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LETTER: Surrey First left the building with Mayor Watts

The Editor,

If you are happy with the current crop of leaders at Surrey city hall, you can stop reading right now.

If you feel the direction and tone being set for your city is wrong, think about four more years of that feeling.

Taxpayers are a strange lot. We are constantly busy and tend not to be very highmaintenance. We pay our taxes and make our contribution to the betterment of the city, each in our own modest way.

It is not surprising then that so much of what we take for granted is the result of our choices made at the ballot box.

This November marks a precipitous time for everyone who calls Surrey home. I say this because our mayor, Dianne Watts, has left the building.

Mayor Watts entered onto the scene in a "thunderstorm" of controversy and it is in that same vein she leaves office. I was a fan then, and I am fan now, despite some marked failings attributable to Mayor Watts.

Mayor Watts invented Surrey First. This invention marked the culmination of an identical strategy that maintained her predecessor Doug McCallum's death grip on the mayor's chair. Using the Surrey Electors Team (SET), McCallum, like Watts, ruled over everything, and everyone.

History is a great teacher; less so is our willingness to learn from the mistakes of the past.

There is, I suppose, much to criticize. The rampant growth undertaken through the "Build Surrey" initiative has placed huge pressures on the city to maintain its civility as it becomes a major hub for Lower Mainland residents. Still more will be said about our explosive growth in population and the impact on our Canadian way of doing things.

Having the lowest tax rates in the region has fast become a test we will never pass, despite claims to the contrary. We carry a civic debt that, while modest when compared to Vancouver, is a harbinger of more things to come.

Surrey First invented Surrey City Development Corporation. It operates in competition with private industry, and is the same industry that First is charged with regulating on behalf of Surrey taxpayers. They can and do spend a lot of your money with economical accountability.

The city changed from being "The City of Parks" to boldly state, "The Future Lives Here." It is a title that holds each of us to a difficult comparison with neighbouring municipalities not nearly so boastful.

Our quality of life, while good, is under constant duress in Surrey. It would be funny if it wasn't true how hard McCallum tried to muzzle bad news in/about Surrey, only to find the current mayor accused of the same behavior.

Mayor and council also brought forward a "Sustainability Charter," where there was none before. Despite being very late to the game, it spells out the high-minded objectives for the natural environment, social/cultural environment and the economic environment.

The test remains yours to read and decide.

Unlike most political associations, Surrey First does not solicit memberships. Surrey First does not ask you your opinion or conduct votes of matters affecting you and your family.

You and I cannot belong to Surrey First; in fact, you and I are not allowed to know who makes up its membership.

In the run-up to November elections, Surrey First will tell each of you who to vote for in the name of Surrey First.

Voters need to remember that Surrey First left the building with Mayor Watts.

M. Proskow, Surrey