A few thoughts to help ease confusion as Surrey citizens prepare to vote

Photo from the Surrey Archives

Voters in Surrey (or those who want to vote) are more than confused as election day approaches. There are 83 candidates in total in Surrey – far more than any individual has time to check out.

I’ve been following Surrey politics for more than 50 years, first taking interest in it as a youngster. I’ve seen many mayors, councillors and school trustees come and go, and known many of them personally. I worked as a poll clerk at many elections in the 1970s, and have covered Surrey politics as a reporter, editor, columnist and, more recently, blogger since the 1978 election (when Bob Bose first won election as a councillor).

In my opinion, this current election is one of the most crucial ones in decades. Those who choose to vote will decide whether the city will be an open institution, one that takes public input and commentary seriously, or whether it continues the trend towards tight control of information and opinions.

The debate over LRT and SkyTrain demonstrates this worrisome trend. LRT was first proposed a decade ago, and the city has invested millions towards implementing that system since then. Yet there has been nothing other than token consultation, and the amount of money now proposed to build the first (between Guildford and Newton) of what Surrey First mayoral candidate Tom Gill says will be many LRT lines is staggering – close to $2 billion.

This LRT system will be on the streets, interfacing with traffic on two very busy roads, and will be forced to shut down anytime there is a major road closure on 104 Avenue or King George Boulevard. Portions of 104 Avenue will be reduced to one lane each way. This is progress?

Incredibly, Surrey First, which has controlled every seat on council since 2011, when its developer-funded campaign forced Bose out of office (he had been the lone voice of dissent for the previous five years), still defends this as a wise use of taxpayers’ money.

The LRT project also led directly to the widespread controversy over Hawthorne Park. A road was built through this park, just off 104 Avenue, over the objections of not only nearby residents, but many people throughout the city. Parkland is scarce in this fast-growing city and deserves the utmost protection. Hawthorne Park in particular is used by many people who have moved to Surrey from other countries, don’t have cars, and are less well-served by city services.

All this meant nothing to Mayor Linda Hepner and her eight councillors, who refused to acknowledge any of the concerns raised. The matter went to an alternate approval process (a process which almost never works in a large city, because of the huge number of signatures required to get it to referendum stage). The city designed it so that signatures had to be obtained in August, likely the toughest time of year to do so. This cumbersome and designed-to-fail consultation process only kicked in because the city had failed to do its legal homework.

Other major issues which have been raised in this campaign are allegations of voter fraud; policing; crime (in particular, unsolved murders and gangland shootings); lack of school space; tree and green space preservation; planning; supportive housing; unbridled growth and unaffordability of housing in general.

I was privileged to help moderate a meeting for the eight mayoral candidates on Wednesday, Oct. 3, sponsored by the South Surrey-White Rock Chamber of Commerce and Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.. Seeing them up close and hearing them speak on a number of issues was very helpful to me and the 200 or so voters in the room.

The three front-runners are Gill, former mayor Doug McCallum of Safe Surrey Coalition and former Surrey First member and Integrity Now candidate Bruce Hayne. Gill and Hayne are sitting councillors. Pauline Greaves of Proudly Surrey is the other candidate whom I believe has a chance, although the size of the city and diversity of the electorate makes any prediction somewhat chancy.

Other candidates are Rajesh Jayaprakash of People First Surrey; Imtiaz Popat of Progressive Sustainable Surrey; and independents Francois Nantel and John Wolanski.

CBC held a mayors’ debate on Tuesday, Oct. 9 in Newton. It only invited Hayne, Gill and McCallum, an interesting choice, given that all three are right-leaning in a city which has five federal Liberal MPs and where six of nine MLAs are NDP members. The debate has been criticized for its exclusionary nature and for letting questions and comments from campaign workers be used.

Numerous other meetings have been held and the wear and tear is taking its toll on the candidates. Gill refused to answer a question on crime and policing at a meeting sponsored by the Surrey Board of Trade Wednesday, later citing a low blood sugar level as the reason.

Here is a summary of the mayoral candidates’ stances on policing and rapid transit, culled from their answers at the Oct. 3 meeting.

Policing: McCallum will serve notice that Surrey wants out of RCMP policing at the first council meeting, and will set up its own police force. Gill will set up a police board. Jayaprakash says the whole debate is just a “distraction.” Popat says Surrey “needs to do something different.” Wolanski called for a Metro police force. Hayne said any move to withdraw from the RCMP will take at least five to six years to come to fruition. Greaves wants a regional force, consisting of police in the South Fraser area, notably Delta, Langley and Surrey.

