Surrey city council will look and sound very different over the next four years, with no incumbents elected this time around.
With Doug McCallum back in the mayor’s chair after a 13-year absence, the council elected Saturday night (Oct. 20) includes seven of eight candidates who ran under the McCallum-led Safe Surrey Coalition banner.
The lone Surrey First-backed councillor elected is Linda Annis.
At the city council’s first meeting next month, the seven Safe Surrey Coalition councillors will be Brenda Locke (who placed first with 40,388 votes), Doug Elford (38,997 votes), Laurie Guerra (33,887), Jack Singh Hundial (33,705), Allison Patton (33,036), Steven Pettigrew (30,749) and Mandeep Nagra (30,048).
Surrey First’s Annis earned 32,943 votes in Saturday’s civic election, good for sixth place in the race.
CLICK HERE to see full election results.
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The poll-topping Locke, who ran for council as an independent in 2014, served one term as MLA in Surrey-Green Timbers from 2001 to 2005, when she served as minister of state for mental health and addiction services. She ran unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals in the 2006 and 2008 federal elections in Fleetwood-Port Kells, and lost in a bid to sit as MLA in Surrey-Green Timbers in 2017, losing to the NDP’s Rachna Singh.
Elford, a community advocate, split from the Surrey Community Alliance party he formed, in order to run with McCallum’s coalition. He was president of the newly formed SCA that aimed to challenge the reigning Surrey First party in the Oct. 20 election, before deciding to run with the former mayor instead.
The third-place finisher was Guerra, who in 2014 ran for city council under the Safe Surrey banner. A former dancer, actress and model, the longtime Surrey resident this year sought the nomination as the Conservative candidate for Fleetwood-Port Kells, but pulled her own name to focus on running with Safe Surrey in the civic election.
Hundial is a retired police officer with 25 years as a cop under his belt, most recently as a staff sergeant with Surrey RCMP. He has experience working on provincial policing programs, and for three years was with the BC Police Services as a risk and security manager.
Fifth-place finisher Patton has been a community physician for more than 17 years. When announced as a Safe Surrey Coalition candidate in August, Patton said she ran for a seat on council because she sees “the symptoms my patients suffer with and I understand what the root causes are.”
Surrey First’s Annis recently worked as the executive director of Metro Vancouver Crime Stoppers. Before the B.C. Day long weekend in August, she urged homeowners to take a few extra steps to protect their property from criminals while away from home.
Pettigrew is the leader of the Save Hawthorne Park group, who fought to halt city plans to build a road through the greenspace.
Nagra comes from a business background, having built his family’s growing chain of Fraserview Meat stores. “I am not satisfied with the current government policies,” he said when announced as a candidate. “I think they have failed to keep this city safe, and violence free.”
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tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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