Doug McCallum is the new mayor of Surrey, his Safe Surrey Coalition dominates Surrey city council, and very little has changed at the Surrey school board.
Here’s how it all broke down at the polls in Surrey on Saturday night (Oct. 17).
11:50 p.m.
It was a two-way race after all – and, even then, not as close as most watchers had expected.
The seven-way battle for the Surrey mayor’s chair was never much in doubt. Though incumbent Brenda Locke was in the lead after the first returns of the evening, Doug McCallum leapt ahead early and never looked back, continuing to widen his lead throughout the night.
Preliminary results (with 163 of 164 tabulators reporting back) show McCallum with 31.78% of the vote (42,241) to Locke’s 23.14% (30,750).
Others who were considered potential contenders never really played into the race: Mike Starchuk with Imagine Surrey was well back at 17,203 (12.94%) and outgoing city councillor Linda Annis of Surrey First at 16,251 (12.43%). Troy Van Vliet with Surrey Now came in fifth at 15,049 _11.32%), with Honveer Singh Randhawa at 10,535 (7.93%). Igal Ammons II of the New Surrey+ slate brought in just 614 votes (0.46%).
McCallum is bringing most of his Safe Surrey Coalition councillors onto the new council with him, as they hold the second through eighth spots on the council ballot: Doug Elford, Meera Gill, Mandeep Nagra, Suhana Gill, Allison Patton, Laurie Guerra and Cheney Cloke.
The lone member of council that’s not part of the slate is Harry Bains, from Locke’s almost-obliterated Surrey Connect slate. Bains topped the polls at 31,152 votes (with 163 of 164 tabulators reporting).
Meanwhile, the school board battle saw very little shake-up from the status quo. The reigning Surrey First Education slate saw their candidates dominate the ballot, led by Terry Allen with 47,313 votes, followed by Garry Thind, Laurie Larsen, Bob Holmes and Shawn Wilson.
Michelle Ceniza, with the Surrey Now slate, broke the Surrey First Education monopoly by sneaking in to the sixth and final spot – bumping longtime incumbent Gary Tymoschuk out.
Garry Thind’s victory leaves a large question mark, since Thind had asked people not to vote for him – as he’s also on the ballot for the Conservative Party of B.C. in Surrey-Guildford in the Oct. 24 provincial election. (Watch for a separate story on that issue to come.)
11:15 p.m.
The battle for Surrey city council is almost over – and the Safe Surrey Coalition has dominated.
With 162 of 164 tabulators reporting back, Safe Surrey Coalition occupies all but one of the top eight spots on the ballot.
Harry Bains from Brenda Locke’s Surrey Connect slate remains atop the standings, with 31,060 votes.
He’s followed by a block of Safe Surrey Coalition candidates: Doug Elford, Meera Gill, Mandeep Singh, Suhana Gill, Allison Patton, Laurie Guerra and Cheney Cloke.
Cloke remains 156 votes ahead of Surrey First’s Mike Bose for the eighth and final council spot – a margin unlikely, but not impossible, to be overcome with just two tabulators left to report.
That would leave Beau Simpson as the sole Safe Surrey Coalition candidate to lose out on a council spot.
10:48 p.m.
The mayor’s race has been sewn up in Surrey, with Doug McCallum returning to office in a decisive victory, but council seats have yet to be decided – though, whatever happens, it’s clear McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition will dominate.
With 134 of 164 polls reporting, six of the eight top spots are occupied by Safe Surrey council candidates: Doug Elford in second, followed by Meera Gill, Mandeep Nagra, Suhana Gill and Allison Patton.
Surrey Connect’s Harry Bains is currently sitting atop the standings with 26,977 votes – the lone survivor from Brenda Locke’s slate.
Three candidates are currently sitting in a three-way race for the eighth and final council spot: Surrey First’s Mike Bose, currently at 22,560; Laurie Guerra of Safe Surrey, at 22,538; and Cheney Cloke of South Surrey, at 22,388.
10:12 p.m.
Doug McCallum is the hero of the hour at the Safe Surrey Coalition’s election night victory party.
The former mayor has returned in triumph, taking down incumbent Brenda Locke in a battle that ended up being less close than some had predicted – with McCallum claiming 33.39% of the vote to Locke’s 22.23%, with 111 of 164 tabulators reporting.
“I love Surrey, but I love the people of Surrey more,” he said, arriving on the banquet hall stage with his triumphant council candidates. “Together we’re going to build a great city.”
Meanwhile, Surrey First’s Linda Annis offered her congratulations to McCallum.
