New Surrey Conservatives party announces first candidates for civic election | Daily Hive

Surrey Conservatives. (Conservative Electors Association)

The newly-created Conservative Party of Surrey entered the October 2026 civic election race this week, introducing its first six candidates for Surrey City Council at a launch event.

Party organizers framed this as the beginning of a long campaign toward the civic election, with a focus on public safety, affordability, and what they describe as a renewed emphasis on families and neighbourhoods.

The candidates outlined concerns about rising taxes, public safety, and recent City Council decisions. Several speakers also referenced worries about extortion and organized crime, which have become a growing issue in parts of the city.

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The Surrey Conservatives are part of the broader Conservative Electors Association, a new municipal political organization in British Columbia established in Summer 2025. The civic Conservatives plan to field candidates in more than a dozen municipalities across the province during the 2026 civic elections, including in Vancouver, where a new Vancouver Liberals party is already highly active.

It should be noted that these new civic parties sharing names resembling major federal or provincial parties are not organizationally affiliated with them, like how provincial NDP parties across the country are affiliated with the federal NDP.

However, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, board chair of the Conservative Party of Surrey, and a former federal cabinet minister and current candidate for leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, connected the municipal-level campaign to broader conservative politics at the federal and provincial levels, arguing that similar policy approaches could be applied at Surrey City Hall.

“When I served in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, we saw lower taxes and significant reductions in violent crime,” said Findlay. “The message here tonight is that those same priorities — public safety, affordability and support for families — can and should be applied locally in Surrey.”

According to the party, the candidates are aligned around three main priorities: increasing support for police and public safety initiatives, reducing what they describe as wasteful spending to ease the tax burden, and ensuring City Council decisions reflect the needs of families.

The six announced candidates include Lita Cabal, a former Conservative Party of Canada candidate; Ricky Bajwa, a business manager; and James Yu, a community organizer, founder of the Alliance of Chinese Conservatives of Canada and recipient of both the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal and the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

The slate also features Rasinder Kaur, an entrepreneur, founder of the Norius Group of Companies and the Feminine Fellowship Outreach Society; Holly Verchere, a retired Air Canada manager with decades of experience in aviation safety and operations; and Cheney Cloke, a small-business owner, former vice-chair of the Surrey Police Board during the transition to the Surrey Police Service, and a former Fraser Health Authority executive.

Party officials note more candidates will be announced in the coming months as the campaign continues to take shape ahead of the civic election, which is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2026.

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