Four candidates have announced bids in Surrey-White Rock for the Oct. 24 B.C. election

Four candidates have announced plans to run in Surrey-White Rock in the provincial election on Oct. 24. Incumbent Conservative MLA Trevor Halford is seeking another term. The BC NDP has named former White Rock mayor Darryl Walker, while Christine Kinnie has registered with Elections BC as the BC Green Party candidate. Former Surrey journalist Kevin Diakiw has announced he will run as an independent. As of Friday morning, Oct. 2, no candidate was listed for the riding under the CentreBC Party.

Halford defeated Walker in the 2024 provincial election, winning 52.3 per cent of the vote and finishing 1,969 votes ahead. Walker received 45.3 per cent of the riding’s vote. Halford said he hopes to continue work he has done over the past several years. He also said the NDP government must be stood up to, and criticized the timing of a provincial election during a municipal election, saying the government and premier showed disrespect for people running for municipal office.

Walker outlined his reasons for running in a BC NDP release issued Thursday. He said that, as White Rock’s mayor, he saw how government decisions affect people’s daily lives, and that he spent years advocating for working people as a union leader. He said he is running with the BC NDP to help build affordable homes, strengthen public health care and protect services families rely on.

Diakiw, an award-winning journalist, left journalism in 2017 and moved into addiction and recovery work. He is now a local business owner. In 2017, the Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society named him a “Hero of the Homeless” for reporting that helped residents understand homelessness and the people affected by it. In a release, Diakiw said that for more than 20 years as a journalist he asked how government decisions affected people in Surrey. He said his recovery work has given him a ground-level view of systems involving mental health, addiction, treatment and recovery.

Diakiw said addiction and recovery reform will be a central campaign focus. He also cited emergency-room wait times, access to family doctors, public safety, housing and affordability. He said he is running as an independent because he answers to the people of Surrey-White Rock, not a party, after spending much of his life listening to people in Surrey and White Rock.

Kinnie, a South Surrey resident who works in the Surrey School District, said her family has deep roots in the community: her great-grandparents lived on a small farm in Ocean Park, and her grandparents lived in White Rock. She said Surrey-White Rock deserves representation that reflects residents’ values rather than the interests of corporations or the ultra-wealthy. Kinnie said the BC Green Party has no party whip, allowing its MLAs to use their own judgment and vote according to their values and constituents’ needs rather than a party line. She also said the party has consistently defended DRIPA as written and opposed efforts to weaken or repeal it.