84 candidates on three ballots in Surrey

Voters lined up at the Whalley Legion hall to cast ballots in a Surrey election - probably about 50 years ago. Photo from the Surrey Archives.

An update: There will be a meeting for the eight Surrey mayoral candidates tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 3) at Morgan Creek Golf Club in South Surrey. It is sponsored by the South Surrey-White Rock Chamber of Commerce. I will be involved as one of the two moderators. The meeting is open to the public, and starts at 6:30 p.m.
I am planning to post a more detailed look at the candidates running in Surrey and the major issues of the campaign thus far. It will appear on this blog in the coming days, as I find time to do sufficient research.

Surrey residents who are planning to vote will have to pick through 84 candidates running on 10 different slates, along with a large number of independents, when they go to the polls on Oct. 20.

While the sheer number of candidates and slates may seem overwhelming – and it is – there are many good reasons for voters to take some time to choose those who would best represent their perspectives on Surrey council and Surrey Board of Education.

For starters, these people will be making significant decisions which affect residents directly over the next four years. They will decide on levels of taxation, on new roads and developments, parks, and recreation facilities.

They will have input into transit expansion plans and serve as a voice of the community when lobbying senior governments for more funds and attention. This is particularly true in the case of the board of education, and the case they will make for new schools and more resources. It is also true for councils, in areas like rapid transit, health services and other regional and provincial matters.

The record of the council members and board of education trustees whose terms are expiring needs to be examined closely. In the case of Surrey council, the nine Surrey First members elected in 2014 have not shown too much interest in public input, unless it agrees with the pre-determined plans they already have in front of them. Nowhere was this more true than in council’s handling of the concerns over a road through Hawthorne Park in 2016. While there has been some dissent on a few issues, particularly in the past few months as the ruling slate broke apart, citizens with concerns have too often received short shrift.

The new council will have many new faces, even if Surrey First or the Safe Surrey Coalition end up with all nine members. The other four slates in the council race are not running nine candidates.

Only four incumbent councillors are seeking their seats again. The mayor and two councillors are retiring, and two other councillors are seeking the mayor’s chair. At a minimum, there will be four new members of council.

Surrey would be best served by councillors from a variety of slates (and independents) - not just candidates from one slate. That gives the new mayor too much opportunity tell councillors what to do, and to silence them, when one slate holds all or all but one seat.

A council is not a parliamentary government, with government and opposition benches, and a caucus whip. Each member is elected to give input and vote according to the best wishes of the community, as they see it. The Canadian version of government already gives too much power to the prime minister, premiers and party leaders. We do not need that type of dictatorship at the  local level, and need to resist any attempts to impose it.

On the new Surrey council, a couple of experienced councillors are needed, because it is very hard for eight brand-new councillors to get up to speed quickly, given Surrey council’s workload. While it is most likely that the new mayor will have council experience, if there are no others with any experience, the potential for the mayor to have it his or her own way is very high.

On the board of education, the six trustees elected in Surrey in 2014 are all part of Surrey First Education. Most have several terms in office, and they seem to work well together. There does not seem to be the same desire to squash public input as has taken place on council. Perhaps this is because no single trustee is elected as the chair - the trustees themselves decide on that individual.

All are running again.

They have been vocal about Surrey’s needs, in particular for more classroom space. The seventh trustee, Laurae McNally, who is elected in White Rock, has more than 30 years of experience on the board and has been an longtime advocate for enough facilities to handle the ever-growing school population.

She is Surrey’s most experienced local politician by a substantial margin. Her work on the board has been exemplary, and if White Rock voters re-elect her, students across the whole district will benefit.

It would be good to have candidates from more than one slate elected for the six Surrey seats, to ensure that there is a broad range of views on the board. One non-Surrey First candidate with trustee experience is Charlene Dobie, running with Surrey Students NOW.

Those who would like to vote will now have a month to check out the candidates. It is likely there will be significantly less advertising, due to new campaign finance rules, but every candidate has information available on their own or their slates’ websites, and there is a lot of information available on the Surrey Now-Leader, Peace Arch News and Cloverdale Reporter websites. There are a few candidate forums planned as well.