost 50 per cent of my income as my shelter costs. It affects everything from groceries to gas,” said Ghaffar, who currently works as director of community and media relations with the province.

Surrey, however, does have an infrastructure deficit — public transit, health care, education — that amplifies those concerns, he said.

The city is one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, placing strains on already overcrowded local health-care and school systems.

Ghaffar believes the province has made progress on both issues, but concerns remain. For instance, he said, public transit and affordability are keystones in Surrey.

Many neighbourhoods, including his own, are not connected and need more reliable transit.

“I have to walk 1.4 kilometres to the nearest bus stop,” Ghaffar said. “We should connect the whole city with transit and then increase buses, rapid transit, SkyTrain.”

For others in a similar circumstance, they likely need to own a car, which may raise their cost of living, he added.

Eyes on the field

All eight current city councillors are running again this year, including Annis, who received the most votes among council candidates last election and is now vying for the mayor’s seat.

Her party, Surrey First, includes Mike Bose, the only incumbent who is not running with either Surrey Connect or the Safe Surrey Coalition, Locke’s and McCallum’s respective parties.

Half of the eight previous councillors are running alongside Locke. Two have sided with McCallum. (Locke successfully ran for council with McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition in the 2018 election, before leaving the party one year later after citing dysfunction.)

The newcomers looking to unseat the city’s major parties are focused on a variety of similar talking points, including public safety, health care and transit.

Randhawa’s Conservative Party of Surrey is appealing to seniors and families with a “citywide public washroom access plan” and a goal to build a new hospital in Newton, among other promises. The party also wants parental consent on SOGI 123 — a tool to help educators make schools inclusive for all sexual orientations and gender identities — by establishing a parent-led committee to review classroom materials on gender and identity topics.

Imagine Surrey, led by former MLA Starchuk, is promising to finish the police transition with a public deadline and build a new Surrey stadium district — just not the one that Surrey Connect recently announced with the Vancouver Giants.

Van Vliet’s Surrey Now is focused on development of housing and schools and public safety. Surrey Now also promised no tax hikes for four years.

Elsewhere, Surrey First is keen to complete the police transition and increase government transparency. Newcomer New Surrey+ has ambitious plans to expand transit and introduce a rent-to-own program.

A handful of independents are also running for council.

Ultimately, Pink expects the vote to be a nail-biter. He thinks voters will flock to Locke or McCallum due to their name recognition and the fact they have recently served mayoral terms. Many voters may not read through a whole party platform, but “they will remember a name,” he said.

“It’s going to be a very close election,” Pink said. “We’ll see.”