What was expected to be one of the closest mayoral races in British Columbia has turned into a blowout win in Surrey for longtime city councillor Linda Hepner.
Surrey First's Hepner was easily elected to lead B.C.'s second-largest municipality Saturday night. She'll take over for former party leader Dianne Watts, who seved as the city's mayor for nine years.
Hepner took the stage to raucous cheers at her party's headquarters at Central City Brew Pub.
"Surrey has spoken loud and clear. We are not going back, we are going forward," Hepner told an elated crowd full of supporters, friends and family.
In her acceptance speech, Hepner thanked Surrey residents for voting and extended congratulations to her challengers as well as the rest of her party, which swept all eight seats on city council and all six school trustee positions.
"I am so looking forward to the next four years, we have such an amount of work to do, and I am thrilled to have everyobdy here at that table with me," Hepner said.
The city's newest mayor thanked outgoing mayor Watts upon her victory, saying she and Watts have had a close relationship in her last nine years as mayor. "She has changed the way all of us look at and think about our city, and she has changed the way others see us " Hepner said.
As of 10 p.m. Saturday, Hepner had received 43,109 votes, nearly double second-place candidate Doug McCallum's 23,091 votes.
It was more of a subdued mood at Safe Surrey Coalition headquarters when McCallum spoke to supporters after finding out he lost to Hepner.
"It's really a disappointment to all of us, because we worked so hard," he said. "At the end of the day, it's not up to us. It's up to the citizens of Surrey."
Heading into election day, the race to replace the outgoing mayor appeared tighter than ever, with an Insights West poll suggesting only three percentage points separated the three frontrunners Hepner (Surrey First), Doug McCallum (Safe Surrey Coalition) and Barinder Rasode (One Surrey).
But Hepner pulled away early and McCallum and Rasode never recovered.
At one point, the Surrey First candidate had more than double the number of votes than McCallum, the second-place candidate.
Hepner, a Surrey city councillor first elected in 2005, recently served as the city’s manager of economic development and has lived in the city for 29 years.
Crime was frequently cited as a key campaign issue in the wake of several high-profile murders that rocked the city in the last year, including the brutal beating death of hockey mom Julie Paskall in Dec. 2013.
