1 Surrey party owns every seat on city council. A new party is rising to challenge them

In Surrey, only one party makes the decisions at the civic level.

That’s Surrey First, a party that took all nine seats on city council in the 2014 municipal election.

The party has been in power in the city for a long time. But now a new party is rising up to challenge them, with the aim of breaking what’s being called a monopoly at city hall.

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Community activist Doug Elford is a driving force behind the Surrey Community Alliance, a new party that hopes to find its way to the council table in October’s civic election.

“We’re a group of people from all different political stripes,” Elford told Global News.

“Basically, neighbourhoods and communities that are concerned they’re not being heard.”

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The Surrey Community Alliance plans to take up issues such as homelessness, transportation and affordability.

But priority number one is breaking what Elford called the “one-party” system on city council.

READ MORE: Surrey First wins big as Linda Hepner elected mayor

Surrey Coun. Tom Gill said the Surrey First party acts as “individuals” when it comes to any matters that come before council.

“One thing we are doing different than past councils is looking at how we can cooperate and work together to make sure that we actually deal with the business of Surrey, make sure that we handle those issues, make sure that we don’t get caught up in politics,” he said.

Campaign finance reform is a theme that could dominate talk leading up to the civic election.

It’s something that’s meant to level the playing field by ridding municipal elections of corporate and union donations and introducing spending limits for individuals.

But Elford noted that Surrey First has saved up lots of money already.

“They still have their war chest they’re allowed to spend up to the writ,” he said.

“But having the limited donations is going to restrict what happens in the campaign.”

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There are still other issues likely to dominate discussion leading up to the election.

“The biggest one is probably LRT vs. SkyTrain,” columnist Frank Bucholtz told Global News.

Certainly, no shortage of issues as Surrey First faces a mounting challenge to their dominance of city council.

• Video report by Geoff Hastings