Brenda Locke

John

​

(m. 1975)​

Her Worship Brenda Locke
Mayor of Surrey
Incumbent
Assumed office November 7, 2022
Children	2
Residence	Surrey, British Columbia

Brenda Joy Locke (born 1955) is a Canadian politician who currently serves as the mayor of Surrey, British Columbia. She was elected to the post in 2022 after defeating the incumbent Doug McCallum. She previously served on the Surrey City Council from 2018 to 2022, and in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2001 to 2005, representing the electoral district of Surrey-Green Timbers as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party. ^[2]

Background

Born in Vancouver, Locke worked as the office manager for the Richmond Association for Children's Services from 1979 to 1983, then as the executive director of the BC Liquor Licensee and Retailers Association from 1985 to 2001. ^{[1] [3]}

Married since 1975, she and her husband John have two children together, and have been residents of Surrey since 1980. ^{[1] [3]}

Political career

In the 2001 provincial election, Locke ran for the British Columbia Liberal Party in Surrey-Green Timbers, and defeated New Democrat incumbent Sue Hammell to become the riding's member of the Legislative Assembly. ^{[4] [5]} She served as chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, and member of the Legislative Standing Committee on Education, the Multicultural Committee, Women's Caucus Committee and the Government Caucus Committee on Health. ^[3] On September 20, 2004, she was appointed to the cabinet by Premier Gordon Campbell to serve as Minister of State for Mental Health and Addiction Services. ^[6]

Locke faced Hammell again in the 2005 provincial election; this time Hammell defeated Locke to reclaim the seat. ^{[4] [5]} Locke subsequently ran as the federal Liberal Party candidate in Fleetwood—Port Kells in the 2006 and 2008 federal elections, but lost both times to Conservative incumbent Nina Grewal. ^{[4] [5]}

In the 2014 municipal election, Locke teamed up with real-estate agent Stephen Gammer under the political party, TeamSurrey, to run for city council. She came in 18th place, with 2.28% of the vote. ^{[7] [8]} In the 2017 provincial election, she ran for the BC Liberal party in her former seat of Surrey-Green Timbers but was defeated by Rachna Singh. ^[9] While she was out of office, Locke worked as executive director for the B.C. Massage Therapist Association. ^[10]

At the October 20, 2018 municipal election, Locke was elected to Surrey City Council as a part of the Safe Surrey Coalition (SSC). ^[11] While she initially approved of mayor Doug McCallum's plan to replace the Surrey RCMP with a municipal police force, ^[12] in the following months she became critical of McCallum's approach on the matter, culminating in her departure from the SSC on June 27, 2019 to become an independent councillor. ^{[13] [14]} In January 2020, along with fellow ex-SSC city councillor Jack Hundial, she founded a new political slate called Surrey Connect. ^[15] She announced in July 2021 her intention to run for mayor of Surrey under the Surrey Connect banner, ^[12] and proposed halting the police transition during her campaign. ^[16]

On October 15, 2022, Locke defeated the incumbent McCallum to become mayor. ^[16] Although city council voted to retain the services of the RCMP, ^[17] the city was ordered by the provincial government in July 2023 to proceed with the police transition. ^[18] That October, Locke announced in a statement the city would seek a judicial review on the provincial order. ^[19] The case was dismissed by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in May 2024, ^[20] with the Surrey Police Service scheduled to assume jurisdiction over the city on November 29, 2024. ^[21]

Electoral record

B.C. General Election 2001: Surrey-Green Timbers

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±	Expenditures
	Liberal	Brenda Locke	7,539	48.95%	+15.16%	$46,658
	NDP	Sue Hammell	5,592	36.31%	-13.80%	$37,237
	Unity	C. Lewis Robinson	1,067	6.93%	n/a	$7,196
	Marijuana	Dennis Kalsi	561	3.65%	n/a	$394
	Reform	Jim Paterson	538	3.49%	-2.28%	$3,277
	Communist	Harjit Singh Daudharia	103	0.67%	+0.37%	$332
Total valid votes			15,400	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			151	0.98%
Turnout			15,551	66.77%

v t e 2005 British Columbia general election : Surrey-Green Timbers
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Sue Hammell	10,836	60.82	+24.51
	Liberal	Brenda Locke	5,619	31.54	−17.41
	Green	Sebastian Sajda	791	4.44	–
	Marijuana	Amanda Boggan	225	1.26	−2.39
	Emerged Democracy	Rob Norberg	151	0.85	–
	Democratic Reform	Ravi Chand	142	0.80	–
	Communist	Harjit Singh Daudharia	52	0.29	+0.38
Total			17,816	100.00

v t e 2006 Canadian federal election : Fleetwood—Port Kells
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Nina Grewal	14,577	33.5	-2.3	$72,464
	Liberal	Brenda Locke	13,749	31.6	+2.1	$54,768
	New Democratic	Barry Bell	10,961	25.2	-2.8	$18,907
	Independent	Jack Cook	3,202	7.4	+7.4	$75,818
	Green	Duncan McDonald	1,059	2.4	-3.9	--
Total valid votes			43,548	100.0
Total rejected ballots			127	0.3	-0.3
Turnout			43,675	59	0
	Conservative	hold	Swing	-2.2	–

