Surrey candidate on school ballot: Don’t vote for me in civic election. Here’s why
Published 1:25 pm Saturday, October 17, 2026
Don’t vote for me in the Surrey civic election Oct. 17.
That’s the message from school trustee candidate Gary Thind, whose name is on the ballot as an incumbent with Surrey First Education.
Meantime, in the current B.C. election, Thind is the Conservative Party candidate in Surrey-Guildford.
If Thind wins both elections, a by-election could be triggered for his school trustee seat, and nobody would want that.
“I entered this year’s Surrey school board election intending to server another full four-year term as a trustee,” Thind stated.
“Then David Eby and the NDP called a provincial election two years early. It’s a cynical, opportunistic move, and the timing means my name will stay on the school trustee ballot, because the September 18 withdrawal deadline had already passed.
“So I want to be clear: I am not seeking re-election to the Surrey Board of Education.”
On final election day Oct. 17, the surreyfirsteducation.com website listed Thind as “seeking re-election as a Trustee with the Surrey School Board.”
The Surrey-Guildford riding is currently held by BC NDP’s Garry Begg, who won the seat in 2024 by a razor-thin margin over Conservative challenger Honveer Singh Randhawa, now running for Surrey mayor in the civic election.
A section of B.C.’s Eligibility to Hold Public Office Act says a person who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly is disqualified from holding a local elected office.
Further, “if a person who holds a local elected office becomes a member of the Legislative Assembly, despite the Act under which the local elected office is held, the person is conclusively deemed to have resigned that local elected office on the date the writ of election for the electoral district for which the person is elected.”