FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, September 13, 2026
SURREY, BC — Three party names will be on the ballot on October 17 asking to run City Hall again. Imagine Surrey and mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk today released their record, side by side. On the decisions that lit the fire at City Hall and kept it burning, Surrey First, Safe Surrey, and Surrey Connect voted the same way.
November 5, 2018. Minutes after being sworn in, Doug McCallum’s council cancelled a funded $1.6 billion light rail line through Newton and served notice to end the RCMP contract, with no public consultation and no vote of residents. Every councillor in the room voted yes to both, including Brenda Locke and Linda Annis. That is the night the fire at Surrey City Hall started.
What followed is the record of one City Hall wearing three party labels. Locke voted to start the police transition in 2018, ran in 2022 to stop it, then spent nearly $1.3 million in court trying to reverse it. In November 2024, all nine councillors sent 262 homes people could afford back to the drawing board, against the advice of City staff. In February 2025, Elections BC fined all three parties for breaking the same campaign finance rules in 2022, as Imagine Surrey set out yesterday. It’s a record of higher user fees and property taxes for you, with little to show for it.
Locke and McCallum ran together on the same slate in 2018. Annis has sat on that council through all of it for the last eight years. None of them represents the change that Surrey needs.
“The legacy parties will spend the next five weeks telling you how different they are from each other. Look at their records. Same night in 2018, same vote on policing. Same election in 2022, same fines. Same 262 homes in 2024, same position,” said Mike Starchuk. “Firefighters don’t start fires. Every one of these parties was in the room when this one started, and nobody – not Brenda, Doug, or Linda – reached for a hose. Surrey doesn’t need a fourth version of that City Hall. It needs a new one.”
-30-
About Imagine Surrey
Imagine Surrey is a civic party running a full slate of candidates in the October 17, 2026 municipal election. Led by mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk – a former firefighter and Chief Fire Prevention Officer, former City Councillor, and former MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale – Imagine Surrey is committed to making Surrey the City of Champions by delivering: safe streets, fast commutes, smart investments, lower costs, and strong services.
Council candidates: Yousef Aldabainah, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Narima Dela Cruz, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Dr. Margaret Mubanda, and Kevin Wilkie.
Contact
Trevor Loke, Campaign Manager
604-838-5178