McCallum elected Surrey mayor, beating Locke

Updated 12:25 a.m. PT Oct. 18: Doug McCallum was elected Surrey mayor, according to CP24 and CBC News. Our earlier report described him as leading. Results remain unofficial.

Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum, 82, was elected mayor Saturday night, defeating incumbent Brenda Locke in a rematch of the 2022 race, according to CP24’s live coverage.

CP24 reported that Locke gave a subdued address that appeared to concede, but she did not congratulate McCallum. CTV News projected that his Safe Surrey Coalition will hold a majority on council, according to the same coverage.

The last published count we reviewed had McCallum, running with the Safe Surrey Coalition, at 28,279 votes, or 33.4 per cent, with 44 of 70 polls reporting as of 10:01 p.m. PT, according to Poliwave’s live results page. Locke, of Surrey Connect, had 18,823 votes, or 22.2 per cent, a gap of 9,456 votes. Poliwave said results remain unofficial until declared by the city’s chief election officer.

Linda Annis of Surrey First had 10,648 votes, or 12.6 per cent. Mike Starchuk of Imagine Surrey had 10,010 votes, or 11.8 per cent, and Troy Van Vliet of Surrey Now had 9,878 votes, or 11.7 per cent. Honveer Singh Randhawa, running for the Conservative slate, had 6,681 votes, or 7.9 per cent. Final totals may differ.

McCallum’s Safe Surrey party has pledged to split Surrey into eight voting wards, according to CP24.

Locke won the 2022 race with 28.1 per cent of the vote, ahead of McCallum, then the incumbent, who finished second with 27.3 per cent, a margin of 973 votes, according to Wikipedia’s account of that election.

Surrey was one of the most closely watched races in Metro Vancouver. In Vancouver, Green candidate Pete Fry defeated Mayor Ken Sim, and in Richmond, Rob Howard was named the new mayor. Surrey offered more advance voting locations this year, 10 compared with six in 2022, and about 52,600 people voted in advance, up from 35,701 in 2022, according to CP24.

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