Doug McCallum may have big majority on Surrey council, but will lead a city ‘deeply divided’

Despite winning a big council majority in Surrey this weekend, mayor-elect Doug McCallum will lead a city that is still “deeply divided,” says a political analyst.

McCallum, 82, and his Safe Surrey slate secured all spots on council, apart from one that was nabbed by incumbent Harry Bains, who served on Brenda Locke’s majority council since 2022. McCallum won the election with 31.9 per cent of the vote to Locke’s 23 per cent.

“Polling running up to the election suggested that while there was dissatisfaction among many voters in Surrey, it wasn’t really coalescing around any particular opponent, much less Doug McCallum,” said Stewart Prest, political scientist with the University of British Columbia.

“So to see him actually come out on top in a divided election — it was not a landslide, but it’s a clear victory for him — was perhaps the surprise of the night.”

But while McCallum was victorious, he did not receive an overwhelming number of votes, Prest said, and the first few months of his term may set the tone.

“This is not a unified city. Surrey is still deeply divided, and a strong majority of Surrey did not vote for Mr. McCallum, and if he wants this term to go well, he would do well to keep that fact in mind.”

Neither McCallum nor his slate members were made available for interviews on Monday.

“I love Surrey. That’s why I ran,” McCallum said Saturday after his win. “But I even love the people of Surrey more. Together we’re going to build a great city that our families will live in, have jobs, go to sports, enjoy each other, work together to make one of the best global cities in the world.”

McCallum first served as mayor from 1996 to 2005, and then again in 2018 until narrowly losing to Locke in 2022.

Bains said he was surprised by the result and believes that vote-splitting may be the reason behind McCallum’s win.

“I think if you asked the people who voted for any candidate other than Doug McCallum who their second choice would be, it wouldn’t be Doug McCallum,” Bains said.

“I think people potentially were looking for some form of change, but they also weren’t happy with where things were under the previous administration. I think we saw a large trend right across Metro Vancouver with a lot of regime changes, and I think people had the general appetite for change. I don’t know if this is what the majority wanted.”

Prest noted McCallum’s last term was marked by controversy, including his being charged, and later acquitted, for public mischief, and having splits within his own slate. Three of McCallum’s councillors left his slate during his last term, with two of them, Locke and Jack Hundial, leaving over the switch from the RCMP to a city police force and creating their own slate, Surrey Connect.