Doug McCallum's Safe Surrey Coalition wins supermajority in City Council | Daily Hive

Doug McCallum. (Safe Surrey Coalition)

Doug McCallum is returning to Surrey City Hall with a commanding majority behind him, after defeating incumbent mayor Brenda Locke of the Surrey Connect party in the 2026 civic election.

Preliminary results show his Safe Surrey Coalition party winning a supermajority of seven of the eight city councillor seats. Including McCallum’s mayoral seat, his party will hold eight of the nine overall seats on Surrey City Council.

The only city councillor elected outside McCallum’s party is Surrey Connect’s Harry Bains, who won 31,362 votes — the most of any city councillor candidate.

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The outcome marks a sharp reversal from the 2022 civic election, when Safe Surrey Coalition secured just two city councillor seats, while Locke and four Surrey Connect city councillors secured a majority footing. Surrey First held the remaining two seats.

This time, Surrey Connect has been reduced to a single seat, while Surrey First — a dominating force in Surrey’s municipal politics from 2008 to 2018 — has been completely shut out of City Council for the next four years.

The eight successful Surrey city councillor candidates, in order of their preliminary vote totals, are:

Harry Bains (Surrey Connect): 31,362
Doug Elford (Safe Surrey Coalition): 30,833 votes
Meera Gill (Safe Surrey Coalition) : 29,883 votes
Mandeep Singh Nagra (Safe Surrey Coalition): 29,692 votes
Suhana Gill (Safe Surrey Coalition): 27,820 votes
Allison Patton (Safe Surrey Coalition): 27,132 votes
Laurie Guerra (Safe Surrey Coalition): 26,554 votes
Cheney Cloke (Safe Surrey Coalition): 26,324 votes

The contest for the final city councillor seat was particularly close. Cloke finished eighth overall, just 232 votes ahead of Surrey First incumbent Mike Bose, who received 26,092 votes.

Further down the standings are three more Surrey Connect incumbents. Gordon Hepner received 23,821 votes, followed by Pardeep Kooner with 22,915 and Rob Stutt with 21,822.

McCallum, now 82 years old, previously served as Surrey’s mayor from 1996 to 2005 and again from 2018 to 2022, when he lost to Locke by just 973 votes.

Yesterday’s civic election returned McCallum to office for a fifth term as the mayor of Metro Vancouver’s second most populous city. This time, McCallum secured a decisive victory, receiving 42,741 votes to Locke’s 30,886.

The results give McCallum’s party a very substantial cushion for passing City Council decisions. In contrast, McCallum had the backing of four city councillors under the Safe Surrey Coalition after the 2018 civic election.

McCallum and Safe Surrey Coalition campaigned on four years with zero property tax increases, extending SkyTrain’s Expo Line along King George Boulevard from Surrey City Centre to Newton, and expanding Surrey Police Service staffing and resources to combat crime and extortion. They also promised a dedicated police helicopter and drone fleet within 90 days, new aquatic centres in the Clayton Heights and Surrey City Centre areas, a new community centre with a pool in Newton, and a full restoration of the horse racing facilities at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, which were closed and demolished by Locke’s administration.

Other commitments included approving residential building permits within 60 days or waiving the permit fees, waiving business licence fees for new businesses’ first two years, advocating the provincial government to build a new hospital on City-owned land in Newton, and creating a Surrey Centre development zone with eliminated City fees and faster approvals.

His party also pledged heritage protection for Crescent Beach and Ocean Park, an independent audit of the City’s recent land transactions, and withdrawing Surrey’s municipal government from Metro Vancouver Regional District, while retaining shared water, sewer, and waste services.

The neighbouring municipalities of the Township of Langley and the City of Langley also saw a major political shift last night, with their incumbent mayors replaced.

Meanwhile, a different party secured a supermajority in the Surrey School Board trustee race.

Surrey First Education won five of the six School Board trustee seats. The school board has seven seats in total, with the remaining seat elected separately by White Rock residents. The five Surrey First Education wins therefore give the party a supermajority on the full board.

All vote totals are preliminary and remain subject to confirmation through the official election results.

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