Surrey voters will choose a mayor, eight councillors and six school trustees on Oct. 17

Surrey’s municipal election is on Oct. 17. Voters will choose one mayor, eight city councillors and six school trustees. The Surrey Now-Leader, Peace Arch News and Cloverdale Reporter sent questionnaires to candidates, using the same word limits and response deadlines for everyone. Candidates supplied the information in the linked responses. Candidates running on slates are grouped by slate, in alphabetical order by the mayoral candidate’s last name, followed by independent council and school board candidates.

Mayoral candidates are Igal Ammons-II (New Surrey+), Linda Annis (Surrey First), Brenda Locke (Surrey Connect), Doug McCallum (Safe Surrey Coalition), Honveer Singh Randhawa (Conservative Party of Surrey), Mike Starchuk (Imagine Surrey) and Troy Van Vliet (Surrey NOW).

Council candidates are Debra Antifaev, Mike Bose, Janet Brown, Bilal Cheema, Jasroop Gosal, Gagan Nahal, Clint Stewart and Shina Vermani (Surrey First); Harry Bains, Michael Dunn, Gordon Hepner, Pardeep Kooner, Vera LeFranc, Rob Stutt, Rona Tepper and Noemi Victorino (Surrey Connect); Cheney Cloke, Doug Elford, Meera Gill, Suhana Gill, Laurie Guerra, Mandeep Singh Nagra, Allison Patton and Beau Simpson (Safe Surrey Coalition); Ricky Bajwa, Dan B., Carlos Mehnaz Javed, Cordel Pullar, Harkirat Singh Sidhu, Manu Sharma, Calvin Vanderploeg and Donna Wu (Conservative Electors Association, Surrey); Yousef Aldabainah, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Narima Dela Cruz, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Margaret Mubanda and Kevin Wilkie (Imagine Surrey); Gail Beszedes, Ollivor Dickson, Jesse Johl, Rahul Gill, Enrique Ponce De Leon, Dr. Werner Spangehl and James Yu (Surrey NOW). No questionnaire was received from Yu. New Surrey+ candidates are Leanna Chatwin, Messia Ditshimba, Chris Hoffman, Ian de Hoog, Emily Kennedy, Matthew Smed, Lily Tsi and Grace Ziegler.

The Surrey Now-Leader’s editor’s note says its council questionnaire was sent to New Surrey+ slate candidates through mayoral candidate Igal Ammons II. He replied, “Our council speaks with one voice. What one tells you is the same the other will say in his or her own words.” No biographies were provided. The outlet linked to the slate’s submitted group answers.

Independent city council candidates are Intikhab Ahmed, Lisa Dawn, Alexis Philip Carless, Isaac Daniel, Youssef Khattab, Jimmy Rico, Tom Said, Miguel Ting, Vik Uppal, Mila Wong-Kabush and Salman Zafar.

School trustee candidates are Terry Allen, Bob Holmes, Laurie Larsen, Garry Thind, Gary Tymoschuk and Shawn Wilson (Surrey First Education); John Banovich, Dr. Michelle Ceniza, Rohit D’Silva, Vanessa Gilera, Dr. Vincent Tighe and Venson Wang (Surrey NOW); Kyle Jones, Vick Karan, Dean McGee and Anne Whitmore (Our Surrey); and Harjit Bhullar, Amrit Birring, Gurleen K Chahal, Noor Cheema, Gary B. Hee, Meena Kochher, Ghulam Mujtaba and Afzalur Rahman (independent). No questionnaire was received from Wilson, Tighe, Bhullar or Chahal. The source notes that Thind is now running as the B.C. Conservative candidate in Surrey-Guildford.

Advance voting is scheduled for Oct. 7, 10, 14 and 15, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 10 locations across the city. General voting is Saturday, Oct. 17, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; voters may use any of the 52 locations across the city. Voters will receive a voter card and should bring it to the polls on election day with one piece of identification. People not already registered must bring two acceptable pieces of identification showing their identity and place of residence; one must have the voter’s signature. Details are at the City of Surrey’s election page, surrey.ca/election.