Out of the COVID sickroom to check out some 2022 municipal campaigns
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 Jack Froese, who has held the job for 11 years. It features two incumbent councillors, Eric Woodward and Blair Whitmarsh, along with former MLA and longtime BC Liberal cabinet minister Rich Coleman and former councillor Michelle Sparrow. All are obviously qualified for the job.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this year’s election is the return of slates. Slates have been a bit of a dirty word in the Township since the late 1990s, when the Langley Leadership Team rocketed to control of both council and the Langley School Board in the 1996 election, and then flamed out spectacularly three years later. A competing slate, Langley Citizens Coalition, also faltered badly in 1999, and since that time, almost every member of council has been elected as an independent.
Rick Green, mayor from 2008-11, put a slate together for the 2011 election, as he was getting nowhere with an independent council. But all of its members, including Green, lost.
Woodward has put together the Contract With Langley slate, and incumbent councillor Steve Ferguson is running with it, along with five other candidates. Coleman has put together the Elevate Langley slate, with eight candidates. None of the eight have elected experience.
Contract With Langley is also running three candidates for the five Langley Township seats on the Langley Board of Education. This mirrors the LLT, which won all five Township seats on the board in 1996. Two trustees are elected in Langley City. Both have already won their seats by acclamation. Former trustee Candy Ashdown and incumbent Tony Ward, who is also running for a seat on Township council, will join the five trustees elected in the Township on the board. There are 10 candidates in the Township, four of whom are incumbents.
Incumbents Kim Richter, Petrina Arnason and Margaret Kunst are all running for re-election to council as independents. Numerous other independent candidates are also running. There are a total of 28 candidates running for the eight councillor positions.
The big question is: will voters punish candidates for being part of slates, or will they take a closer look at slate-backed candidates again. A lot has changed since 1996. The Township has grown substantially, and e-mail, the internet and social media have changed the nature of campaigning immeasurably.
One thing is true though: those who vote most faithfully are longtime residents, and there are quite a few of them around who remember the late 1990s. That could hurt both slates on Election Day.
The main issues in my view are housing, affordability and provision of urban services for fast-growing areas, particularly Willoughby.
Langley City - Incumbent mayor under pressure from council
There is a two-way fight for mayor in Langley City with incumbent councillor Nathan Pachal challenging incumbent mayor Val van den Broek. She has been unpopular with her council, which voted to censure her for “unbecoming conduct” earlier this year. The reasons for that censure vote have remained secret, which undoubtedly exasperates many voters, who would like some clarity into reasons behind the obvious split.
There are 14 candidates for the six seats on council, with incumbents Teri James, Gayle Martin, Rudy Storteboom, Rosemary Wallace and Paul Albrecht all running again. Incumbents tend to do well in the City, and if they do lose, it is usually by a small margin. Campaigning in Langley City is far more personal, as it is compact and quite easy for candidates to connect with many voters one-on-one.
With just one open seat on council, it will be tough for the challengers. Best-known contenders are former school trustee Shelley Coburn, pastor and homeless advocate Leith White and downtown business operator Delaney Mack.
Housing and development issues are top of mind, and there is real concern about homelessness, property crime and potential renovictions of longtime tenants, with the arrival of SkyTrain in 2028. Historically, Langley City has offered some of the most reasonable rents in the entire Metro Vancouver region, and there is a large stock of affordable rental buildings there today - mainly apartments, but also a significant number of townhouses and some detached houses or duplexes.
White Rock - Winning 2018 slate blows apart
A four-way race for mayor and the break-up of the Democracy Direct slate which captured control of council in 2018 have made this election campaign another lively one. A debate sponsored by White Rock and South Surrey Chamber of Commerce last week (which I had been scheduled to moderate) attracted 350 people - a phenomenal turnout.
Mayor Darryl Walker and his four DD colleagues changed the Official Community Plan and put a number of measures in place to reduce the number of high-rises being built in White Rock. But they now strongly disagree on just what all that means. Two of the DD councillors, Erika Johanson and Scott Kristjanson, are challenging Walker for the mayor’s chair. Also running (and perhaps having the potential to come up the middle) is former councillor Megan Knight, who was defeated in the 2018 election along with all the other members of the White Rock Coalition slate.
