Surrey Coun. Linda Annis is running for mayor because she says Mayor Brenda Locke and her city council majority wasted time and taxpayers' money fighting over the police force that could have been better spent elsewhere.
A few dozen supporters joined Annis, the two-term Surrey First councillor, in a Surrey hotel ballroom Wednesday to where she shared her platform for a mayoral bid in fall 2026.
"The mayor and her councillors have wasted this four-year term focusing on just one single issue: the police transition. They have wasted time and millions of dollars, and they have put every other important issue on the back-burner," Annis told the crowd. "(They) have shown us they can't deal with more than one issue at a time. This has frustrated me every single day."
Annis has been a frequent critic of Locke during this term, particularly over the mayor's handling of the city's transition from the RCMP to a municipal force.
Locke campaigned and won in 2022 on a promise to halt the transition away from the Mounties that was started with provincial approval by previous mayor Doug McCallum. Locke and her council majority lost a lengthy, acrimonious battle with the province that included a court challenge and the city's police of jurisdiction switched from the RCMP to the Surrey Police Service last November.
"Instead of picking fights with the provincial government or the police board or Surrey Police Service, city council should be picking fights with gangs, extortionists and drug dealers," Annis said.
In an interview with Postmedia News following the councillor's announcement, Locke said Annis "isn't paying much attention" if she believes the mayor and her council haven't done a lot more work than trying to stop the policing transition.
"She voted against everything the former mayor did and now she is voting against everything the current council does, so I'm not really sure what she does believe in," Locke said.
While McCallum hasn't announced plans to run again, his Safe Surrey Coalition slate remains intact and continues to comment on some council decisions through news releases. A response wasn't provided to Postmedia's request for comment from McCallum by deadline.
The Surrey First slate on which Annis was elected was led by mayoral candidate Gordon Hogg in 2022. He finished third behind Locke and McCallum.
However, Annis topped all council candidates in 2022 with the highest number of votes.
Annis was the only Surrey First candidate elected to council in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022 alongside running mate Mike Bose. Bose was present at Annis's mayoral announcement and the two have mostly voted together this term. A complete Surrey First slate will not be revealed for weeks, Annis said.
Meanwhile, Locke confirmed that she, her four incumbent councillors -- Harry Bains, Rob Stutt, Pardeep Kooner and Gordon Hepner, and likely a few others -- will run together in the next municipal election.
Surrey is set to become B.C.'s most populace city, an often discussed topic.
"Right now, under Brenda Locke and her four councillors, we're not ready. In fact, we're not even close to ready," Annis said.
She says the next council needs to have "ideas that roll out the red carpet instead of the red tape," such as light rail transit throughout Surrey, cutting building permit waiting times, hiring an independent auditor general and more.
"I hear a very strong sense of dissatisfaction with the current government and previously under Doug McCallum's," Annis said.
Locke says this doesn't ring true for her council, but agrees that McCallum "did not move Surrey forward."
But Annis, the mayor insists, doesn't have what it takes.
"She never speaks up, ever, in council chambers. She never says what's on her mind in council chambers. She will send out press releases to you (the media) and says she's going to do things like the auditor general and then never finishes that," Locke said.
Annis says she is starting her campaign immediately to speak to residents and learn how best to meet their needs.
"I know we can build a better Surrey for all of us and our families," she said.