v t e 2008 Canadian federal election : Fleetwood—Port Kells
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Nina Grewal	21,389	44.7	+11.2	$79,909
	Liberal	Brenda Locke	12,502	26.1	-5.5	$75,331
	New Democratic	Nao Fernando	10,916	22.8	-2.4	$65,022
	Green	Brian Newbold	3,045	6.4	+4.0	--
Total valid votes/Expense limit			47,852	100.0	$88,579
Total rejected ballots			219	0.5	+0.2
Turnout			48,071	56	+3

v t e 2017 British Columbia general election : Surrey-Green Timbers
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Rachna Singh	8,945	58.29	+0.23	$58,322
	Liberal	Brenda Locke	5,056	32.95	−1.57	$20,975
	Green	Saira Aujla	1,112	7.25	+3.2	$7,739
	No affiliation	Vikram Bajwa	163	1.06	–	$7,980
	Your Political Party	Kanwaljit Singh Moti	69	0.44	–	$3,612
Total valid votes			15,345	100.00	–
Total rejected ballots			163	1.05	−0.14
Turnout			15,508	54.61	+2.29
Registered voters			28,400
Source: Elections BC [22] [23]

2022 Surrey mayoral election

Party		Mayoral candidate	Vote	%
	Surrey Connect	Brenda Locke	33,311	28.14
	Safe Surrey Coalition	Doug McCallum (X)	32,338	27.31
	Surrey First	Gordie Hogg	24,916	21.05
	Surrey Forward	Jinny Sims	14,895	12.58
	United Surrey	Sukh Dhaliwal	9,629	8.13
	People's Council Surrey	Amrit Birring	2,270	1.92
	Independent	John Wolanski	646	0.55
	Independent	Kuldip Pelia	385	0.33

References

1. "Locke, Hon. Brenda". Canadian Parliamentary Guide. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
2. Anne Edwards, Seeking Balance: Conversations with BC Women in Politics. Caitlin Press, 2008. ISBN   1894759311.
3. "MLA: Brenda Locke". Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Archived from the original on August 3, 2004.
4. "Candidates: Brenda Joy Locke". Canadian Elections Database. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
5. McElroy, Justin (May 1, 2017). "B.C. Votes 2017: Surrey-Green Timbers riding profile". CBC News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
6. "Campbell Cabinet: 37th Parliament 2001-2005, 38th Parliament 2005-2009, 39th Parliament 2009-2011" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of British Columbia . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
7. Bailey, Ian (October 12, 2014). "Independents rally together in Surrey mayoral race". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
8. Reid, Amy (October 16, 2014). "TeamSurrey unveils platform focusing on crime reduction". Surrey Now-Leader. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
9. Zytaruk, Tom (October 24, 2018). "Poll-topper Brenda Locke's heart is in social planning". North Delta Reporter. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
10. "Contact Us | Registered Massage Therapists' Association of British Columbia". Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
11. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
12. Wood, Graeme (July 21, 2021). "From friend to foe: Surrey's Brenda Locke to challenge Doug McCallum in 2022". Business in Vancouver . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
13. Little, Simon; Macdonald, Gord (June 28, 2019). "2nd councillor quits Surrey mayor's Safe Surrey Coalition, citing 'dysfunctional' council". Global News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
14. Recksiedler, Dean; Nassar, Hana Mae. "City Councillor Brenda Locke bolts from Safe Surrey Coalition". CKWX. Archived from the original on December 6, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
15. Collins, Lauren (January 7, 2020). "Hundial and Locke's new slate looks to 'Connect' with Surrey residents". Surrey Now-Leader. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
16. Watson, Bridgette (October 16, 2022). "Brenda Locke elected mayor of Surrey, CBC News projects". CBC News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
17. Larsen, Karin (June 16, 2023). "Surrey police decision far from settled after council votes to retain RCMP". CBC News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
18. Meissner, Dirk (July 19, 2023). "Province orders City of Surrey to stick with transition to municipal police force". CBC News. Canadian Press . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
19. Steacy, Lisa (October 13, 2023). "Surrey mayor announces legal action in ongoing fight over police transition". CTV News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
20. Wyton, Moira; Proctor, Jason (May 23, 2024). "B.C. has right to order Surrey police transition, judge rules". CBC News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
21. Larsen, Karin (April 23, 2024). "Date set for transition from RCMP to Surrey Police Service". CBC News . Retrieved September 20, 2024.
22. "2017 Provincial General Election - Statement of Votes" (PDF). Elections BC . Retrieved December 1, 2020.
23. "Election Financing Reports". Elections BC. Retrieved September 13, 2020.

External links

• Hon. Brenda Locke, 37th Parliament biography.