“While obviously I’m disappointed in the outcome of tonight’s election, I’m reminded that in a democratic society, the voter always has the last word, as it should be,” she said. “And tonight they have spoken and made their choice.”
Very quick few words from Surrey First’s @LindaAnnisBC who congratulates Doug McCallum for election as Surrey mayor. @SurreyNowLeader https://t.co/7CUxT5DfKD
— Tom Zillich (@TomZillich) October 18, 2026
10 p.m.
It’s not yet official, with 58 tabulators left to report back, but it’s decided: Doug McCallum, formerly the mayor of Surrey, will return to city hall – and likely with a large council majority.
Brenda Locke has conceded to McCallum as he pulls away in the polls.
Meanwhile, Mike Starchuk, who had vied for the mayor’s chair with Imagine Surrey, stepped up at his election night headquarters to offer gratitude.
“Thank you, Surrey. Thanks to the people behind me. It was an amazing campaign,” he said.
9:42 p.m.
The comeback of Doug McCallum and the dominance of his Safe Surrey Coalition is the story of the night for the Surrey civic election.
With 108 of 164 tabulators reporting back, McCallum’s lead is holding and widening. He stands at 27,206 votes (32.94%) to Brenda Locke’s 18,485 (22.38%).
Locke is now giving a concession speech at her party headquarters.
“The voters have truly spoken,” Locke said, thanking her volunteers, supporters and family while acknowledging the efforts of her team. “It has been the privilege of a lifetime. We did make progress in Surrey, great progress, on housing, on infrastructure, on public safety. …
“I will always love this city and remain committed to its success.”
Brenda Locke has conceded. Doug McCallum and Safe Surrey Coalition are dominant tonight in #surreybc https://t.co/mgZB6B3e02
— Surrey Now-Leader (@SurreyNowLeader) October 18, 2026
Locke told reporters she is proud of the work she and her team did and hopes that McCallum will continue on with some of that work.
Locke’s lone Surrey Connect teammate that seems poised for a council seat is Harry Bains, who currently sits in fourth in the race for eight council seats.
“It’s obviously not a good feeling,” a somewhat dejected Bains told the Now-Leader. “We’ll see how it goes, but it’s not the same when the team is not there.”
Bains said he would work to hold the next mayor and council accountable.
Safe Surrey Coalition council hopefuls continue to dominate the city council race, with Doug Elford now on top of the polls, followed by Meera Gill and Mandeep Singh, with teammates Suhana Gill, Allison Patton, Cheney Cloke and Laurie Guerra rounding out the top eight.
Linda Annis of Surrey First is in third at 10,461, followed by Mike Starchuk and Troy Van Vliet.
9:29 p.m.
The once-and-likely-future mayor of Surrey hasn’t spoken to the crowd yet at Bombay Banquet Hall, but it looks like Doug McCallum will in fact topple Brenda Locke.
With 91 of 164 tabulators reporting back, McCallum has widened his lead: 18,370 votes (32.52%) to Brenda Locke’s 12,652 (22.4%).
Mike Starchuk, Linda Annis and Troy Van Vliet follow at third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Annis is expected to speak soon at her election night HQ, where the mood is subdued.
The mood is exuberant at the Safe Surrey Coalition’s party at Bombay Banquet Hall, with a crowd full of cheers, whistles and applause as new tabulator reports show the slate’s lead holding and widening.
McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition continues to have six candidates sitting in the top eight spots: Doug Elford (in second spot), followed by Meera Gill, Mandeep Nagra and Suhana Gill and Allison Patton, with Cheney Cloke in eighth.
Surrey Connect’s Harry Bains continues to lead by a hair, with 12,725 votes to Elford’s 12,719.
Mike Bose is currently the lone Surrey First representative looking likely to be elected to council, sitting seventh at 11,045 votes.
9:19 p.m.
Surrey First Education continues to dominate the school board race, with 84 of 164 tabulators reporting.
Terry Allen, Garry Thind, Bob Holmes, Laurie Larsen, and Shawn Wilson occupy the top five spots in the six-person race, with Surrey Now’s Michelle Ceniza in sixth.
9:12 p.m.
It’s looking increasingly like Doug McCallum may return as mayor of Surrey, as his lead over Brenda Locke is widening.
With 84 of 164 tabulators reporting back, McCallum’s lead has widened to nearly 5,000 votes, with 16,477 votes (32.05%) to Brenda Locke’s 11,501 (22.37%).
The two front-runners remain well ahead of everyone else in the race, with Mike Starchuk at 6,615, Linda Annis at 6,498 and Troy Van Vliet at 6,157.
