Frankly Speaking

Frank Bucholtz photo This instruction to voters was posted all over Sierra Leone (in West Africa), as voters there prepared to vote in a presidential runoff election in March. As noted near the bottom of the poster, the Government of Canada (i.e. Canadian taxpayers)  helped to support the voter education process. The runoff election went very smoothly. If democracy can be that resilient and powerful in Sierra Leone, it most certainly can be the same in B.C. The shouting is almost over. The signs, somewhat reduced in number, will be coming down. Surrey and White Rock voters will elect new councils and a new Surrey Board of Education on Saturday. The same process will take place in Delta, Langley City, Langley Township and municipalities across B.C. It has been a unique civic election campaign. Here in the South Fraser region, there is the very unusual prospect of electing four new mayors. Longtime Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, White Rock...

Affordable housing and preservation of the existing rental stock have been important issues in the Langley City election. The City has some of the most affordable rental units in the Lower Mainland. It also has a much larger stock of social housing (per capita) than many other cities. The race for mayor in Langley City will likely be a close one – which should give voters in that community even more incentive than usual to get out to the polls on Saturday. Former mayor Peter Fassbender is seeking his old job back. Fassbender served as mayor from 2005 until he resigned in January, 2014 (in order to prevent a byelection). He had been elected as a BC Liberal MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood in May, 2013, and served in several cabinet positions during the 2013-17 term of the Christy Clark government. He lost his seat in the 2017 election. Ted Schaffer took over as acting mayor after Fassbender resigned, and ran and won election as mayor in 2014. He is not running again. Fassbe...

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson will be retiring from politics in 2018, after 46 years of involvement with Delta council. First elected as an alderman in 1972 (the first woman ever to hold that office in Delta), she has been mayor of Delta since 1999. In late 2017, she ushered Delta into a new era as it officially became a city. The new year will bring a lot of changes to the South Fraser area of Surrey, Delta, White Rock and Langley. Some of the biggest potential changes could be at the local council level. Voters will elect new councils on Oct. 20, 2018. The results of the 2014 election, the first in which councillors and mayors were elected to four-year terms, ended up mostly as expected. Many indications are that 2018 could be considerably different. Four-year terms did not bring out the best in some local politicians. For sure, there will be at least two new mayors. Delta Mayor Lois Jackson is not seeking another term. She has been mayor since 1999. Her involvement with Delt...