Surrey ridings swing back to the NDP

By Michael Booth, Ted Colley, Brooke Larsen and Tom Zytaruk

Brar beats Libs' Hans

Memo to future Liberal MLA candidates in Surrey-Panorama Ridge: If you're up against the NDP's Jagrup Brar, steer clear of 12588 72nd Ave.

That was the address of Liberal hopeful Mary Polak's campaign office when Brar stomped her in the October byelection by 6,740 votes to 4,194.

Bob Hans, the latest Liberal to tangle with Brar - who set up his campaign office in Polak's old digs - went down to similar defeat Tuesday night.

Brar secured his riding with 8,721 votes with Hans coming in second with 7,248 votes, followed by Green candidate Romeo De La Pena with 1,182 votes and Troy Allan Chan, of the Marijuana Party, who received 217 votes.

The race between Brar and Hans looked fairly close for a stretch.

"We stomped him in the advance poll," said Steve McLurg, Brar's campaign manager

Brar said his win - and that of other NDP candidates in Surrey and Delta North - sends a strong message that Surrey was ignored by the Liberals over the past four years.

"This win is a very clear message that Gordon Campbell's extreme policies are not working for the people," he said.

"We're going to celebrate the victory."

Earlier in the night Hans and his supporters - a couple of hundred almost exclusively Indo-Canadian men - jammed into his campaign office to watch the returns on a huge screen.

"We've got to wait for a while," he told a Now reporter seeking comment. "We want to make sure we wait for awhile. We'll see how it goes. We have a good team, good supporters." He couldn't be reached after the final tally.

Brar, meantime, said it's "very clear" the election in his riding was won on the state of health care in Surrey.

"They have spoken very clearly," he said of the voters.

Locke loses to Hammell

One of Surrey's two provincial cabinet ministers went down to defeat Tuesday night as Brenda Locke lost her seat in Surrey-Green Timbers to NDP veteran Sue Hammell.

Just an hour after the polls closed at 8 p.m., the Minister of State for Mental Health and Addiction Services was on her way to Hammell's campaign headquarters to concede defeat.

Hammell was visibly nervous as she and her campaign workers watched early television numbers showing the Liberals pulling out a quick lead in a number of ridings.

"Oh, no. Look at that," she said.

"I'm not as optimistic as I was."

Just two weeks earlier, Hammell was supremely confident, saying every sign pointed to Green Timbers returning to the NDP fold. Now she and about 25 campaign workers sat quietly, watching television returns.

Soon, however, things started looking up for Hammell and the NDP. Despite her initial foreboding, Hammell's future seemed secure as polls in the riding began reporting.

Within an hour, more than one-third of them had reported with Hammell winning all but four. A trend was building, and Hammell was smiling again.

"A lot of people really got hurt by Liberal policies here. There's a big ethnic community, a lot of hospital workers in Green Timbers," she said.

Hammell's smile grew wider by the minute as returns not only increased her margin in Green Timbers, but showed the NDP elected or leading in 34 seats across B.C.

Locke's reaction to the same numbers was somewhat different.

"They're kicking our ass," she said to a campaign worker.

Earlier that evening, just after the polls closed, Locke said all the indicators had her losing the election in Green Timbers.

"When you look at these other ridings, it's obviously some kind of tide."

Ralston wins inner-city seat

Whalley fell to the New Democrats Tuesday as party veteran Bruce Ralston defeated both incumbent Elayne Brenzinger and Liberal Barbara Steele.

His victory was the cap on an NDP sweep of four Surrey ridings covering the ground from Panorama Ridge in the south to Bridgeview in the north.

Ralston said all parties realized Surrey would be a battleground this time out after Surrey-Panorama Ridge fell to the NDP in last year's byelection.

"Issues at Surrey Memorial Hospital brought out the strength of the concern about health care in Surrey and all through the province," Ralston said.

He noted Premier Gordon Campbell made four or five visits to Surrey during the election campaign and said that was a good indicator of just how worried the Liberals were about their hold on seats in the city.

In 2001, all seven Surrey ridings went to Campbell's party. On Tuesday, only three of them remained in Liberal hands.

"I think the people of Surrey rendered a very decisive verdict on Gordon Campbell's policies," Ralston said.

"We're back."

Brenzinger was elected as a Liberal, but quit the party to sit as an independent after a bizarre episode in which she accused a fellow caucus member of sexually groping her, then withdrew the charge.

Not long ago, she joined the freshly-minted Democratic Reform B.C. Party and was, until Tuesday, its only sitting member in the legislature.

Hayer triumphant

Liberal candidate Dave Hayer held on tight to the Surrey-Tynehead riding on Tuesday night.

The former Indo-Canadian Times publisher beat NDP candidate Barry Bell in a repeat of the 2001 election, when all but two NDP-ers were bounced out by the Liberals.

Hayer was expected to take the riding, but said he waited until the end of the night to celebrate.

"You can never be 100 per cent sure. I've worked hard for this win," said Hayer.

He said he'll be taking a hard look at transportation concerns in his riding before heading to Victoria.

"A lot of the people I talked to in the area care about transportation and the widening of Hwy 1, so that's what they can expect to see."

