Frankly Speaking

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 an...

The funds are in place to build the Newton-Guildford LRT line, but a number of candidates for Surrey council are questioning whether the line should be built at all. Even some of those supporting it, such as Coun. Bruce Hayne, are now wavering in whether a second LRT line along Fraser Highway should be built. Many members of the public want SkyTrain to be built in Surrey, instead of LRT. .   Nominations for Surrey council and Surrey Board of Education close Friday. Already, candidates for Surrey council are offering diverging perspectives to voters who are considering the merits of LRT vs. SkyTrain. Outgoing Mayor Linda Hepner hosted the prime minister and premier last week, as they once again announced that the Guildford-Newton LRT project was going ahead. Construction will begin in 2020, and the line will be in operation by 2024 – six years later than Hepner promised in 2014, when she was running for mayor. The costs are also rising significantly, due mainly to land ...

Tom Gill, who has been a member of Surrey council since 2005, is the Surrey First candidate for mayor in the October civic election. Surrey residents who pay even minimal attention to city politics must have been scratching their heads in recent weeks. One-term mayor Linda Hepner was retiring, but nobody was stepping up to the plate to take her place. This in the second-biggest city in B.C., where there are a host of serious issues facing the next council. It also occurred at a time when mayoral candidates in other cities, among them Vancouver and Delta, were coming out of the woodwork. There was a reason for the silence. No one was going to step up until the Surrey First slate, which has held every seat on council for the past seven years, said what it was going to do. The first hint came on Wednesday, when Surrey First Coun. Bruce Hayne announced he was leaving the slate. Clearly, some sort of backroom struggle had taken place, and he had lost out. Then on Friday, thre...

Hawthorne Park is popular with neighbourhood residents, as it is a quiet oasis in a very busy part of Surrey between Whalley and Guildford. Surrey council has voted to put 105 Avenue through the park, adding a great deal of traffic and cutting the park in two. While council has made its final decision, citizens who disagree can fill out a form to oppose the action through what is known as the alternative approval process. More than 30,000 forms need to be returned to city hall by mid-September in order to stop the council action. Frank Bucholtz photo In the past 10 years, Surrey council has become more and more remote from the huge number of people it governs. The last time there was a competitive election was in 2005, when Dianne Watts challenged incumbent mayor Doug McCallum and his dominant Surrey Electors Team (SET) which she had been part of. Watts went on to win and eventually corralled almost all the incumbent councillors, SET and otherwise, into the Surrey Firs...