Slate exits Surrey municipal campaign
Community Alliance Voters Association unable to raise adequate funds
New campaign finance rules seem to have been a factor in the collapse of a Surrey political party that was set to run six council and school board candidates in this fall’s municipal election.
The Surrey Community Alliance Voters Association, which was one of the first parties to announce that it was challenging Surrey First’s domination of council, announced over the weekend that it was withdrawing from the campaign.
“The donations just weren’t coming in and it was no use banging our heads, because you can’t put on a good campaign unless you’ve got pretty good financing,” campaign co-manager Gord Savard said.
However, council candidate Imtiaz Popat is alleging that the departure of the alliance’s highest profile candidate, Doug Elford, late last week was the final nail in the party’s coffin.
The alliance was a reboot of the Surrey Civic Electors and Surrey Matters slates, which had run and endorsed candidates in previous elections.
Savard said the previous incarnations of Surrey Community Alliance received the bulk of its money from unions and businesses, which is not allowed under the municipal campaign finance rules that were brought in last fall. The rules prohibit donations from corporations, organizations or unions, and limit individual donations to $1,200 per year, per campaign.
He said there was some money left over from previous campaigns and the party did some fundraising, but didn’t get enough to run a campaign.
He said they should have had at least $30,000 in the bank already for signage, flyers and the like.
“We just didn’t get that — we didn’t get close to it,” he said, but declined to elaborate on how much the party did raise. “The individuals just weren’t coming through.”
Volunteers were also hard to come by, he said.
Savard said the organization will be officially shut down on Tuesday and suggested that after all expenses are paid, there will be no money left.
Elford plans to join the slate headed by former mayor Doug McCallum.
“I like his platform and I think we need to have an experienced mayor to guide this city into the future, and that’s why I decided to throw my support behind Doug,” Elford said.
In particular, Elford said he likes McCallum’s views that Surrey should dump the RCMP and have its own police force, his preference for SkyTrain technology over at-grade light rail and McCallum’s proposal to pause development.
Elford wouldn’t comment on the alliance’s collapse, saying that he’s out of town and would like to have a face-toface conversation with organizers.
“Realistically, you need a strong mayor to be able to get elected, and you need to be elected to get things done. That’s what it boils down to,” Elford said.
When asked if he had considered leaving the Surrey Community Alliance to join McCallum’s team before the alliance folded, Elford declined to answer.
Proudly Surrey, which is described as a “left-green” political party, is running three council and three school board candidates. Campaign manager Tom Ewasiuk said they have one spot open for a council candidate, and hope to have someone locked down by the end of this week.
In terms of fundraising, Ewasiuk said the rules didn’t change anything because Proudly Surrey started with the idea of running a lowbudget campaign.
“It’s not like we have a lot of money, but our campaign was always structured on not having a lot of money,” he said.
Another new party, People First Surrey, has already announced two candidates for council and plans to announce more, plus a mayoral candidate, in the coming weeks.
Founder and president Rajesh Jayaprakash said when they started the party, they had a few donors who put in about $1,000 each, which fit into the campaign finance rules when they came into effect.
He said the party continues to collect small donations and rely on social media to promote candidates.
“Funding for us is not an issue,” Jayaprakash said. “You can spend a million dollars easily on a campaign. That’s not the way we want to do it.”
Surrey First mayoral candidate Tom Gill, who has been a councillor for four terms, said his party will run a full council slate and plans to announce its list of candidates soon. Sitting councillors Vera LeFranc, Mike Starchuk and Dave Woods have said that they will run under the Surrey First banner, which Gill confirmed.
When asked about the changes to campaign financing, Gill said anyone running a campaign in Surrey will have fundraising challenges similar to those experienced by the Surrey Community Alliance.
He said Surrey’s size and geography, along with its different communities and cultures, can make it difficult to connect with the number of people required to raise sufficient funds, though a group like Surrey First has an advantage over a new party.
“I think that we are well established, we have a history here and we’re hoping to build on that success,” Gill said.