Surrey-White Rock

Surrey-White Rock stretches from the suburban streets of south Surrey down to the seaside community of White Rock along Semiahmoo Bay, near the Peace Arch border crossing with the United States. The riding's demographics skew older than most of Surrey, with a significant retiree population in White Rock proper and an affluent residential character throughout. Peace Arch Hospital serves as the area's primary health care facility, and the riding's economy is shaped by cross-border commerce, local retail, and the service sector.

The BC Liberals had held Surrey-White Rock since the riding's creation in 1996, first under Gordon Hogg and then Tracy Redies. When Redies stepped down in July 2020 to take a position in the private sector, the seat became an open contest for the first time in over two decades. The NDP's 2017 gains across neighbouring Surrey ridings had narrowed the Liberal margins, and the open seat created a genuine opportunity for the party to break through in what had been a reliable Liberal stronghold. The 2020 race proved to be one of the closest in the province.

Candidates

Trevor Halford (BC Liberal Party) — Born and raised in South Surrey, Halford graduated from Elgin Park Secondary and Trinity Western University. He began volunteering for longtime Surrey-White Rock MLA Gordie Hogg in the late 1990s, then worked in the BC Legislature as chief of staff for two cabinet ministers and later in communications for Premier Christy Clark's office. After leaving government, he became director of public affairs for TransCanada Pipelines. He ran unsuccessfully for Surrey City Council in 2018 as part of the Surrey First slate.

Bryn Smith (BC NDP) — Smith was 25 years old at the time of the election and held a master's degree in political science. He worked for the Surrey School District as a safe school liaison and was a member of CUPE 728.

Beverly (Pixie) Hobby (BC Green Party) — Hobby had practised environmental law in South Surrey and White Rock since 2014 and previously worked for Environment Canada and the Department of Justice. She served on the boards of the Dunsmuir Community Garden Group and the Turkana Empowerment Project, an educational charity supporting students in Kenya.

Megan Knight ran as an independent candidate and Jason Bax represented the Libertarian Party.

Local Issues

Peace Arch Hospital became the centrepiece of the riding's health care debate during the NDP's term. The $83.7-million expansion and renovation project — which more than doubled the emergency department from 24 to 50 treatment spaces and added two new operating rooms, bringing the total from three to five — was underway throughout the 2017-2020 period. In late 2020, the government approved a $7.37-million cost increase to incorporate pandemic-related design changes, including three anterooms for infection control. The expansion addressed years of mounting pressure from a growing south Surrey and White Rock population, but residents noted that the project had been in planning since a 2012 master concept plan identified it as a top priority, and many questioned why it had taken nearly a decade to reach construction. COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the area brought the pandemic's toll on seniors into sharp local focus, amplifying demands for systemic reform of seniors' care.

The riding's proximity to the United States border made the COVID-19 border closure a uniquely local economic issue. The Peace Arch border crossing was closed to non-essential travel beginning March 21, 2020, and the closure was extended repeatedly throughout the summer and fall. White Rock's economy depended in part on cross-border shopping and tourism, and local businesses suffered significant losses. West Coast Duty Free, one of only two duty-free shops in British Columbia that remained open during the pandemic, reported revenue declines exceeding 97 per cent. Peace Arch Park, situated in the international zone between the two countries, became the only location where Americans and Canadians could meet face-to-face without crossing a port of entry, drawing national media attention as families and couples separated by the closure gathered on the shared grounds.

School overcrowding affected the younger families in the riding's south Surrey neighbourhoods. The ongoing construction of Grandview Heights Secondary — delayed from its original September 2020 opening and pushed back a full year due to budget overruns — meant that students in the riding's southern reaches continued to contend with portable classrooms and lengthy commutes to schools in other zones. Parents pointed to the Surrey school district's 333 portables as evidence that the NDP's promise to eliminate portables in Surrey had not been fulfilled, even as the government committed more than $211 million to school construction and expansion across the city since 2017.

The NDP's housing and tax policies were a point of contention in a riding with an older, more affluent electorate. The provincial speculation and vacancy tax, introduced in 2018, and the strengthened foreign buyers tax had contributed to cooling the Metro Vancouver housing market, but some homeowners in south Surrey and White Rock argued that the cumulative effect of new taxes — layered on top of the city of Vancouver's empty homes tax and rising property assessments — was eroding property values in a community where many retirees relied on home equity as a cornerstone of their retirement savings.