Honveer Singh Randhawa sits at 3,912, while Igal Ammons Il has just 246 votes.
McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition has six candidates currently sitting in the top eight spots – which would put them on council if their lead holds through the night: Doug Elford (in second spot), followed by Meera Gill, Mandeep Nagra and Suhana Gill, with Allison Patton in seventh and Cheney Cloke in eighth.
Only Harry Bains with Surrey Connect – who’s currently atop the polls at 11,560 votes – and Surrey First’s Mike Bose, in sixth, are currently breaking up the Safe Surrey dominance.
9:01 p.m.
And just like that, the lead has flipped.
Doug McCallum is sitting with 13,757 votes (30.91%) to Brenda Locke’s 10,091 (22.67%) – and the Bombay Banquet Hall has burst into cheers and applause.
The gap between the two frontrunners and everyone else has widened, with Linda Annis at 5,766, Mike Starchuk at 5,720 and Troy Van Vliet at 5,603.
The council results still show a mix of slates, with Surrey Connect’s Harry Bains now in the lead at 9,941 ahead of a trio of Safe Surrey hopefuls: Doug Elford at 9,652, Meera Gill at 9,384, Mandeep Nagra at 9,136.
Surrey First’s incumbents continue to dominate, with Terry Allen, Garry Thind, Bob Holmes, Laurie Larsen and Shawn Wilson in the top five spots. Michelle Ceniza of Surrey Now sits in sixth.
8:53 p.m.
Will Surrey First Education lose its stranglehold on school board?
So far, Surrey First Education incumbents are sitting atop the polls, with Terry Allen in the lead, followed by Laurie Larsen, Bob Holmes and Sean Wilson.
Only Michelle Ceniza, a newcomer with Surrey First, has cracked the top six so far.
Sitting on the bubble in sixth is Garry Thind – who, as we’ve reported, is also running for the Conservative Party of B.C. in Surrey-Guildford and who has asked people not to vote for him in the school board race. If he won, it could trigger a byelection if he also wins the MLA’s seat.
8:48 p.m.
First results are back, and incumbent mayor Brenda Locke has drawn first blood – 2,722 votes to Doug McCallum’s 2,414.
Linda Annis follows at 1,750, with Mike Starchuk at 1,735, Troy Van Vliet at 1,732 and Honveer Singh Randhawa at 672. Igal Ammons Il is at 61 votes.
Surrey First’s Mike Bose is currently atop the council standings, with slate-mate Janet Brown in fourth. Harry Bains and Gord Hepner hold second and third spots for Surrey Connect, with Doug Elford of Safe Surrey infifth, Rob Stutt of Surrey Connect in sixth, Debra Antifaev of Surrey First in seventh and Vera LeFranc of Surrey Connect in eighth.
8:31 p.m.
There’s optimism in the air at Imagine Surrey’s camp tonight.
Mayoral hopeful Mike Starchuk said he feels better than he did in 2018 and 2024 (both elections in which he was unsuccessful). He said when he heard there was a large voter turnout, he was happy because that usually means change.
Meanwhile, there’s a large crowd and a lot of buzz at the Bombay Banquet Hall, where Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition is holding their election night party.
The crowd is abuzz at the Bombay Banquet Hall, where Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition is holding their election night party. https://t.co/JRtPQt6WSl
— Surrey Now-Leader (@SurreyNowLeader) October 18, 2026
8:27 p.m.
Janet Brown, running in her first election after covering many as a broadcast journalist, has arrived at the Surrey First party.
“We have been campaigning for a year and door knocking since May. Collectively, our team has done over 60,000 door-knocks,” she said. “I myself have done close to 10,000, which is close to a full-time job. Door knocking is important because it’s important to listen to people at those doors, what they want to see for the City of Surrey. They told us they are concerned about public safety, they want to see more police officers, and they do not want to pay more property taxes, that’s what we heard. “
Another former journalist, former Now-Leader editor Beau Simpson, is also running as a council candidate in this election, with Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey team.
“”I’m excited. It’s very exciting. The voter turnout appears to have been really, really strong. I know advanced voting numbers were really strong. So, I think you know Surrey came out to vote and that’s exciting no matter what,” Simpson said.
8:22 p.m.
In a “Tale of Two Elections” moment, we’ve spotted CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko, who’s running for the Surrey South riding in the Oct. 24 provincial election, out at tonight’s civic election festivities.
She’s at the Surrey Connect party supporting incumbent mayor Brenda Locke.
