SURREY CENTRE: Incumbent Liberal MP Randeep Sarai re-elected

Liberal MP Randeep Sarai has been re-elected in Surrey Centre.

Sarai had seven opponents in the riding, including Tina Bains (Conservative) and Sarjit Saran (NDP).

Will all polls now counted, Sarai won with 37.4 per cent of the vote (15,266). Saran came in second with 11,166 (27.4 per cent) and Bains had 10,413 (25.5 per cent).

Voter turnout was 53.6 per cent for Surrey Centre, with 40,825 of the riding’s 76,170 registered voters having cast a ballot.

After his re-election, Sarai told the Now-Leader he felt “really excited, really humbled, really blessed that residents of Surrey gave me another opportunity for four more years.”

As he celebrated with hundreds of supporters at Crown Palace Banquet Hall Monday night at Scott Road and Nordel Way, he told the Now-Leader he was thankful to voters for “turning out in droves” especially on “such a rainy day.”

Sarai said his focus will be on “moving Surrey Centre forward.”

He reflected on “a lot of great investment” over his first term, pointing to post-secondary education, an RCMP forensic lab in Surrey, $1.6 billion for Surrey SkyTrain and more.

“I want it to be the second downtown of the Lower Mainland, one of the safest places in the province and one of the most affordable places to live,” he said, adding that he will continue to strive to make Surrey “not only a place where people can live, but go to school and learn right here in this riding.”

Sarai said along the campaign trail, he heard housing affordability is top of mind for the constituents, along with public safety.

Sarai’s other opponents were Green Party’s John Werring (2,505), People’s Party of Canada’s Jaswinder Dilawari (700), Christian Heritage Party’s Kevin Pielak (376), Communist George Gidora (127), and independent Jeffrey Breti (272).

SEE MORE: Results in Canada’s 2019 federal election

With Canada’s last federal election, in October 2015, came some big changes for Surrey’s ridings.

Surrey Centre’s predecessor, Surrey North, was largely dominated in recent decades by conservative candidates in various forms such as the Reform Party and Canadian Alliance, with the occasional NDP breakthrough.

The first MP to have held this new riding was Sarai, elected to office in 2015 with 19,471 votes followed by the NDP’s Jasbir Sandhu (12,992 votes), Conservative Sucha Thind (8,556), the Green’s Jeremiah Deneault (1,493), Kevin Pielak of Christian Heritage (553) and Communist Iqbal Kahlon (133).

In the 2015 election in Surrey Centre, 43,550 of 70,493 eligible voters cast ballots in this riding.

Surrey Centre, which embraces a large part of the city’s north end, includes Royal Heights, Bridgeview, Whalley and parts of Guildford.