Three members of that 2018 slate, Grant Meyer, Bill Lawrence and Ernie Klassen, are running for councillor positions as independents. Meyer and Lawrence are former councillors.
The other two DD incumbent councillors, Anthony Manning and Christopher Trevelyan, are running together as Team White Rock. Walker has said he can work with them if they are elected again. Incumbent Dave Chesney is also running again. Well-liked councillor Helen Fathers died earlier this year, so her seat will have a new occupant.
Newcomer Stephen Crozier is running with Walker as part of the We Love White Rock team.
In total, there are 16 candidates for the six councillor positions.
Big issues in White Rock are high-rises, affordability and the shape of future housing projects.
Longtime school trustee Laurae McNally, who has been on Surrey Board of Education for most of the past 40 years, won her seat by acclamation. The other six trustees are elected in Surrey.
Delta - Looks like a sleepy election
The Delta election may be one of the sleepiest in the Lower Mainland. While there are three candidates for mayor, incumbent George Harvie and his Achieving For Delta slate seem quite likely to win most if not all the council seats.
In the council race, there are no other slates, and no incumbents who are not part of the AFD slate. In total, there are 13 candidates for the six councillor seats.
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that two longtime councillors, Lois Jackson and Bruce McDonald, are not running again. Jackson has spent 50 years involved in Delta politics, and McDonald isn't that far behind her.
I was able to interview both of them for the North Delta Reporter, and received some amazing insights about their many years on council, and the issues they have dealt with.
There are 15 candidates for the seven board of education seats. Two incumbents are not part of AFD, but AFD is running candidates for all seven seats. It will be interesting to see if the non-AFD candidates manage to withstand what seems to be an onrushing tide.
The issues are much the same as in other communities, with housing and affordability on most voters’ minds.
Surrey - Voters overwhelmed by huge number of candidates
What can anyone say about the Surrey election, other than it is completely overwhelming for voters. B.C.’s second-largest city has eight candidates for mayor, and 56 for the eight councillor seats. For the six seats on the Board of Education, there are 20 candidates.
There are six slates contesting council seats, and three contesting board of education seats.
Promises have been flying all over, with everything from a 60,000-seat stadium and new SkyTrain line to swimming pools, ice rinks, tax freezes and (perhaps) a chicken in every pot.
There are two major issues - the ongoing police transition, and Mayor Doug McCallum’s “my way or the highway” style of governing (his Safe Surrey Coalition slate labels it “Doug gets it done”). McCallum has both alienated and endeared voters, and he definitely has a hardcore base of support.
The challenge for him is there are four other well-funded slates who are putting up mayoral candidates, all of whom have high profiles. Three of the candidates are current or former MPs; three are current or former MLAs. There is even a former NDP MP running for a council seat - on the same slate headed by a sitting Liberal MP.
Surrey-Newton MP Sukh Dhaliwal heads the United Surrey slate. Former MP, MLA and White Rock mayor Gordie Hogg heads the Surrey First slate. MLA and former MP Jinny Sims heads the Surrey Forward slate, and former MLA and current councillor Brenda Locke heads the Surrey Connect slate.
The votes will certainly be split, and it is possible that the winning candidate for mayor could be elected with support in the low 20s (per cent) range. It is more likely the winning candidate will get about one-third of the vote.
In addition, McCallum will be in court on Oct. 31 regarding an incident last year where he claimed his foot was run over at a South Surrey parking lot by a supporter of the keeping the RCMP in Surrey campaign. He is charged with public mischief, and taxpayers are paying his legal costs. He could be disqualified from continuing to sit on council, depending on the court ruling.
Each of the slates has good candidates seeking council seats, and there are also some solid independents running, including incumbent councillor Steven Pettigrew, who was elected as an SSC candidate in 2018 but was the first to bolt from the slate - citing McCallum’s leadership style as a primary reason. Other incumbents running are Linda Annis with Surrey First and SSC councillors Doug Elford, Laurie Guerra, Mandeep Nagra and Allison Patton.
In my household, we have been poring over information about all the candidates. It is a major and time-consuming job.
