A seventh Surrey mayoral candidate has thrown his hat in the ring.
Longtime Surrey resident John Wolanski announced his candidacy this week and is running as an independent.
Wolanski ran as a council candidate in the 2002, 2008 and 2011 and as a mayoral hopeful in 2014.
“Michael Jordan said it best, you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take,” he told the Now-Leader when asked what motivated him to seek the mayor’s chair once more.
And, he says he will be his own biggest financial contributor to his campaign.
“I put my own money on the table, and people respond to that,” said Wolanski, whose background includes freelancing in the newspaper business, and “promotions” arena, according to his bio.
The Cloverdale resident said Surrey’s council must “look at people first,” and “we’ve had business taking over the government decisions.”
“We need to take a step back, take a breath and see where we want to go with things.”
Wolanski calls for a change in B.C.-wide change in civic elections that he says would mean “no more toeing the party line.”
His idea?
“One vote for mayor, you only have one vote per councillor and one per school trustee,” he said of his idea, which would not change the number of elected officials, only how they become elected. “So what you’re going to do is break up the party monopoly. Most of these guys are running a slate to control council. I want a democracy.”
In his platform, outlined at johnwolanski.ca, he vows to lobby senior governments for more affordable housing alternatives.
“People are feeling the (housing) stress,” he said. “It’s an economic warfare thing, and I’m just going to be hammering on the senior levels of government. We’re going to fix this one way or another.”
Wolanski also promises to say adamantly oppose mobility pricing. When it comes to public safety, Wolanski wants to either move toward a Metro Vancouver wide police force or keep the RCMP if that can’t be achieved.
“To break that (RCMP contract) up in the middle, and put a new police force in… we’d end up with nothing left to pay for potholes. The RCMP will demand compensation,” he told the Now-Leader. “And with a police force, there could be possible interference from the mayor’s office. From the RCMP, they have a hand’s length thing where you can’t interfere.”
As for transit, he supports SkyTrain along Fraser Highway, and says the Surrey light rail project that’s in process would have to be completed.
“This is a game-changing election,” stated Wolanski. “I realize I have to go for it now. That’s the deal.”
Others running for mayor in the Oct. 20 Surrey election include Surrey First’s Tom Gill, Integrity Now’s Bruce Hayne (formerly of Surrey First), former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum with his Safe Surrey Coalition, Pauline Greaves of Proudly Surrey, People First Surrey’s Rajesh Jayaprakash and independent Imtiaz Popat.
amy.reid@surreynowleader.com
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram and follow Amy on Twitter
Click here to see a full list of candidates.
Click here to read more election stories.
Other election news:
See also: Surrey First promising free access to pools, rinks and gyms for Surrey youth
See also: Proudly Surrey says asbestos needs to be removed from all schools, now
See also: EXCLUSIVE: Why we left Surrey First
See also: VIDEO: Surrey First announces full slate of candidates
See also: Mayoral candidate Pauline Greaves joins Proudly Surrey slate
See also: Parshotam Goel joins Proudly Surrey slate
See also: Steven Pettigrew and Jack Hundial join McCallum’s Safe Surrey slate
See also: Proudly Surrey announces fourth school board candidate
See also: People First Surrey announces mayoral candidate, third council hopeful
See also: Brenda Locke, Mandeep Nagra join McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition
See also: BUCHOLTZ: Surrey First naysayer goes out with a bang
See also: Woods joins Hayne’s Integrity Now slate as Surrey council candidate
See also: Handgun ban issue fires up Surrey candidates
See also: Surrey Honeybee Centre founder to run for council with Integrity Now
See also: Councillor Dave Woods resigns from Surrey First
See also: New independent school board candidate in Surrey
See also: Dr. Allison Patton joins Safe Surrey Coalition slate
See also: Downtown Surrey BIA announces all-candidates meetings
See also: Retired teacher Julia Poole to run for Surrey school board
See also: Pauline Greaves joins mayoral race in Surrey
See also: Avi Dhaliwal joins Surrey Integrity Now as council candidate
See also: Proudly Surrey wants to build a Rita Johnston statue, rename the Pattullo to Bob Bose Bridge
See also: McCallum keeps ‘Safe Surrey Coalition’ name, announces new candidate
See also: Rina Gill joins Bruce Hayne’s ‘Surrey Integrity Now’ party
See also: Doug Elford resigns from his Surrey party to run with McCallum
See also: People First Surrey announces first two candidates
See also: Doug McCallum running for Surrey mayor
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?