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McCallum keeps ‘Safe Surrey Coalition’ name, announces new candidate

Lawyer Bableen Rana will be the slate’s newest council candidate
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Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum announces his slate will once again be named “Safe Surrey Coalition,” with public safety being a focus of the team’s campaign. (File photo)

Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum has announced his slate will keep the same name as the last election, as he makes another bid to hold the city’s top spot once more.

In a press release Wednesday, McCallum’s “Safe Surrey Coalition” promised that if elected, the team would work to get rid of RCMP and start Surrey’s own police force “that will be much better able to deal with local issues.”

The slate also vows to scrap the “second-rate LRT in favour of SkyTrain along Fraser Highway,” and to pause development to “come up with smart community development guidelines that include affordable housing.”

Safe Surrey also announced Bableen Rana would be the slate’s newest council candidate.

Rana, who has been a lawyer for 17 years, is past president of the Newton Rotary Club.

Rana served on Surrey’s Parks and Recreation Commission when McCallum was first elector as mayor.

“Her experience there solidified her passion for community service,” a Safe Surrey release notes.

Rana says she’s running with Safe Surrey because she knows Doug McCallum and “believes in his integrity” and “respects his passion, focus, and commitment to Surrey.”

“My first priority is having Surrey citizens feel safe and secure — on their streets and in their neighbourhoods,” said Rana in a release. “The RCMP has done its best, however, the citizens of Surrey need more and they deserve more. The rapid growth in the city has outgrown the police resources. The structure of the RCMP as a paramilitary force is no longer a good fit for Surrey. We need a Surrey Police force that clearly focuses on local concerns and gets results.”

Earlier this week, Doug Elford also joined McCallum, who served as Surrey’s mayor from 1996 to 2005.

Elford is a longtime Newton advocate and until recently, was president of the Surrey Community Alliance (SCA) slate he founded.

An SCA press release stated the party would be withdrawing from the election due to lack of funding, but SCA candidate Imtiaz Popat said in a subsequent release that Elford’s split caused the “demise” of the party.

Popat said other members of the Surrey Community Alliance “are not giving up” and are looking at other ways to continue their campaign.

Previously announced council candidates for SCA included Elford, Popat, Asad Syed, Saira Aujla and Bernie Sheppard. The team’s school board candidates were Niovi Patsicakis and Aronjit Lageri.

Other teams in the upcoming civic election are People First Surrey, Proudly Surrey, Surrey Integrity Now and the reigning Surrey First.

Surrey voters head to the polls on Oct. 20.

Other election news:

See also: Rina Gill joins Bruce Hayne’s ‘Surrey Integrity Now’ party

See also: People First Surrey announces first two candidates

See also: Former Surrey First Councillor Bruce Hayne to run for mayor

See also: Tom Gill is Surrey First’s mayoral candidate

See also: Hayne splits from Surrey First: ‘It’s just not open and transparent the way I’d like it to be’

See also: Surrey First’s Mary Martin not seeking re-election this fall

See also: Surrey First Councillor Judy Villeneuve not seeking re-election this fall

See more: New civic slate Proudly Surrey aims to offer ‘sharp, strong, left-leaning’ candidates

See more: Proudly Surrey introduces two more candidates for Surrey council, schoolboard

See more: Surrey Community Alliance announces intention to challenge Surrey First in civic election

See more: Surrey Community Alliance unveils civic slate, but no mayoral candidate

See more: People First Surrey party reveals intention to run in upcoming civic election

See more: Five Surrey First councillors now reveal interest in mayor’s chair

See more: With Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner out, who is mulling a mayoral run?

See more: Hawthorne Park crusader to run for Surrey council

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