Surrey Municipal Election

Dianne Watts replaced Doug McCallum in 2005.  According to a long time Surrey resident I know who worked in the City Hall, said "Doug McCallum did a lot of bad things for the city and needed to be replaced".   He has run in the municipal election every time since he got defeated and never received many votes.  This year he's made some interesting promises if elected.

The population has greatly increased and LRT is a contentious issue.  The reason the Surrey residents are so upset is Translink recommended an elevated Skytrain link from King George Station to Langley along Fraser Highway.  Surrey council decided a street level rail link taking away much needed traffic lanes on King George and 104 Ave for a link from Newton to Whalley.  The citizens asked for a referendum and they ignored the us.  That's why people are upset.  According to reports 80% of the population does not want street level LRT.   I don't know if that number is correct, but I know no one who wants LRT to proceed.   It needs to be elevated, not street level.

Doug McCallum also says he will replace the RCMP with a city run police force.  I think the RCMP does a good job and want to hear what the alternative will cost and what the benefit is.

I have no idea who I will vote for but I will go to the town hall meetings as they will probably be very informative.  Most civic elections are boring, however, this one will be interesting.  Let's hope it gets people motivated to vote in October.

Great articles in these two publications!

Vancouver Sun article on Surrey Civic Election

Interesting article about Doug McCallum