\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tANALYSIS\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
The fastest growing city in BC became a battle ground after years of neglect of city infrastructure and services.<\/p>\n
by Rumneek Johal, Executive Editor<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 28, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The BC Conservatives secured a decisive victory this past weekend, sweeping much of the Lower Mainland and all ten ridings in Surrey.<\/p>\n
While the victory means a number of new and returning Conservative MLAs in the legislature \u2014 some with controversial<\/a> and questionable<\/a> views \u2014 many are wondering what changes are to be expected from the party\u2019s first 100 days in office.<\/p>\n Doerkson himself has said provincial finances, a pipeline<\/a> and repealing DRIPA<\/a> are priorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n But in Surrey, constituents are expecting transformative changes to make up for what has felt like years of neglect across a number of policy areas, said Mohkam Singh Malik, member of Surrey\u2019s Liveability, Social Equity and Public Safety Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason why Surrey flipped has nothing to do with ideology or one single person. It more so has to do with the kind of visceral frustration that the community was feeling,\u201d Malik told PressProgress.<\/p>\n \u201cI would count myself among those voices to say, \u2018hey, you promised us a lot and we haven\u2019t seen anything.\u2019 Even though the NDP were matching all of the Conservative promises, kind of promise for promise, they weren\u2019t seeing any traction.\u201d<\/p>\n Four ridings in Surrey were previously strong BC NDP ridings: Surrey-City Centre, Surrey-Newton, Surrey-Guildford, and Surrey-Fleetwood.<\/p>\n During the campaign, Doerkson made big promises for the city, including building an additional skytrain to Newton, completing the Cloverdale Hospital, building a women\u2019s hospital and creating a 10-lane George Massey bridge to replace the tunnel \u2014 scrapping the NDP\u2019s plan for an eight-lane replacement tunnel.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Malik pointed out that Surrey, despite being BC\u2019s fastest growing city<\/a>, is often left behind in terms of public infrastructure and services when compared to other parts of BC.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c9 in 10 Vancouver residents have access to transit within 10 minutes of where they live. But it\u2019s 25%, so 3 and 10 if you round up, in Surrey,\u201d Malik said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the BCNDP, construction began on a number of public works projects in the city. The Cloverdale hospital and cancer centre, which broke ground in 2023,<\/a>\u00a0 is expected to be completed in 2030. It will be Surrey\u2019s second hospital. Neighbouring Vancouver currently has six hospitals.<\/p>\n The Surrey-Langley skytrain has also begun construction<\/a> and Simon Fraser University\u2019s School of Medicine, located in Surrey city centre, was completed and welcomed its first students this year.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0While the NDP has made leeway in building new schools in the province<\/a>, public school teachers say that more investment is needed into public education<\/a>, particularly in Surrey, where there are still over 300 portables.<\/a><\/p>\n Malik pointed out that if there was equity in terms of services in Surrey compared to other parts of the province, the city wouldn\u2019t have been such a pivotal provincial battle ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an electoral issue because you [the government] feel we can go without,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started talking about healthcare, and we started talking about portables, and we started talking about insurance \u2014 if you don\u2019t do something about it, you\u2019re going to have to fall on your sword,\u201d Malik said.<\/p>\n Surrey often isn\u2019t on the radar of politicians until elections roll around, and Malik said that in order to earn the continued support of Surrey residents, elected officials need to live up to big promises and contribute to people having \u201cpride in place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe like living here and we worked hard to. A majority of Surrey residents are homeowners, so you work hard to live in your own home. Yet when you say \u2018I\u2019m from Surrey,\u2019 someone winces, and that is not something that politicians are looking to solve right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Malik said what remains to be seen is if the party actually follows through, or if Surrey gets left behind once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur city is growing to where we want it to be, and I think that\u2019s one of the reasons people bought into Doug McCallum\u2019s global city message<\/a>, because they were like, \u2018Yeah, I want to be proud of where I live.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Our journalism is powered by readers like you.<\/p>\n We\u2019re an award-winning non-profit news organization that covers topics like social and economic inequality, big business and labour, and right-wing extremism.<\/p>\n Help us build so we can bring to light stories that don\u2019t get the attention they deserve from Canada\u2019s big corporate media outlets.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n