Rapid transit: Jayaprakash says LRT will cause congestion, and there needs to be an immediate expansion of the bus fleet. SkyTrain technology should be used in any expansion. Popat says restoration of service on the interurban rail line through Surrey is the best way to provide rapid transit expansion. Wolanski says the phase 1 LRT should go ahead, as it is fully funded. He added that the line down Fraser Highway to Langley should use SkyTrain technology.

On rapid transit, Hayne pointed out that decisions are made by the mayors’ council and TransLink, not any particular mayor or council in Surrey. He acknowledges that people “don’t want at-grade rapid transit in Surrey” and is “calling for a pause.” He said any rapid transit should be either above or below grade. McCallum pointed out that SkyTrain is used everywhere else in the Lower Mainland, even on lines such as the Canada and Evergreen Lines. Both of those lines (on different alignments) had been proposed as LRT lines at first. He says he will convince Ottawa and Victoria to shift their funding to build SkyTrain down Fraser Highway, which he says should be the first priority. Greaves says Surrey should pull out of TransLink and help set up a new South Fraser Transportation Authority. She says Vancouver politicians should not be making decisions about what transit technology to use in Surrey. She also believes the issue of LRT or SkyTrain should go to a referendum.

Gill said "We have $1.65 billion on the table. We don’t have $2.9 to $3 billion to build SkyTrain." He said there will eventually be 150 kilometres of LRT lines throughout Surrey. “Let’s not lose that money,” he said. Nantel said LRT will cost $157 million per kilometre to build “or $157,000 per metre.”

Some thoughts on councillors

On the 48 councillor candidates, it is impossible to know where they stand on most issues. Voters who want to find out more should contact as many as they wish to, directly, via social media or telephone. If they don’t respond, you have your answer.

Here`s a few thoughts on the election of councillors. First, voters do not have to vote for eight candidates. Your votes will be counted if you vote for up to eight. In fact, a vote for one or two candidates is far more powerful than if you vote for eight, as one or the other of your less-favoured candidates might end up edging out one of your most-favoured.

Councillors should be elected in wards. It would be much easier to choose one to vote for, and they could actually campaign in neighbourhoods and meet voters. It would also reduce the tendency to vote for slates – at the very least slates would become less powerful. Surrey could easily be split into eight wards, so we would not need additional councillors. Surrey had a ward system until 1957, with seven councillors elected in wards in its latter years. At that time, Surrey was home to about 35,000 people.

The new council should press for a ward system. It is even more important now, with new campaign finance restrictions.

The new council also needs to be made up of people from various slates and/or independents. That will ensure that there is vigorous discussion of issues. No more will the mayor be able to tell councillors to be quiet in council meetings. Ideally, the new council will also reflect the makeup of the city’s population.

Surrey First and Safe Surrey Coalition are each running full slates, with eight candidates for councillor. Four candidates are incumbents, two from Surrey First and two who have left that slate to join Hayne at Integrity Now. That means there will be a minimum of four new councillors on the next council.

Here’s some comments on individual candidates, based on what I know about them from personal contact or media reports. If any of these people (or others) pique interest from potential voters, I strongly suggest doing additional research and talking to them individually.

Incumbents: Dave Woods (Integrity Now) – longtime Surrey RCMP officer and head of Cloverdale community policing office. He was one of the few Surrey First candidates to speak up at council meetings. He left Surrey First over Gill’s call for a complete ban on handguns, pointing out that it was a federal issue and law-abiding handgun owners have nothing to do with gun crime. He also said that Gill’s lack of consultation with other Surrey First members, when he made that statement, was consistent with Hepner’s style of leadership.

Mike Starchuk (Surrey First) – He’s been a defender of farmers and farmland. Former Surrey fire department member. I met him a few weeks ago and found him personable. Like other Surrey First councillors, almost always voted as part of the bloc.

Vera LeFranc (Surrey First) – Also part of the voting bloc. I was disappointed she did not speak up for concerns over Hawthorne Park, as she lives in the neighbourhood. A longtime advocate for the homeless she played a big role in helping get homeless people from the 135A Street tent city into modular housing.

Barbara Steele (Integrity Now) – She left Surrey First when Hayne announced he was running for mayor, and joined his slate. She and Gill are the longest-serving members of council. Ironically both were first elected as part of McCallum’s Surrey Electors Team. She has not had a high profile in the city, despite her many years as a councillor.

Newcomers: Brenda Locke (Safe Surrey Coalition) – A one-term BC Liberal MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers from 2001-2005. She was an effective MLA, and ran twice for the federal Liberals in Fleetwood-Port Kells. I’ve known her for years. She is a hard worker and very good at getting public input. I can’t see her as being the “silent” type on council, should she be elected.

Roslyn Cassells (Greenvote) – A former Vancouver parks commissioner and first elected Green Party candidate in Canada. She was often out in left field on a number of issues, and struck me (way back then) as being more publicity-conscious than public service-oriented. I admit it - I'm reflexively suspicious of Vancouver civic politicians, although I know there have been many good ones over the years.

