B.C. Election 2026: Surrey voters to decide hotly contested ridings

Brar faces Conservative Garry Purewal, Centre B.C. Paul Brar, OneBC Carolyn Hofbauer and the Greens, second-time candidate Tim Binnema.

The most hotly contested seat of 2024, Surrey Guildford will be one to watch election night. Garry Begg from the NDP has held the seat for three terms now, but almost lost it in the 2024 election, beating out the Conservatives by a mere 22 votes. Whether he can hold onto it for a fourth term remains to be seen.

Garry Thind is contesting the seat for the Conservative party. Thind is running provincially for the first time, but has served as a school trustee in Surrey for more than a decade. If he is indeed successful on election night, a byelection will be called locally, as Thind is one of six trustees who was elected last week in Surrey.

A Green candidate, Jodi Murphy is hoping for the seat, as well as James Yaroshuk, who is not affiliated with any party.

The Newton seat in Surrey has long seen an NDP candidate in power. The 2024 newcomer Jessie Sunner took it over from the popular Harry Bains who held it from 2017 until the last election when he decided to not run again. Harj Dhaliwal from the Conservative party is hoping to flip the community, which is the largest town centre in Surrey.

Challenging the two is Harman Preet Singh from CentreBC.

The riding has been a safe NDP one since 2005, an area with a large South Asian population.

The Conservative party won the new riding at the time, made up of Green Timbers and parts of Whalley, in 2024 quite comfortably, unseating the incumbent NDP MLA at the time, Rachna Singh.

Candidate Mandeep Dhaliwal is hoping to hold onto the seat, while the NDP’s Sahib Thind is hoping to swing it back to the New Democrats. Also contesting the seat are Tanya Gupta from OneBC, Jag Bhandari who is unaffiliated, Parm Bhandol from CentreBC and Yudhbir Gill of the Green Party.

The B.C. Conservatives’ Bryan Tepper flipped this constituency in the 2024 by just 351 votes over then incumbent, veteran NDP MLA Jinny Sims in one of Surrey’s closer races. Two years later, the NDP will be anxious to flip the seat back in its bid to hold on to government.

A largely suburban riding carved out in the 2008 electoral redistribution out surrounding Surrey constituencies, it started out as a B.C. Liberal seat held by both Stephanie Cadieux and Marvin Hunt. It remains a largely suburban riding of younger families and retirees.

Simms has history here, however, having held the seat from 2017 to 2024, and 2026’s campaign will have a more crowded ballot with the incumbent and Sims joined by CentreBC candidate Manav Manor and Green candidate Nolen Scott.

Combining parts of Cloverdale, Panorama and Fleetwood, the Serpentine riding is named after the river that runs through this area of Surrey. Comprising of mostly residential, the riding includes many parks and schools in the neighbourhoods consisting of many families.

This was another new riding that was contested for the first time in 2024, when the Conservative party’s Linda Hepner was elected by a slight margin of just over two per cent. Hepner decided not to run again, with Jessy Sahota running under the party’s banner. Challenging him are Judy Higginbotham from CentreBC, Todd Holowchak of OneBC, Sikander Kang from the NDP and Errol Povah from the Freedom Party of BC.

This constituency was drawn out in the 2015 electoral distribution to capture rapidly-growing neighbourhoods in South Surrey. It has been reliably right of centre since its creation, won in 2024 by the B.C. Conservatives’ Brent Chapman in one of the party’s easier wins, twenty points better than the NDP’s Haroon Ghaffar.