Surrey school board candidate Garry Thind remains on civic ballot after entering B.C. election

Garry Thind is shifting his focus from Surrey’s civic election to the provincial campaign. He has been announced as the Conservative Party of B.C.’s candidate for MLA in Surrey-Guildford for the Oct. 24 provincial election. He was already running for Surrey school board trustee in the Oct. 17 civic election and had served as the board’s vice-chair before campaigning for trustee.

B.C. NDP leader David Eby called the snap election on Sept. 22, several days after the Sept. 18 deadline to withdraw from the municipal race. Thind said that timing means he cannot withdraw from the school board contest. “Running for two positions was not my choice,” he said, adding that voters who do not want him elected can choose any other six candidates. There are 24 school trustee candidates in the district.

Candidates may run in both elections. If someone is elected to a provincial office and a civic position, the provincial position takes precedence and a byelection is required to replace the municipal candidate. After a municipality’s civic withdrawal deadline—which was Sept. 18 in most B.C. communities—a candidate cannot withdraw independently. They must ask the city’s chief electoral officer to send a withdrawal request to the province; the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs may approve or reject it.

Former White Rock mayoral candidate Megan Knight succeeded in her request to the province and withdrew from that race to run for the Conservative Party of B.C. in Surrey South. Thind said Knight and the city must have been able to appeal before ballots were printed. He said several candidates across the province who had intended to run provincially after seeking municipal office may now be unable to do so.

Thind said education has always mattered to him, and that 12 years of experience with the Surrey school board have prepared him for provincial office, where he believes he could do more. If elected MLA, he said, education would remain a priority. He also wants to address other issues he says the NDP has “completely neglected,” including illicit drugs and overdoses, extortion threats, housing and affordability.

Thind said he has a record of delivering and is deeply involved in the community, both within the Indo-Canadian community and more broadly, where he attends events and listens to people’s concerns. He also leads a non-profit organization that, he said, has raised $5.4 million since 2002 to help people with physical and mental disabilities and operates with “zero administration cost.”

Thind said he believes the main reason B.C.’s economy has “gone down the drain” is the NDP government’s policies. He said those policies need to be fixed, adding that applying new taxes alone will not solve the problem and that the provincial government should find ways to generate more income.