Leaders focus on crucial Surrey ridings as B.C. election nears<\/p>\n
Published 4:29 pm Friday, October 23, 2026<\/p>\n
With 10 ridings up for grabs, including at least seven potential swing districts, both the NDP and Conservative leaders hit the campaign trail in Surrey in the days leading up to B.C. election day.<\/p>\n
B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson held a raucous rally in the Surrey-Newton riding in front of hundreds of fired-up supporters.<\/p>\n
Several local political heavyweights attended, including newly elected mayor Doug McCallum and former mayors Linda Hepner and Dianne Watts. Former premier Christy Clark was also there.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverywhere we have been, it has been unbelievable,\u201d Doerkson said, firing up the throng that surrounded and dwarfed him on a stage set up in the centre of a warehouse. \u201cThe absolute best crowds we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many experts believe control of the government will come down to how Surrey votes. In 2024, it was the same. The NDP\u2019s Garry Begg won the pivotal Surrey-Guildford riding by just 22 votes, giving his party a one-seat majority in the legislature.<\/p>\n
Eby acknowledged the area\u2019s importance during a Friday-morning campaign stop, pointing out that Surrey is B.C.\u2019s largest city and calling it the \u201ceconomic engine\u201d of the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the promise is there, but so are all of the challenges,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re fast growing, infrastructure gets strained. Health care gets strained, schools get strained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several attendees at Doerkson\u2019s rally said health care is their number one issue. And his pledge to build a new women\u2019s and children\u2019s hospital got one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night. <\/p>\n
Supporter Harveer Grewal complained about the wait times for care at the Surrey Memorial Hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re waiting 10 to 14 hours for a doctor, how is that OK?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Davinder Kura also pegged health care as his top issue, for similar reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople, they are suffering waiting in the emergency room,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning, Eby gave his pitch for why he thinks his party is the better choice to deal with these issues, even after nine years trying to solve them already. He started by listing recent new developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew urgent primary care centres in Surrey, new CAT scanner at Surrey Memorial Hospital, new cardiac path lab at Surrey Memorial Hospital, new triage at Surrey Memorial Hospital, new Acute Care Tower at Surrey Memorial Hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cI could go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says Conservative plans for a new women\u2019s and children\u2019s hospital are uncosted and unrealistic. He also blamed former premier Clark for selling land set aside for a new Surrey hospital in 2014, which delayed development of the current project in the Cloverdale area.<\/p>\n
Another huge round of applause was heard when Doerkson promised a Conservative government would repeal the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) in schools framework.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to get our grades up in school, and we are going to repeal SOGI,\u201d Doerkson said.<\/p>\n
Eby says the Conservatives\u2019 SOGI statements are furthering misinformation. Nevertheless, in response to worried parents, he says his government has rewritten anti-bullying materials and created new pathways for parents to bring concerns to school boards.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny parent that has a concern about an inappropriate or age-inappropriate teaching material that\u2019s in the school can bring that concern directly to the school board,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the school board can make a decision about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On these issues and others, Conservative candidates hope Surrey residents have enough appetite for change to vote blue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the excitement in the room here today says it all,\u201d said Harman Bhangu, the incumbent Conservative candidate for nearby Langley-Abbotsford. \u201cSurrey is looking for change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders focus on crucial Surrey ridings as B.C. election nears Published 4:29 pm Friday, October 23, 2026 With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[903,49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-943927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943927","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=943927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}