Surrey voters played a pivotal role in the Oct. 19 provincial election, as foreshadowed by the frequent visits of NDP leader David Eby and Conservative leader John Rustad here during the campaign.
The drama continued another 10 days until Monday (Oct. 28), when final results were announced after recounts and counting of absentee ballots.
Surrey-City Centre went back and forth between the NDP and Conservatives on election night. When that counting was done, NDP candidate Amna Shah was 93 votes ahead of Conservative candidate Zeeshan Wahla. As the difference was less than 100 votes, an automatic recount was ordered. At the conclusion of the recount Sunday, Shah was 175 votes ahead. At the end of the final count (including mail-in and absentee ballots), her margin of victory was 236 votes.
This particular result shows how far the NDP fell in Surrey. Much of Surrey-City Centre was part of the former Surrey-Whalley riding, which longtime MLA Bruce Ralston won with almost 71 per cent of the vote in 2020.
Surrey-Guildford was even closer. The margin between leading candidate Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa and incumbent NDP MLA Garry Begg was 102 votes when counting ended on election night. No recount was scheduled. Begg formally requested one, and Elections BC said no.
Then the mail-in ballot count started, and the margin of victory kept falling. By the end of the absentee ballot count on Monday (Oct. 28), Begg was up by 27 votes — a margin of victory close enough that the riding must now go to a judicial recount. Compare that to 2020, when Begg won Surrey-Guildford with 60.6 per cent of the vote.
These two ridings weren’t the only ones with dramatic results. Conservative candidates took down Education Minister Rachna Singh in Surrey North, former cabinet minister Jinny Sims in Surrey-Panorama, and one-term MLA Mike Starchuk in Surrey-Cloverdale. Star NDP candidate Baltej Singh Dhillon failed to win the new Surrey-Serpentine River riding, losing in a close race to Conservative candidate and former mayor Linda Hepner.
Even in Surrey-White Rock, a longtime B.C. Liberal/United stronghold, incumbent MLA Trevor Halford had his work cut out for him. He ended up with 14,557 votes, less than 2,000 ahead of former White Rock mayor Darryl Walker, the NDP candidate.
As of Tuesday, six Surrey ridings are now Conservative. Four more (Surrey-Newton, Surrey-Fleetwood, Surrey City Centre and Surrey-Guildford) are in the NDP camp. The pivotal Surrey-Guildford recount will determine the fate of what is now the NDP’s 47th seat — the seat that gives David Eby a majority government.
By contrast, Delta went totally as expected, with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon easily winning Delta North, and incumbent Ian Paton, former B.C. Liberal/United candidate and latterly the Conservative candidate, winning by a comfortable margin in Delta South.
The NDP, in Surrey and elsewhere, were collectively told by voters they can have an uncomfortable hold on power. They were told to deliver results, not promises. Concerns about lack of funding for much-needed infrastructure from hospitals to schools, transit to child care, were top of mind for many voters, who work hard every day to try to meet their ever-rising expenses.
Conservatives, on the other hand, were told collectively by voters all across the province (and even in Surrey, where they did well) that they aren’t quite ready to govern. Many of their policies proved popular, but some of the candidates (e.g. Brent Chapman in Surrey South) lacked proper vetting.
Rustad will have much work to do to form a cohesive opposition that holds the government’s feet to the fire. He has proven to be far more capable than many people thought when the campaign began, but this may be one of his toughest tasks.
All incoming MLAs need to work hard to address the concerns about lack of housing, affordability, high taxes, increasing government regulation and the state of the economy. Their work is just beginning.
Frank Bucholtz writes twice monthly on political issues for Black Press Media publications.
