In October, Surrey, BC will have a civil election for Mayor. To date, five people have declared they will run. I know of one more candidate that isn't going to announce until August. Some are good, others are opportunists who need a job and then there is the 82 year old former Mayor who lost in the last election and had a disaster of failures in his last stint as Mayor. He's had two strokes since his Mayor days.
I've met Ivan who wrote this letter and I must say he's right on!
Letter to the
Editor
14 April 2026
“Why Stop at Zero?”
Dear
Editor,
82
year-old former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum has again entered the Surrey Mayoral
race of 2026 after previously failing badly in the 2022 election. If it wasn’t
so sad, it would be quite funny. Actually, it is humorous – and he is entering
with the same failed, familiar political offerings: including a ridiculous
promise of a zero percent tax increase for four years!
Why
stop there?
· Why not promise an immediate
four percent tax reduction — with no increases for ten years?
· Why not give two (or three) police
helicopters instead of the unnecessary one he is offering?
· Why not 400 additional
officers to match Vancouver?
· Why not rather declare Surrey a “world-class
city” overnight?
· Why not promise honesty; integrity;
honor; truthfulness; virtuousness; uprightness of character; morality?
Because
at some point, words collide with reality.
McCallum
promises expanded policing, new infrastructure, accelerated development, and
“opportunity zones for growth.” - impressive phrases. But they are, at present,
nothing more than that — just phrases. He has promised it before and failed.
A
city does not run on slogans – especially McCallum’s slogans. It runs on
arithmetic.
Every
"promise" he makes has a cost. Every expansion requires funding.
Every delay in revenue must be compensated somewhere — through reduced
services, increased debt, or deferred responsibility. There is no escaping
this.
So
the question is: are these ideas logical and do they make fiscal and common
sense, and are they credible, costed, and achievable? The
answer, in my opinion is – definitely no! McCallum is just trying to
bribe his way in – he cares nothing for Surrey as a City. As before,
he cares only to satisfy his own ego.
Surrey
is not a campaign stage for aspirational language. It is a complex, growing
city that demands disciplined thinking and honest accounting.
Residents
deserve to be treated as adults — capable of understanding trade-offs, not
simply being handed imaginary and comforting numbers and Words. Words.
Meaningless Words.
Definitely
not McCallum for mayor, we have far too much to lose.
“Zero” is not a plan.
