Surrey-Fleetwood

Surrey-Fleetwood stretches along the Fraser Highway corridor through one of Surrey's most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, where South Asian, Chinese, and Korean communities have established deep roots in the commercial strips and residential streets between 152nd and 168th Streets. The riding's identity was being reshaped by the Surrey–Langley SkyTrain extension, a generational transit project that was under active construction along Fraser Highway during the 2024 campaign, bringing lane closures, noise, and the promise of rapid transit to a community that had long relied on congested bus routes.

Jagrup Brar had represented the riding since 2017, having previously held it from 2009 to 2013. His long career in Surrey politics and his background as a labour advocate made him one of the NDP's most recognizable figures in the city. The Conservatives fielded Avtar Gill, a first-time candidate and insurance industry executive, in a race that proved to be among the tightest in Metro Vancouver.

Candidates

Jagrup Brar (BC NDP) — Brar was the incumbent MLA, a veteran legislator who first won a seat in a 2004 by-election in the former Surrey-Panorama Ridge riding before representing Surrey-Fleetwood from 2009 onward. Raised in the Bathinda district of Punjab, India, he competed on the Indian men's national basketball team prior to immigrating to Canada, where he completed a Master of Public Administration at the University of Manitoba and built a career in career-development programming for non-profit organizations.

Avtar Gill (Conservative Party) — Gill was the president and CEO of Scott Road Insurance Services. Originally from India, he held a degree in agriculture sciences and completed further business education at the Sauder School of Business at UBC. He was a first-time political candidate who emphasized infrastructure development, public safety, and health care access in his campaign.

Tim Binnema (BC Green Party) also contested the riding.

Local Issues

The Surrey–Langley SkyTrain extension was the most visible issue in the riding during the 2024 campaign. The sixteen-kilometre expansion of the Expo Line from King George Station to Langley was under construction along Fraser Highway, with stations planned at Fleetwood. Construction crews had begun major earthworks and utility relocations, creating single-lane traffic conditions along much of the corridor and disrupting access to businesses and residences. For Fleetwood commuters who had endured decades of overcrowded bus service along Fraser Highway, the project represented a once-in-a-generation improvement in transit access, but the years of construction ahead tested patience. The riding's commercial strip along Fraser Highway bore the brunt of the disruption.

School overcrowding remained a persistent concern. The Surrey School District's reliance on portable classrooms was felt acutely in Fleetwood, where the NDP government had promised expansions at Fleetwood Park Secondary School and other facilities. Population growth continued to outpace classroom construction, and parents questioned whether the timeline for new school spaces would keep up with the continued influx of young families drawn to the area by its relative affordability within Metro Vancouver.

The opioid crisis and public safety concerns weighed on Fleetwood residents. Surrey consistently recorded among the highest overdose death counts in British Columbia, and the impact was felt in residential neighbourhoods through emergency calls, property crime associated with addiction, and anxiety about street-level drug activity. The policing transition from RCMP to the Surrey Police Service added a layer of uncertainty, as the changeover's operational complexities raised questions about whether frontline policing would be maintained at current levels during the transition period.