Hayer also said he'll focus on increasing health care spending in Surrey.

But for Hayer the win was tainted by the defeat of Liberal candidates in many ridings throughout the province.

"I'm very happy tonight, but I was sorry to see some of my colleagues, other (Liberal) candidates in the province didn't make it."

Bains said he would be celebrating with friends and family before heading downtown to join other Liberal candidates.

In the 2001 election Hayer received 12,525 votes, while Bell received 3,159. Exact election results for Tuesday's election were not available at the Now's press time.

Hogg beats NDP's Moh

For the third straight election, Surrey-White Rock has gone Hogg wild for the Liberals.

Incumbent Gordon Hogg cruised to another easy win, taking the riding by more than 7,000 votes over his nearest challenger, the NDP's Moh Chelali.

"It's both humbling and challenging when that kind of confidence is shown in you by the electorate," Hogg said. "It's a great responsibility and I feel a great sense of accountability to this community."

Hogg, 58, will represent the riding in Victoria for a third term.

On Tuesday night, voter dissatisfaction with the Liberal record - especially among senior citizens on the issue of health care - resulted in a somewhat stronger showing by the opposition.

NDP candidate Moh Chelali almost doubled his party's vote total in the riding from 2001. The Green Party slipped substantially from its second-place showing in 2001, with candidate Ashley Hughes placing a distant third.

Falcon wins

Kevin Falcon has accomplished something two previous Liberals were unable to do: return to Victoria as the re-elected MLA representing Surrey-Cloverdale

Falcon swooped to his second-consecutive win in the riding by capturing close to 60 per cent of the votes, numbers which tracked close to his margin of victory in 2001.

"It's a great honour to represent this riding again, Falcon said. "There are very good, hard-working folks who live in South Surrey and Cloverdale and they've given me the honour of representing them again."

NDP candidate Ted Allen placed second in the vote, but was pleased with the inroads made by his party in both the Cloverdale and the province.

"We did excellent overall and we took four out of the seven seats in Surrey," Allen said. "We put on a good campaign and did the best we could._ We'll be ready the next time around."

Falcon, a 42-year-old with a background in communications, served as the province's Minister of Transportation in the last Liberal government.

Bains wrestles seat from Olympian Igali

New Democrat Harry Bains took the gold medal in Surrey-Newton, defeating former Olympian Daniel Igali.

A triumphant Bains strode proudly into Surrey's Grand Taj banquet hall late Tuesday evening, as a crush of supporters shouted "Harry! Harry!"

The Surrey-Newton riding has a large population of visible minorities and was one of several throughout the province that swung toward the NDP in Tuesday's election.

Liberal Tony Bhullar won the seat in 2001, but chose not to run in this election.

Bains, a former union leader, said he was glad to see a strong NDP showing this time around.

"The people of B.C. are sending a strong message to the Liberals that their issues will not be ignored any longer," said Bains.

He said he wasn't worried about going up against star candidate Igali.

"I think the media had much more interest in that than the people of Surrey. People in this area have other important issues," Bains said.

"When I get to Victoria that's what I'm going to talk about."

The most important of these, he said, is health care.

"I knocked on doors throughout Surrey. There wasn't a house I knocked on where someone didn't share an experience about Surrey Memorial Hospital."

Igali received a thunderous welcome when he entered his campaign office early Tuesday evening, but the mood changed as the evening wore on.

"I'm disappointed, obviously," Igali told BCTV News on Global after hearing the results.

The Nigerian-born athlete said he was "very appreciative" of the support he received from the community.

"I have to extend my congratulations to Harry Bains for putting on a good campaign and I hope he works hard for the people of Surrey."

Igali said competing athletically is a "different game completely" from a political campaign.

"It's strategy. It's teamwork. I have to say, my team couldn't have done any better."

Gentner slips by Kanakos

Delta councillor Guy Gentner reclaimed Delta North for the socialists Tuesday night, defeating Liberal candidate Jeannie Kanakos by 10,243 votes to 9,307 following what for most of the night could only be described as a squeaker.

Gentner said he felt "numb" earlier in the evening but seemed mellow most of the evening, even towards the end when he was "confident" of certain victory.

"We stayed away from the negative campaign," he told the Now. "I feel good."

John Hague of the Green Party came in a distant third with 1,662 votes, followed by John Shavluk of the Marijuana Party with 218 votes and David Andrew Wright of the British Columbia Party with 185 votes.

Gentner said the story for North Delta is that the Green vote collapsed. "That's what happened, yep." He couldn't be reached after the final tally.

Kanakos was a gracious loser.

"I'm very proud of our effort," she said. "It was a nailbiter right up to the end.

"I'm tired and at a bit of a loss for words, to be honest," she said shortly before midnight Tuesday.

She wished Gentner well and praised her opponents for running a "very respectful, clean race."

Earlier in the evening Reni Masi, the former Liberal MLA for Delta North, said the night brought back memories.

"Oh, it sure does, I've been through a few of these," he said, as Kanakos and Gentner were still running neck-and-neck. "Things are looking good provincially and I think when our polls start coming through it's going to look good here, too. I think we'll win this riding, I really do."

posted on 05/18/2005