LOCKE DEFEATED MCCALLUM BY ONLY 973 VOTES

BY winning with only 28% of the total votes in the Surrey municipal election, Brenda Locke is in no position to ask the Province to stay or reverse the ongoing transition to a municipal police force.

In fact, back in 2018, Locke got 40,497 votes as a Council candidate under Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition party as compared to the 33,111 votes she bagged on Saturday.

Also,  Doug McCallum won the election in 2018 with 45,564 votes — 41.08% of the total votes — while Locke  won with only 33,311 votes — 28.14% of the total votes

As The VOICE reported earlier, the Province has no intention to reverse the course as the Surrey Police Service now has 352 employees with 298 sworn police officers and 54 civilians and already they constitute 20 per cent of the functional police force in the City of Surrey, as the Solicitor General’s ministry pointed out to the Vancouver Sun a few days ago.

So you can expect the Solicitor General to tell Locke that she can forget about any reversal of the ongoing policing transition.

Locke (Surrey Connect) defeated incumbent mayor Doug McCallum (Safe Surrey Coalition) by only 973 votes. With all polls reporting, Locke bagged 33,111 (28.14%) of the votes as compared to McCallum’s 32,338 votes (27.31%).

And let’s not forget that McCallum won such a large number of votes in spite of the massive prejudice and slanted reporting against him by the mainstream media.

Interestingly, after Locke had delivered her victory speech and gone home and McCallum had graciously conceded defeat, the difference in votes narrowed to only around 500 as the results of the last two polls were being counted. That caused some dread in Locke’s camp. But then Locke’s lead started increasing again and she won by 973 votes.

Gordie Hogg (Surrey First) came third with 24,916 votes (21.05%).

A total of 118,908 votes were cast – a turnout of only 34.54 %.

Meanwhile, both NDP MLA Jinny Sims and Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal — who in spite of having been advised by many well-meaning South Asians not to run as mayoral candidates — were badly humiliated as, Sims (Surrey Forward) garnered only 14,895 votes (12.58%) and Dhaliwal (United Surrey) bagged just 9,629 votes (8.13%).

The top eight candidates for Council:

Linda Annis (Surrey First) — 35,222

Harry Bains (Surrey Connect) — 33,708

Mike Bose (Surrey First) — 30,763

Gordon Hepner (Surrey Connect) — 27,586

Rob Stutt (Surrey Connect) — 25,699

Pardeep Kooner (Surrey Connect) — 25,118

Doug Elford (Safe Surrey Coalition) — 24,658

Mandeep Nagra (Safe Surrey Coalition) — 24,406

Safe Surrey Coalition incumbents Allison Patton and Laurie Guerra lost, as did incumbent Steven Pettigrew who had deserted the SSC.

THERE will be three South Asians on Council:

Harry Bains (Surrey Connect) bagged 33,708 votes. He’s a corporate and real estate lawyer. He earned a business degree at BCIT and a law degree at UBC.

Pardeep Kooner (Surrey Connect) got 25,118 votes. She has over 20 years in accounting. A Trinity Western University alumnus, she owns her own audit and tax services firm.

Mandeep Nagra (Safe Surrey Coalition) who won a second term by garnering 24,406 votes. He’s a well-known businessman.

MEANWHILE, Surrey First Education bagged all six School Trustee posts once again with incumbents Terry Allen, Laurie Larsen, Garry Thind, Shawn Wilson, Bob Holmes and Gary Tymoschuk.

MORE TO COME

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