Doug Elford (Safe Surrey Coalition). – A longtime Newton resident and community activist who has been very active in pushing for better policing in Newton and the rest of Surrey. He was president of Surrey Community Alliance, which had announced a slate of candidates (he was one of them), but he threw in the towel in August to join the McCallum-led slate. This led to the demise of SCA. Some of its candidates are running with the Independent Surrey Voters Association. The original Surrey Voters Association and its NDP-backed opponent, FAST (For All Surrey Team), were Surrey’s first successful slates back in the early 1970s.

Narima Dela Cruz (Surrey First) – I don’t know much about her, but she is part of the slate that backs LRT. Her son Daryl founded SkyTrain for Surrey, which until recently was a voice in the wilderness calling for SkyTrain instead of LRT. His group also successfully lobbied to have the 555 bus, which goes from Langley to Lougheed station, stop in Surrey, at the 156 Street exit on Highway 1 which was specifically set up for transit and car pools. The two Dela Cruz’s obviously disagree on transit.

John Gibeau (Integrity Now) – He is founder and president of the Honeybee Centre at Fry’s Corner, which keeps some of its bees on vacant land across from my home. Former president of the Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce. He has been very involved in the agricultural and Cloverdale communities and is a tireless activist for bees, which are critical to food production and to our survival.

Laurie Guerra (Safe Surrey Coalition) – She was a candidate for the Conservative nomination in Fleetwood-Port Kells for the 2019 federal election. The nomination was won by Shinder Purewal. She is the former president of Autism BC, and ran in 2014 with the Safe Surrey slate headed by McCallum.

Paul Hillsdon (Surrey First) – An activist for transit for many years and former candidate for school board and council. He first ran in 2008 for council, at the age of 18. He has run a blog dealing with urban and transportation issues. He now works for TransLink on the South of Fraser rapid transit project. I’m not sure whether that is a conflict of interest or not, but his pay is coming from taxpayers for work on the LRT project.

Jack Hundial (Safe Surrey Coalition) – A longtime former Surrey RCMP officer.

Felix Kongyuy (Proudly Surrey) – I know Felix personally and have had several very good chats with him. He lives in the Green Timbers area and is originally from Cameroon. He has lots of good ideas and would certainly bring the perspective of an African immigrant (of whom there are many in Surrey) to council.

Nasima Nastoh (independent) – She is the mother of Hamed Nastoh, who committed suicide in 2000 at the age of 14 after relentless bullying. She is an anti-bullying advocate and is a passionate advocate for victims of bullying. She is concerned about the impact bullying has on society.

Stuart Parker (Proudly Surrey) – He is former leader of the BC Green Party, and more recently was involved with the NDP. I’m not sure if he is still an NDP member. I met him for the first time when we were on a panel together in late September. He is very well-educated and knowledgeable about urban issues, and struck me as one who would not be afraid to ask questions should he be elected. He has appeared in the media a lot during this campaign, as many non-Surrey reporters know him from the provincial scene.

Steven Pettigrew (Safe Surrey Coalition) - He was the leader of the community group that came together to fight the destruction of Hawthorne Park. I have met him and talked to him over the phone, and find him articulate and passionate. He certainly did not back down when the Surrey First council refused to acknowledge the very legitimate concerns about building a road through a popular and well-used park. He has continued to be active in highlighting other green space areas that developers or the city are planning to clear-cut.

Becky Zhou (independent) – She is the widow of Cloverdale realtor Colin Hill, who was murdered in 2015 by a 22-year-old after his home was broken into. She is speaking out about victims’ rights, crime and violence. As a realtor, she also has ideas about making housing more available and affordable.

The other candidates are: Linda Annis, Trevor Halford, Upkar Tatlay and Raminder Thomas (Surrey First); Saira Aujla, Bernie Sheppard, Asad Syed and Derek Zabel (Independent Surrey Voters Association); Avi Dhjaliwal and Rina Gill (Integrity Now); Maria Foster, Murali Krishnan, Rajan Thampy, Paul Rusan and Yanni Yu (People First Surrey); Parshotam Goel and Adam MacGillivray (Proudly Surrey); Mandeep Nagra, Allison Patton and Bableen Rana (Safe Surrey Coalition); Deanna Welters (Progressive Sustainable Surrey) and independents Neera Agnihotri, Kashmir Besla, Tanvir Bhupal, Brian Calderwood, Neneng Galanto, Afshan Kamran, Nicholas Loberg, Kuldip Pelia, Major Singh Rasode and Forrest Smith.

I will do a separate blog post on issues facing the Surrey Board of Education and the 29 candidates seeking the seven seats on the board.