Doug McCallum may have big majority on Surrey council, but will lead a city 'deeply divided'

Despite winning a big council majority in Surrey this weekend, mayor-elect Doug McCallum will lead a city that is still “deeply divided,” says a political analyst.

McCallum, 82, and his Safe Surrey slate secured all spots on council, apart from one that was nabbed by incumbent Harry Bains, who served on Brenda Locke’s majority council since 2022. McCallum won the election with 31.9 per cent of the vote to Locke’s 23 per cent.

“Polling running up to the election suggested that while there was dissatisfaction among many voters in Surrey, it wasn’t really coalescing around any particular opponent, much less Doug McCallum,” said Stewart Prest, political scientist with the University of British Columbia.

“So to see him actually come out on top in a divided election — it was not a landslide, but it’s a clear victory for him — was perhaps the surprise of the night.”

But while McCallum was victorious, he did not receive an overwhelming number of votes, Prest said, and the first few months of his term may set the tone.

“This is not a unified city. Surrey is still deeply divided, and a strong majority of Surrey did not vote for Mr. McCallum, and if he wants this term to go well, he would do well to keep that fact in mind.”

Neither McCallum nor his slate members were made available for interviews on Monday.

“I love Surrey. That’s why I ran,” McCallum said Saturday after his win. “But I even love the people of Surrey more. Together we’re going to build a great city that our families will live in, have jobs, go to sports, enjoy each other, work together to make one of the best global cities in the world.”

McCallum first served as mayor from 1996 to 2005, and then again in 2018 until narrowly losing to Locke in 2022.

Bains said he was surprised by the result and believes that vote-splitting may be the reason behind McCallum’s win.

“I think if you asked the people who voted for any candidate other than Doug McCallum who their second choice would be, it wouldn’t be Doug McCallum,” Bains said.

“I think people potentially were looking for some form of change, but they also weren’t happy with where things were under the previous administration. I think we saw a large trend right across Metro Vancouver with a lot of regime changes, and I think people had the general appetite for change. I don’t know if this is what the majority wanted.”

Prest noted McCallum’s last term was marked by controversy, including his being charged, and later acquitted, for public mischief, and having splits within his own slate. Three of McCallum’s councillors left his slate during his last term, with two of them, Locke and Jack Hundial, leaving over the switch from the RCMP to a city police force and creating their own slate, Surrey Connect.

McCallum, however, has long had the support from the Punjabi Canadian residents of Surrey, which was likely a significant factor in his win.

“The symbolic choice of Newton, trying to really identify with that community, for what turned out to be the victory party on election night, his quick move to name Mandeep Nagra as deputy mayor. I think it was a deliberate nod to that community and the instrumental role that it played in securing his re-election,” Prest said.

McCallum made many promises during the campaign. He said he would freeze property taxes for four years, cancel Locke’s 10,000-seat arena plan, extend SkyTrain to Newton, build another hospital, buy a dedicated helicopter and a fleet of drones for police within 90 days and leave the Metro Vancouver regional district, except for the core utilities of water, sewer and waste disposal.

McCallum can’t deliver some of those promises without provincial support, however. NDP Leader David Eby, who is hoping for re-election this weekend, wasted no time Sunday pledging to work with the mayor-elect.

Eby said his government will build the hospital McCallum promised on a city-owned parcel, introduce a 30-day small builder permit guarantee, and work with the city and federal government to build the SkyTrain extension.

“I think we can read into that. Surrey is absolutely vital to Mr. Eby’s electoral chances next weekend, and so he wants to be seen clearly as a friend to Surrey,” Prest said.

“I do worry about those competing promises that Mr. McCallum made. He can’t deliver on those promises and also hold the line on property taxes without making dramatic cuts elsewhere, in a city that is experiencing all kinds of population pressures on social services, on housing services.

“If this council is not able to deal with all those other competing issues, at the same time as it’s dealing with the promises around policing, I do think it is going to be a contentious few years going forward.”