Switching over to a ward system in Surrey might have to go to a referendum<\/p>\n
Published 4:16 pm Thursday, October 22, 2026<\/p>\n
During the civic election campaign Doug McCallum committed to restoring a ward electoral system in this city. That was on October 2.<\/p>\n
But it won\u2019t be like flipping a switch.<\/p>\n
A ward system divvies up the city into neighbourhoods with a council member representing one of these electoral regions, much like an MLA or MP represents their particular riding.<\/p>\n
Such a system was used in these parts from before 1879 up until 1957, when the provincial government put an end to it in favour of the \u201cat-large\u201d voting system we have today in which voters elect a mayor, councillors and school trustees city-wide. Mayors are still typically voted in city-wide under a ward system.<\/p>\n
McCallum said during the election campaign that a city with a population of 730,000 deserves a council that neighbourhoods elect. The plan is to have an independent commission draw up eight neighbourhood wards of similar population size so each community elects its own councillor with the result being that residents knows exactly who answers to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is how every big city in this country works, and it is how Surrey worked for 76 years before Victoria took it away,\u201d McCallum said during the campaign, pointing out that Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Winnipeg use the ward system, McCallum points out, and notes that Surrey\u2019s six town centres are each the size \u201cof a city on its own, with different needs and different priorities.<\/p>\n
In September 2020, when he was last mayor, council had asked city staff to prepare a report considering a transition toward a ward system after council approved a related motion from Safe Surrey Coalition Councillor Doug Elford.<\/p>\n
Elford lamented at that time that the current first-past-the-post system has led to slate politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurrey is ripe for wards,\u201d he argued. \u201cWe\u2019re a city of distinct neighbourhoods separated geographically. I believe a ward system will enable community leaders a better opportunity to get elected to council. A majority of large cities across Canada have a ward system in place for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, Elford told the Now-Leader this past week, the issue was overshadowed by city\u2019s the transition to the Surrey Police Service from the Surrey RCMP, which consumed so much staff time. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of put in abeyance. I was hoping that we could address it in the next session but of course Brenda (Locke, former mayor) got elected and she was opposed to it, so I knew it wouldn\u2019t go anywhere and I didn\u2019t want to beat that drum. But mayor-elect McCallum has indicated we would consider a ward system. This election, with all those 66 names on the ballot, it was a very confusing ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The newly elected council\u2019s inaugural meeting will be on November 2, with the SSC occupying eight of nine seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly I will be lobbying for us to address it sooner rather than later, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Elford said. \u201cIt\u2019ll probably have to come to the people \u2013 the public \u2013 for a vote because that\u2019s what the Province will probably want, right.<\/p>\n
Could it be ready for the next civic election, four years down the road?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll probably have to hold a referendum so you can speculate. It might be eight years down the road \u2013 it\u2019s not a short term thing. We have to look at the legislation and see if we can turn it around quick or not, then there\u2019s a lot of work for staff too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Switching over to a ward system in Surrey might have to go to a referendum Published 4:16 pm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-942639","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\/942639","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=942639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}