(Some) Surrey parties didn’t follow election rules: Starchuk

Imagine Surrey and mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk are calling on Mayor Brenda Locke, ex-mayor Doug McCallum, and Coun. Linda Annis to explain their parties’ records on the first test of public trust: following the rules on money. 

Elections BC fined all three parties for contravening the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act in the 2022 election. The penalties were issued on Feb. 26, 2025, closing investigations that Elections BC announced in April 2024.

According to Elections BC, Surrey Connect Public Interest Association, Brenda Locke’s party, was fined $1,350 for accepting prohibited contributions. Surrey First Electors Society, whose mayoral candidate is now Linda Annis, saw its financial agent fined $750 for accepting prohibited contributions. The largest penalties went to Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition Society: its financial agent was fined $4,630 for accepting prohibited contributions, and the society itself was fined a further $2,413 for incurring election expenses before it had registered. Across the three old parties, the penalties total $9,143.

Only a B.C. resident who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident can contribute to a local campaign, organizations cannot give at all, and in 2022 nobody could give more than $1,250 to a party and its endorsed candidates combined.

“I trained in law enforcement at the Justice Institute, and I run a small business. In both worlds you learn quickly that the rules on money matter a lot,” said Imagine Surrey council candidate Chandan Chahal. “The rules were the same for everyone in 2022. Every one of the old parties broke them anyway, and Elections BC had to step in. If a party can’t keep its own campaign books straight, why would Surrey trust it with the city’s?”