ZYTARUK: SkyTrain extension named after Dave Barrett, of course<\/p>\n
Published 3:27 pm Tuesday, September 15, 2026<\/p>\n
As a cub reporter decades ago I covered an NDP night rally at a pizza hall in PoCo where Dave Barrett, a former NDP premier, was holding court. During his speech he rolled up a copy of the Globe and Mail newspaper and made like he was wiping his undercarriage with it.<\/p>\n
A classy act.<\/p>\n
This past March, Surrey Councillor Linda Annis suggested that a SkyTrain station be named after former mayor Doug McCallum, a rival politician.<\/p>\n
After all, expanding the SkyTrain Expo Line from King George Station east into Langley was a key plank in his Safe Surrey Coalition\u2019s successful election campaign in 2018.<\/p>\n
If anyone deserves the honour, it\u2019s him. Can anyone deny this expansion was McCallum\u2019s baby?<\/p>\n
And yet, he declined, explaining that the decision to move forward with the project wasn\u2019t about any one individual but rather \u201cabout the long-term interests of Surrey residents.\u201d There was dignity in his response.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s harken back to Barrett, a Coquitlam MLA who was B.C.\u2019s premier from 1972 to 1975 and whose big claim to fame was bringing us ICBC. Yay.<\/p>\n
On September 15, the provincial NDP government announced it would name not just a station but the entire 16-kilometre Surrey-Langley SkyTrain line the Dave Barrett Extension. <\/p>\n
Why? \u201cDave Barrett spent his life fighting for ordinary people,\u201d our current NDP Premier David Eby started in a press release.<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly Barrett did, as have many before and after him.<\/p>\n
Not to mention, he\u2019s an NDP icon\u2026<\/p>\n
Construction of the Expo line was conceived in 1985 to celebrate the legacy of Expo 86. Not on Barrett\u2019s watch. And which former NDP premier Mike Harcourt opposed.<\/p>\n
My intention is not to deny Barrett his legacy but rather to point out the NDP\u2019s penchant to glorify its own as witnessed by this latest move, and naming the Site C dam on the Peace River the John Horgan Dam and Generating Station despite Horgan having opposed the project before relenting.<\/p>\n
My point is that whereas McCallum decided the SkyTrain expansion wasn\u2019t about him, the NDP decided it\u2019s about them.<\/p>\n
The term vainglorious comes to mind.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next? Renaming the Douglas border crossing (aka Peace Arch crossing) the Tommy Douglas border crossing?<\/p>\n
Call them Tommy Douglas Firs instead?<\/p>\n
How about changing Whistler\u2019s name to Svend?<\/p>\n
Jug Island to Jagmeet Island? <\/p>\n
Maybe correct Surrey\u2019s name to \u201cEby City?\u201d <\/p>\n
Goodness jeepers, make every parent in B.C. name their first-born Karl?<\/p>\n
Could it happen?<\/p>\n
You be the judge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZYTARUK: SkyTrain extension named after Dave Barrett, of course Published 3:27 pm Tuesday, September 15, 2026 As a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-897293","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\/897293","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=897293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}