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Surrey voters played a pivotal role in Oct. 19 election

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Garry Begg of the NDP is now ahead by 27 votes in Surrey-Guildford. A judicial recount will take place next week. If  that result holds, the NDP will have a majority government by the slimmest of margins. Surrey voters played a pivotal role in the Oct. 19 provincial election, as foreshadowed by the frequent visits of NDP leader David Eby and Conservative leader John Rustad to Surrey during the campaign.  The drama continued for another 10 days until Monday, Oct. 28, when final results were announced after recounts and counting of absentee ballots. In one Surrey seat, Surrey-Guildford, winning candidate Garry Begg of the NDP has a 27-vote margin of victory over Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa. A judicial recount will take place next week to make the final determination. One is also scheduled to take place in Kelowna Centre, where Conservative Kristina Loewen is 38 votes ahead of Loyal Wooldridge of the NDP. For now, the NDP have the slimmest of majorities in the B.C. Legislature - 4
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We don't know what government we are going to get in B.C.

“I don’t know what government we got. I don’t know what government we did not get. I don’t know what government we are going to get.” - Barry Mather, Vancouver Sun , June 13, 1952 The comments from Sun columnist Mather (later an NDP MP for New Westminster, and later Surrey) reflect exactly what happened on Saturday, Oct. 19. B.C. residents cast over two million votes in the election, but 12 races where the margin of victory is less than 500 votes mean that no one knows who will win. On election day, the governing NDP led or won 46 seats, the Conservatives led or won 45, and the Green Party had elected two. Mather was writing about the pivotal election of 1952, when the coalition government that had ruled B.C. for 11 years broke apart. The Liberals and Conservatives each went their own way, and Social Credit under W.A.C. Bennett won 19 seats in a minority government, which featured the transferable ballot. The party had never elected an MLA prior to that election. Bennett went
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Bad day at Black Press

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News today that Black Press has voluntarily entered creditor protection and could be sold to a three-way partnership is the latest in a long string of bad news stories for community newspapers. David Black, longtime owner and founder of Black Press, is out of the newspaper business after more than 50 years. It has been a sad day for me. I have spent the past 46 years involved with the community press, mostly as a reporter and editor. I was a Black Press editor for 16 years with The Langley Times, retiring from full-time work in 2015. I am particularly saddened when I think of the many great people I worked with at various newspapers, most of them now owned by Black Press. Some still work there, some have retired, some have left this world behind. Community newspapers have been struggling to find an arrangement that works for them, as businesses, and for their readers, for the better part of 20 years. This became a particular challenge when smart phones, notably the iPhone, made their a
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Burnaby Beacon makes it to second anniversary, then cuts staff loose

  The Burnaby Beacon, at least in its current form, is no more. It is the latest move by Overstory Media Group (perhaps its OMG abbreviation inadvertently tells part of the story) to stem its losses in a brave but apparently foolhardy attempt to resuscitate community journalism online. The Beacon’s two remaining staff members have been laid off. Much has been said about Overstory’s promises and ownership, particularly when it laid off half the staff at its flagship online outlet, the Capital Daily in Victoria. That move came just before it was announced that there was a unionization drive underway. The Beacon served Burnaby - a difficult community for local media. When I was a student at Langara journalism school, we were told by program director Nick Russell that “Burnaby was the graveyard of weekly newspapers.” Many had come and gone by that time (1977). Another one started up soon thereafter, and one of my classmates even took a job there. That newspaper and its staff are long gon
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Many mayors packing their bags after a host of defeats on municipal election day

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The voters have spoken - and that means many mayors are packing their bags. In the areas I was paying attention to (Oct. 13 blog post ), mayors in Surrey, White Rock and Langley City all lost their jobs. Meanwhile, in Langley Township Councillor Eric Woodward is the new mayor, and five members of his Contract With Langley slate will hold a majority on council. Former Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman, who easily won his provincial seat in six elections, finished a distant third and his Elevate Langley slate did not elect anyone to council. Delta Mayor George Harvie easily won and his Achieving For Delta slate holds every seat on council.  In Mission, incumbent Mayor Paul Horn easily beat two challengers. It was all part of a wider trend across the province that saw 37 incumbent mayors lose their seats, and many more councillors fall by the wayside as well. In cities where there has been more political stability, incumbents had an easier time of it. In Langley Township, Coun. Pet
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Out of the COVID sickroom to check out some 2022 municipal campaigns

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A stroll through the 2022 municipal election campaigns in the two Langleys, White Rock, Delta, Surrey and Mission There’s nothing like COVID-19 when it comes to restricting access to everything - including municipal election campaigns. A bout of the virus in late September kept me from participating as a moderator in debates and candidate gatherings in Langley City, White Rock and Surrey. Thus my firsthand knowledge of what was taking place in each of those races to win seats on those three councils for the 2022-26 period has been significantly diminished. Fortunately, I was again healthy and able to take part in a candidate meeting for Langley Township candidates last week. The energy shown at that meeting has inspired me to post some comments about the local races, which will be decided by voters on Saturday. Former deputy premier Rich Coleman is seeking election as mayor in Langley Township  The Township is a good place to start. There is a four-way race to replace outgoing mayor Ja
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