Frankly Speaking

Surrey mayor-elect Doug McCallum has promised that one of the first acts of the new council will be starting the process of dropping the RCMP as Surrey’s police force.  Surrey's new council will be inaugurated on Monday evening at city hall, and the mayor-elect has promised a vote on leaving the RCMP. Let's see if that motion comes forward on Monday night. The national police force has provided local policing in Surrey since 1951. It is to be replaced by a municipal force, similar to police forces in Delta, Vancouver and Abbotsford. The idea is popular with citizens and is one of the reasons McCallum and seven Safe Surrey Coalition members were elected to council. Surrey residents are fed up with crime - in particular gang violence, which includes drive-by shootings and the murder of innocent people. Despite the formation of integrated units such as IHIT (Integrated Homicide investigative Team), which involve both RCMP and municipal police members, these crimes s...

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...