I believe Surrey citizens will likely be best served by electing candidates from several slates (or a number of independents), and not giving any slate control of council. Part of McCallum’s approach to governing is telling his five remaining SSC council members that they have to support him no matter what - and they have. It was made easier by the fact that all five had no previous election experience when elected four years ago.
If there was a council where no slate was in control, consensus will need to be sought in order to get things accomplished. People elected on slates may have to change their perspective to get something done. With people of goodwill who have open minds, that is entirely possible. In fact that is how municipal councils are supposed to operate. They are not parliamentary bodies with “government” and "opposition,” although the example set over many years in Vancouver city hall has many people thinking that’s how they are supposed to operate.
The huge number of candidates is a strong argument for consideration of a ward system. It would be so much easier for voters and candidates and reduce the expense of running. Such a system would likely boost voter turnout. It will certainly make it easier for candidates to campaign in just a portion if the city, and connect with voters.
With six school trustees elected in Surrey, a simple move would be to have six wards. These could also roughly represent each town centre, and the two most populous ones could have two members each - which would leave an eight-member council and a mayor elected at large. Or there could be two elected in each ward - but I’m not sure 12 councillors are necessary.
It’s one possible way to improve the voting system. I hope some members of council and community members will give voters some thought, and work towards improving voter turnout and communication between citizens and councillors.
For the new councils being elected in all cities, the province’s ambitious plans to create new housing are likely to have a significant impact on how they operate. They are going to have to speed up approval processes, and be much more open to varying uses of land.
Nowhere will that be more noticeable than in Surrey, where there are still vast tracts of developable land, and ambitious plans to increase density along the new SkyTrain line, which is set to open in 2028.
I encourage all Surrey voters to take some time to think about how they would like the next council structured, and then vote on Saturday.
The race for the six Board of Education seats is quiet, overshadowed by the shouting among council candidates. The six incumbents are running as the Surrey First Education slate, and are being challenged by two other slates and several independents.
Surrey and Vancouver will be the two most-watched races on Saturday night.
Mission - Further afield, but a fascinating race for mayor
Somewhat further afield, but still of great interest to me, is the campaign in Mission. My daughter and her family live there and we spend quite a bit of time in the fast-growing city. I also worked for a number of years as a freelance writer and editor with the Mission City Record.
There are many younger people moving from Surrey, Delta and Langley to Mission, because it has been much more affordable. Going to work from there is also not dependent on Highway 1 - both Lougheed Highway and West Coast Express offer some viable commuting alternatives.
Incumbent mayor Paul Horn, who was elected in a byelection, is facing two challengers - Kenny Braich, a member of a well-known family that has been respected for many years in Mission, and Dustin Hiles. Members of the Braich family own a significant portion of waterfront land, where patriarch Herman Braich once ran a large sawmill. The city has plans for the waterfront which Mr. Braich does not agree with. The voting for mayor will be very interesting.
(Update: We were in Mission on Thursday and an airplane towing a political banner flew overhead. The banner said (this is a general recollection, as I did not have time to take a photo: “Braich for Mayor - Change that we need”).
There are six council seats, and incumbents Danny Plecas (brother of former MLA Darryl and member of a longtime Fleetwood family), Ken Herar, Jag Gill, Mark Davies and Carol Hamilton are all seeking re-election. There are 11 other candidates.
Five candidates are seeking the four Mission seats on the Board of Education. The fifth member of the board represents the rural areas east of Mission, which stretch as far as Lake Errock, almost to the Harrison River.
I have been involved with the Cycling For Diversity organization run by Ken Herar who is finishing his first term on council. I’ve known Ken since working for The Record 25 years ago, and if I lived in Mission, I would be voting for him. He knows and loves the community and is a big advocate of treating all people fairly. Mission is quite multicultural and is actually stronger because of that fact, and Ken wants to build on that strength.
It is one of the very few Lower Mainland cities where Japanese-Canadians once lived and worked that honours and respects their contribution. Mission has named numerous streets after pioneer Japanese-Canadian families (who were displaced during the Second World War and did not get their property back).
Big issues in Mission are providing services for all the new residents, and growth. The city will grow dramatically over the next 50 years, and vast rural areas like Silverdale will become urban. Preparing for that requires dedicated and committed council members.
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