The BC NDP is looking to reverse Surrey’s slide after losing ground in the province’s most important electoral region.

Premier David Eby admits his government failed to win over a large portion of Surrey voters in the Oct. 19 election, particularly on the issues of health care and the cost of living.

“I wanted to see, in Surrey, much better results,” Eby told CKNW host Jas Johal this week.

“I wanted to see us not among hundreds of votes in the communities… it’s a message for us, it’s a message that we need to be in Surrey, in dialogue with the people on the ground, face to face in the valley where people feel these feelings. the pressures are acute and they are looking for action they can feel in their lives on these critical issues. This is what I take away from these results.

The NDP lost a minister (Rachna Singh) and two MPs (Mike Starchuk and Jinny Sims) in the election. It went from six out of nine seats in Surrey in 2020 to four out of ten seats in this election. Even in the districts where he won, most of the margins were narrow and within a few hundred votes.

The New Democrats would have fallen to just three seats in Surrey without Surrey-Guilford’s Garry Begg, who narrowly flipped his riding by 27 votes in the final count.

Not only did the party lose ground, it failed to reach Surrey voters. The NDP has gone to great lengths to highlight past social media posts by South Surrey Conservative candidate Brent Chapman, who called Muslims “walking, talking, breathing ticking time bombs.”

Although New Democrats and some Muslim leaders called Chapman a racist, voters elected him anyway.

“To get people like Brent Chapman elected, we obviously have some work to do in Surrey,” Eby told RedFM host Harjinder Thind this week.

“We cannot let people who advocate hatred be elected. And I feel a huge responsibility to serve the people of Surrey, to get those seats back and to make sure we represent Surrey in a way that people get excited about.

Surrey is the fastest growing region in a growing province. New Democrats, who accused B.C.’s previous Liberal government of failing to keep pace with population growth, now find themselves accused of the same thing when it comes to schools, hospitals and housing.

The NDP’s promise in 2017 to eliminate all portable schools in the region – a visible sign of government underinvestment – ​​failed to materialize and was quietly abandoned.

Conservative Leader John Rustad scored campaign points by promising Surrey a new children’s hospital, complete with the first pediatric intensive care unit outside of Vancouver.

The Conservatives’ promise to remove the SOGI module (the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Learning Module) from schools has found support in the Indo-Canadian community, where many parents do not want it their children learn certain sexual subjects in class. It may also have cost Singh, the education minister, her seat in Surrey North.

Rustad had spent a lot of time in the area before the campaign, attending small rallies and even family weddings when invited. More than 80 percent of his campaign time was spent in Surrey during the election.

Surrey-Guildford’s Begg admitted this week that the NDP needs to do work to repair local relations with Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, whom the NDP has fought for several years over local policing. The New Democrats also fought with his predecessor, Doug McCallum, over SkyTrain expansion in the region.

RedFM host Thind asked Eby if Surrey voters who supported the Conservatives would face repercussions from the NDP now that Eby has returned to a one-seat majority government.

“That’s not how we do politics in the NDP, Mr. Thind,” Eby said. “When voters send us a message, we hear it and we respond in good faith. »

Except the voters of South Surrey, who elected Chapman. Eby has repeatedly said in interviews this week that he would not work with Chapman as part of a “bright line” against what he calls racists. It’s unclear where this leaves South Surrey voters looking to raise local issues through their MP.

Eby said issues plaguing the province, such as the cost of living, public transportation, hospitals and crime, are all “particularly acute” in Surrey.

“If people thought the result of this election would mean we would walk away from Surrey or most challenges, that is absolutely not the case,” he said.

“We are going to do everything we can to ensure that we resolve these issues in this Valley community.”

Expect the New Democrats to bury the hatchet with Locke and double down on investment in Surrey, even with a minimum majority government. The NDP’s future and its hopes of returning to its former glory depend on reversing the Surrey crisis.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering BC politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national best-selling book A question of trustweekly podcast host Political capitaland a regular guest on CBC Radio.

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