RIDING PROFILE: South Surrey

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The five provincial electoral ridings wedged between Langley, Delta, and the US border represent some of the fastest-growing and most demographically diverse areas of the province.

With roughly 1,000 people coming into Surrey every month, local politicians and community leaders agree the level of provincial spending has not been keeping pace.

“Because it’s growing, Surrey has a number of needs that – provincially – need to be looked after whether it’s healthcare, whether it’s education, whether it’s transportation,” says Bruce Hayne, a Cloverdale resident and Surrey city councillor.

Despite these challenges, south Surrey isn’t expected to produce many surprises on May 9th, with one notable exception.

First, the issues

Transportation and education are consistently named as the issues most urgently in need of provincial action.

“Right now the high schools down in this area, they’re on different shifts throughout the day, they’re using band rooms, they’re using portables,” says South Surrey-White Rock MP Dianne Watts, who served as Surrey’s mayor for nine years.

“Certainly we were pleased to see that there’s been some acknowledgement and announcements around building schools, but these are things we need straight away.”

Steve Henderson, Vice-President of the Panorama Neighbourhood Association, adds the issue of school overcrowding has persisted in his community for some time, with little movement on the part of the province.

“I know there has been some investment, but a good chunk of that has been sort of re-announcements, and we’re literally playing catch-up. It’s been frankly neglected I think.”

Large sections of the region also have limited access to public transportation, which Cloverdale Community Association president Mike Bola says is his organization’s main push.

“We’ve been promised a lot of buses and what-not but that hasn’t surfaced for a number of years now,” he says.

While a new light rail transit system is included in Metro Vancouver’s 10-year transit plan, Bola notes that it will only serve the Clayton Heights area of Cloverdale.

The safe bets

Surrey South is one of two brand new ridings this election, borrowing large sections from Surrey-Cloverdale and Surrey-Panorama.

But even with no incumbent, the seat is assumed to be a lock for long-time BC Liberal cabinet minister Stephanie Cadieux, who easily won Surrey-Cloverdale in 2013. The NDP candidate there is Jonathan Silveira, a real estate agent and mortgage broker. The Greens are running Pascal Tremblay.

Surrey-Cloverdale has gone Liberal in every election since the riding was created in 1991. Former Surrey-Panorama Ridge MLA Marvin Hunt has moved in to run for the Liberals against the NDP’s Rebecca Smith and the Green’s Aleksandra Muniak.

It’s expected to be a closer race in Surrey-White Rock, where long-time Liberal MLA Gordon Hogg is stepping down after 19 years in office. But like Surrey-Cloverdale, the riding has never gone any way but Liberal, and former Coast Capital Savings CEO Tracy Redies is considered a strong candidate for them. The NDP’s Niovi Patsicakis and the Green’s William Marshall will attempt to make it a competitive race.

Surrey-Newton meanwhile is considered an NDP stronghold. The party’s Harry Bains won the last three elections there by wide margins, and is now seeking a fourth term. Bains is up against Liberal candidate Gurminder Parihar and Green candidate Richard Krieger.

The one to watch

There is no safe bet in Surrey-Panorama, a seat left empty by the Liberals’ Marvin Hunt.

The NDP has put up a strong contender in Jinny Sims, who has represented part of the riding on the federal level as the MP for Newton-North Delta. She is also the former president of the BC Teachers’ Federation.

The Liberals with try to hold on to the seat with Puneet Sandhar, a local lawyer and community leader who immigrated to Canada from India in 2002.

The Greens meanwhile are running Scotland-born Veronica Greer, one of only four candidates province-wide who identify as transgender.