SURREY – Wards in Surrey will be a reality if Doug McCallum, Barinder Rasode or Vikram Bajwa are elected mayor on Saturday with Linda Hepner probably on the fence but most likely will not carry through on bringing the ward system to Surrey
Surrey resident Shan Rana has long supported the Ward system already in place in many Canadian cities and he is glad to finally see that something will be done to break the monopoly of political parties that dominate civic slates.
Rana is not sitting around but taking action himself to break the monopoly that hijacks municipal elections results thru at-large voting system.
“I’m going to be challenged the at-large system in the Supreme Court of British Columbia next Monday as I am filing the case,” he said in a press release.
Rana says: “At-large system by its very nature is constitutional under the Charter of Rights Section 15.
“The system befitted earlier communities — villages or small towns. For large towns and cities only wards make sense to represent local voice in the Council.
“Mainstream community has power to keep any ethnic candidate out, even if one is on a slate.
“Indo-Canadians make up 33% of the 463,000 Surrey population can make history on their own if their vote is cast in favour of those who have announced their pro-wards such as Doug McCallum and his team.
“Voting for any candidate is your right but why not support pro-ward council candidates. I have a feeling if Linda Hepner loses some successful council candidates on her team may go pro-ward,” Rana wrote.
Virtually every other large city in Canada outside B.C. has wards. In Ontario, which just had a municipal election, most cities of any significant size, such as Kingston or St. Catharines, have wards, reported the Surrey Leader.
Doug McCallum’s proposal calls for four larger wards with two councillors each. Barinder Rasode favours a hybrid system, with some councillors elected at large and some in wards.
Linda Hepner of Surrey First is the most lukewarm towards wards, but she is prepared to put the issue to referendum in 2018
