SURREY Mayor Doug McCallum actually seemed relieved that Councillor Jack Hundial, who had been expected to quit the Safe Surrey Coalition for a long time now, on Thursday finally announced his decision to do so.

McCallum said in a statement on Thursday: “The majority we have on Council is solid and strongly united. I can assure you the Safe Surrey Coalition is now even more focused and energized to deliver on what we promised to the voters of Surrey. “

He noted: “We take our pledge to the voters seriously and it is our obligation to fulfil the commitments we openly campaigned on.”

McCallum added: “We have already delivered on the majority of what we campaigned on and we are moving fully ahead in completing the promises that we made to the people of Surrey.”

It appears that Hundial, a former RCMP officer who never really distinguished himself as a cop, might have been waiting to get the green light from RCMP bosses in Ottawa who are apparently jittery about losing their largest detachment in Canada.

Last June, when Hundial’s friend, Councillor Brenda Locke, finally quit the Safe Surrey Coalition after trying to inflict the maximum possible harm on the party that got her elected, we reported: “Surrey-ites are telling The VOICE that Mayor Doug McCallum should have kicked Councillor Brenda Locke and another Safe Surrey Coalition councillor [Hundial] out of his party a long time ago. However, they feel relieved that Locke decided to quit herself on Thursday, thus ending the confusion she was causing by always belittling McCallum’s agenda although she herself had supported it when she joined his party before the election.”

Locke got only about 13,600 votes when she ran for Surrey Council in 2014 – she was No. 17. She was defeated by not only the successful Surrey First candidates but also candidates like Rina Gill, Kal Dosanjh, Narima Dela Cruz and others. In 2018, she won only by joining McCallum’s team and thus got more than 40,000 votes.

The VOICE also noted: “Surrey-ites feel Locke and another councillor [Hundial] used McCallum to get elected and then started pursuing their own agenda. McCallum was reluctant to include Locke in his slate, but was persuaded by some to include her and another councillor [Hundial]. Now Mc Callum feels betrayed by these two councillors.”

This newspaper also pointed out that Locke repeated the lie: “The Surrey Police Transition Report outlines the creation of a police department with fewer officers than we have today,” in spite of this newspaper having exposed this untruth in an article on June 7 titled, “SFU professor reveals the REAL truth about RCMP figures in Surrey – and why the City needs its OWN police force.”

This week, Hundial repeated that lie in his press statement. (Incidentally, he seemed too scared to send his statement to The VOICE!)

Also, Hundial came up with a new proposal to keep the RCMP in Surrey – apparently suggested by the RCMP bosses in Ottawa:

“Recently, provisions were added to the RCMP Service Level Agreement that permit local Police Committees with provincially appointed residents, just as a municipal police board.

“Surrey can now have its own local police board with the RCMP.

“We should take the time to consider this before rushing ahead.”

Then he came up with a ridiculous claim that has Surrey-ites laughing out loud: “I believe my credibility as a career police officer, with most of my uniform years on the streets of Surrey, contributed to the SSC win last fall. I want to be absolutely clear that I do not support the Mayor’s current policing plan. It is rushed, not well thought out and as we hear increasingly each day, causing the community to be divided.”

What “credibility”?

Hundial won only because of McCallum.

No wonder McCallum is so relieved that Hundial, too, has finally quit the Coalition.

Hundial will join Locke and Councillor Steven Pettigrew, who also quit McCallum’s party last June, as independents in Council.

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