Former mayor Doug McCallum’s major comeback in Surrey caused arguably the biggest stir of election night in B.C.
READ MORE: Doug McCallum is Surrey’s mayor once again
McCallum lost the mayor’s seat to Dianne Watts as the incumbent in 2005, but has returned to replace Watts’ successor, Linda Hepner, with nearly 17,000 votes more than runner up councillor Tom Gill.
He will be moving to fulfill his promises to replace the RCMP with a local police force and nix plans for a light rail transit line that recently received federal funding.
In another stunning upset, former firefighter Mike Hurley unseated five-term Mayor Derek Corrigan in Burnaby.
In Vancouver, former NDP MP Kennedy Stewart defeated local entrepreneur Ken Sim by fewer than 1,000 votes to fill a void left by Mayor Gregor Robertson, who did not seek re-election.
Supporters chanted, “Kennedy, Kennedy,” and broke out in dance as results came in early Sunday morning, heralding Stewart in as the first independent mayor of Vancouver in more than 30 years.
A number of other incumbent mayors chose not to run again this year, bringing in new faces to local government.
Brad West will replace Greg Moore in Port Coquitlam, Val van den Broek defeated former mayor and Liberal cabinet minister Peter Fassbender in Langley City to replace Ted Schaffer, George Harvie beat former police chief Jim Cessford in Delta, Councillor Linda Buchanan will replace Richard Walton in North Vancouver City, Mike Little got the most votes in North Vancouver District to replace Darryl Mussatto, Mike Morden takes over for Nicole Read in Maple Ridge, Darryl Walker will succeed Wayne Baldwin in White Rock, and Mary-Ann Booth is set to replace Michael Smith in West Vancouver.
READ MORE: Langley City mayor-elect Val van den Broek celebrates ‘unexpected’ victory
Several mayors who did try to get another term failed.
Rob Vagramov, who made headlines a month ago when a video surfaced online of him asking a homeless man to chug a beer, edged incumbent Mike Clay by about 400 votes in Port Moody.
Meanwhile, Bill Dingwall easily beat John Becker in Pitt Meadows with more than triple the number of votes, Pam Alexis handily defeated Randy Hawes in Mission, Peter Robb trounced Wilfried Vicktor in Hope, and two-time former city councillor Ken Popove rose to victory over Sharon Gaetz in Chilliwack.
Re-elected were Malcolm Brodie in Richmond, Henry Braun in Abbotsford, Jack Froese in Langley Township, and Jonathan Cote in New Westminster, and Richard Stewart in Coquitlam.
– with files from The Canadian Press
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said that Doug McCallum won Surrey with 2,000 more votes than runner up Tom Gill.
