Re-elected Surrey school trustee could trigger byelection if he wins MLA seat

School trustee candidate Garry Thind urged voters not to vote for him in Surrey’s Oct. 17 civic election. His name appeared on the ballot as an incumbent with Surrey First Education, but he finished second among trustee candidates with 43,900 votes.

Thind is also the Conservative Party candidate in Surrey-Guildford in the current B.C. election. If he wins both elections, a byelection could be triggered for his school trustee seat. Before the civic election, he said he had entered the year’s Surrey school board race intending to serve another full four-year term. He said David Eby and the NDP then called a provincial election two years early, calling the move “cynical” and “opportunistic.” Because the Sept. 18 withdrawal deadline had passed, he said his name would remain on the trustee ballot. “So I want to be clear: I am not seeking re-election to the Surrey Board of Education,” he said.

On final voting day, Oct. 17, the surreyfirsteducation.com website listed Thind as “seeking re-election as a Trustee with the Surrey School Board.” A post that day on the Surrey First Education Facebook page also continued to include him in its candidate list.

Thind responded to a Now-Leader interview request on Monday with a WhatsApp message. “While I made it clear to voters that I was no longer seeking to serve as a school trustee, I’m humbled by the support,” he wrote. He added that the province was in trouble after nearly a decade of what he called disastrous NDP government, and that he believed his most important contribution would be serving in the provincial legislature.

The Surrey-Guildford riding is currently represented by BC NDP MLA Garry Begg, who won the seat in 2024 by a razor-thin margin over Conservative challenger Honveer Singh Randhawa. Randhawa is now running for Surrey mayor in the civic election.

A section of B.C.’s Eligibility to Hold Public Office Act says a person who is an MLA is disqualified from holding local elected office. It further states that if someone holding local elected office becomes an MLA, they are conclusively deemed to have resigned that local office on the date the writ of election was issued for the electoral district in which they were elected.