BC Liberal Leadership Contenders

The BC Liberal Party won’t elect its next leader until February, but we can announce the winner here and now: the City of Surrey.

B.C.’s fastest-growing big city has long been in the crosshairs of the major parties, but the region’s power was brought into stark relief after May’s provincial election. The NDP won six of the city’s nine seats—in no small part thanks to promises to get rid of tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and to commit more provincial money to solving Surrey’s transportation woes. Christy Clark often seemed openly antagonistic to B.C.’s urban heartland. Dianne

Watts— a former mayor of Surrey and one of the assumed frontrunners—is promising a better relationship with Lower Mainland mayors, as is former Vancouver mayor and leadership candidate Sam Sullivan. Even Todd Stone— the Kamloops MLA and ex-transportation minister—saw fit to announce his candidacy in Surrey. And the location for the first leadership debate on October 15? You guessed it: Surrey wins again.