Surrey residents who pay even minimal attention to city politics must have been scratching their heads in recent weeks.
One-term mayor Linda Hepner was retiring, but nobody was stepping up to take her place.
This in the second-biggest city in B.C., where a host of issues face the next council.
There was a reason for the silence. No one was going to step up until the Surrey First slate – holder of every council seat for the past seven years – announced its plans.
The first hint came last Wednesday, when Surrey First Coun. Bruce Hayne announced he was leaving the slate. Clearly, some sort of backroom struggle had taken place. The next day, three-term Coun. Tom Gill was announced as the Surrey First mayoral candidate, after remaining council members gathered at Hepner’s home to agree he would be their choice.
It’s an odd way for a dominant slate to pick a mayoral candidate, but Surrey First is nothing if not secretive. Hepner even justified the way Gill was chosen, saying no “backroom people” are involved in the selection.
Surrey First likely has a huge war chest to run this year’s campaign. The slate, which spent almost $1.2 million – mostly from developers – to win all nine seats in 2014, almost certainly accumulated a lot of money before the new rules.
However, it is not an auspicious time to try to convince residents that the slate deserves every seat again. For one thing, Hayne has left – and will run. Two others are retiring – Mary Martin and Judy Villeneuve. Another wrinkle is the interest shown by BC Liberal MLA Rich Coleman in seeking the mayor’s chair.
Most importantly, voters have a lot of questions about how their city is run.
Crime – in particular drive-by shootings – is top of mind. On Saturday, Paul Bennett, a 47-year-old registered nurse at Peace Arch Hospital, was shot in his driveway on a quiet Clayton street. This murder has shaken many people, and comes just weeks after the execution-style shooting of two teens, whose bodies were found in a rural area about five kilometres away.
Many feel that council has done little to seriously address the issue of gangs, violence and shootings.
The city is also being strongly criticized for its pro-development stance. A pet project of Gill’s, development of an environmentally sensitive area in Hazelmere, was finally laid to rest Friday when Metro Vancouver said it defied regional planning guidelines.
The city’s insistence that LRT is needed for rapid transit is also unpopular, and the related construction of a road through Hawthorne Park remains a powerful symbol of council arrogance to many. Hepner’s enthusiasm for ejecting tenants from illegal suites in Clayton because of parking concerns (a stance she later backed away from) also served as a symbol of indifference to housing-affordability concerns.
Surrey First is perceived by many as being out of touch with residents, unwilling to engage in dialogue and too entrenched.
Whether that perception will bring about a major shift will be determined in October.
Frank Bucholtz writes Wednesdays for Peace Arch News.