By R. Paul Dhillon
Surrey’s elections results Saturday night were shocking for many, especially for those who spent a lot of money, time and energy only to see Surrey First run away with it with a clean sweep of mayor, council and school board positions.
The results were shocking for only one reason – that it wasn’t even a fight after polls predicted a close race.
As is the case with most elections and more true for civic elections that really impact you where you live – it’s time for the winners and their supporters to bask in the glory while the losers really weep or in the case some go begging to the winners to take them back and saying “SORRY” a thousand times for not supporting them.
In the case of the large Indo-Canadian-South Asian community in Surrey, there was more than the usual fervor for the civic polls as each mayoral candidate had their own coterie of supporters and backers. But the big power players in the Indo-Canadian community were either in the corners of Doug McCallum, aka Doug Paaji, or Linda Hepner, who had the help of federal and provincial Liberals responsible for the upset win of Peter Fassbender, who is currently the Education Minister.
At the end, Linda’s backers from the Indo-Canadian community came out looking like Gold as they now have their whole team at the helm of Surrey. Now that doesn’t mean that they are all that powerful as governments out here are not run like they are in India and even backers have only so much leeway with their elected party members but still they do wield a hammer that will mean tough going for their opponents who want things done in Surrey, especially the always vocal development and construction community.
This is how it works. Winners rule and losers usually go home but if you are smart and kept your distance from any party baazi then you are still safe as you will get things done and not a pay price.