Elenore Sturko, leader of CentreBC, at Surrey Connect HQ supporting her friend Brenda Locke. https://t.co/3C9Ge08jsN
— Tom Zytaruk (@tomzytaruk) October 18, 2026
8:10 p.m.
While we’re waiting a few candidates and supporters have started to trickle in to their various parties.
Over at the Safe Surrey Coalition gathering, candidate Meera Gill says she’s feeling very “excited, thankful, humbled.”
Mandeep Nagra, running again for council, has also arrived. “I’m feeling very positive. We’ll see,” he told our reporter. Council hopefuls Doug Elford, Allison Patton and Beau Simpson have arrived.
Mayoral contender Linda Annis has not yet arrived at her Surrey First slate’s party in South Surrey, where she’s expected to speak around 9 p.m.
Over at Team Brenda Locke’s Surrey Connect party, former Surrey mayor Linda Hepner has arrived to support her son Gord in his bid for re-election to council.
Watch https://t.co/2P6yyN4Vhq tonight for the latest from the election! Over at the Surrey Connect party with Team Brenda Locke, we’ve spotted former Surrey mayor Linda Hepner, cheering on her son Gord in his bid for re-election as councillor. https://t.co/lcOnVVMRvy
— Surrey Now-Leader (@SurreyNowLeader) October 18, 2026
8:05 p.m.
While we’re waiting for tonight’s results, let’s revisit Election Night 2022, which just happened to feature a face-off between two of tonight’s main contenders: Brenda Locke and Doug McCallum.
On Election Night in 2022, Locke beat incumbent mayor Doug McCallum by only 973 votes to take the city’s top job.
Surrey Now-Leader’s live reporting that night noted Locke won with 33,311 votes to McCallum’s 32,338. Gordie Hogg came in third with 24,916, followed by Jinny Sims (14,895) and Sukh Dhaliwal (9,629). Coming in the final three spots were Amrit Singh Birring (2,270), John Wolanski (646) and Kuldip Pelia (385).
Voter turnout was 34.54 per cent.
8:00 p.m.
And just like that … the polls are closed. Twelve hours after voting began this morning, polls are now closed in civic elections across B.C. (unless, of course, you happened to already be in line at 8 p.m.).
“We don’t actually end the voting until everyone who’s still queuing at 8 p.m. gets in and gets a chance to vote, so it can be a little later than 8 p.m. in practice, depending on how busy a particular voting place is,” Surrey’s chief election officer, Gib van Ert, explained to the Surrey Now-Leader in an earlier interview. “But once we’ve closed the poll and we can start tabulating, they can come in pretty quickly.”
We’ll be ready and waiting. Keep on watching!
I’m at @SurreyFirst2026 event at South Surrey Convention Centre (KGB and 148th), where mayor candidate @LindaAnnisBC and others will speak later. Election results and reaction here: https://t.co/LlBLMddvx0 @SurreyNowLeader https://t.co/e0rbthCCdt
— Tom Zillich (@TomZillich) October 18, 2026
7:20 p.m.
Forty minutes and counting, and the Surrey Now-Leader, Cloverdale Reporter and Peace Arch News teams have headed out to bring you the latest and greatest updates from candidate gatherings tonight.
Will Brenda Locke win again? Or will Surrey welcome a new mayor tonight? Stay tuned as we watch the races for mayor, council and school board. Watch this space.
7 p.m.
Just one more hour till the polls close in municipal elections across B.C. – and we’re just that much closer to finding out who’ll serve as Surrey’s next mayor, council and school board.
The Surrey Now-Leader, Cloverdale Reporter and Peace Arch News team is on the job for you tonight keeping track of the action as candidates and voters wait anxiously for results.
Seven candidates – Igal Ammons-Il with New Surrey+, Linda Annis with Surrey First, Brenda Locke with Surrey Connect, Doug McCallum with Safe Surrey Coalition, Honveer Singh Randhawa with the Surrey Conservatives, Mike Starchuk with Imagine Surrey, and Troy Van Vliet with Surrey Now – are in the race for mayor.
All seven are also fielding council candidates on their slates in a crowded 66-name ballot that also includes independents. Another 24 people are in the hunt for school board seats, representing the Surrey Now, Surrey First Education and Our Surrey slates, along with independents.
If you haven’t voted yet, check our our links to candidate questionnaires here.
And keep your eyes on this space – we’ll be reporting live from various campaign gatherings and providing you with regularly updated results as the returns come in.
By the end of the night (Oct. 17), voters will have chosen one mayor, eight city councillors and six school trustees.
Here’s to democracy, and let the fun begin.