Doug McCallum isn\u2019t the mayor of Surrey and doesn\u2019t hold an elected position, but he put out a press release this morning claiming that he is \u201crunning\u201d the city.<\/p>\n
McCallum, who was previously Surrey\u2019s mayor<\/a> before he was defeated by Brenda Locke in 2022, is taking another mayoral run this year<\/a>. Today, he\u00a0claimed that Locke had copied one of his ideas.<\/p>\n On May 21, he put out his Surrey Recreation for All plan,\u00a0which included free swimming classes for kids. On May 24, Surrey City Council pushed a motion forward to introduce free swimming classes for youth. According to the press release, Locke \u201cinsulted the very people whose voice she had just copied.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBrenda Locke called Surrey families sideline voices. Then she copied a plan from one of those sideline voices four days later,\u201d McCallum said in the release.<\/p>\n \u201cBrenda Locke has had four years to lead. She has delivered nothing. She has no ideas of her own. She has no vision for Surrey,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe only ideas on her agenda this week were mine. That is not a mayor. That is a follower with a council seat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am not the mayor, and I am still running this city.\u201d<\/p>\n Daily Hive spoke with current Surrey City Councillor and mayoral candidate Linda Annis.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems petty to me,\u201d she said, speaking about the release.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rivalry between Doug McCallum and Brenda Locke has been long-standing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think the idea around the swimming lessons is a great idea. It doesn\u2019t matter whose idea it is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly, Doug isn\u2019t running City Hall from the sidelines, I would say that. I would also say that not much has been done in the last four years. There\u2019s been a lot of fighting about the police transition. And I think we need to put politics aside, and we need to do what\u2019s right for the city and the residents.\u201d<\/p>\n Annis said that Mayor Locke had been focused on the police transition without getting much done during her term.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, all of a sudden, all these ideas are coming out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When Daily Hive asked Mayor Locke for her response to McCallum\u2019s release, she said that their council believes \u201ccost should not stand in the way of learning an essential life skill like swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis initiative builds on Surrey\u2019s ongoing investments in pools, recreation services and water safety. At the same time, demand for recreation and swimming services is increasing, and we are committed to making investments that will serve our community for years to come. That\u2019s why we\u2019re adding to Surrey\u2019s eight free outdoor pools and five indoor pools by building a new recreation centre in Newton.\u201d<\/p>\n The municipal election will be held on Oct. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug McCallum isn\u2019t the mayor of Surrey and doesn\u2019t hold an elected position, but he put out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-698421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}