Surrey First party confirms all City Council candidates well ahead of election
Cheema has nearly 20 years of experience in government and later founded a government relations and business development firm. He has served on the Surrey Police Board and several community organizations.
Gosal is a government relations manager with the BC Real Estate Association and a former policy and research manager with the Surrey Board of Trade, while Nahal is a criminal defence lawyer.
“We announced our team well ahead of the October election because we want to have some serious discussions with Surrey residents about their priorities and the future of our city,” said Annis in a statement on Wednesday.
“We’re going to be the biggest city in the province in four short years, and will be the first city in B.C. to reach one million people. Unfortunately, Brenda Locke and her four councillors have spent their term trying to cancel or derail the police transition, which means other important issues such as crime and public safety, development and housing, affordability, and the need for more parks, pools, rinks and playing fields have been ignored or sidelined. Our Surrey First team wants to change that.”
In the 2022 civic election, Annis won the most votes of any elected city councillor, securing 35,222 votes. This was closely followed by Harry Bains of Surrey Connect with 33,708 votes and Bose with 30,763 votes.
The upcoming 2026 civic election is expected to focus heavily on public safety, growth management, affordability, community amenities and facilities, transportation, and other infrastructure, as Surrey’s population continues to grow rapidly while services and infrastructure — both municipal and provincial — struggle to keep pace.
Currently, Mayor Brenda Locke’s Surrey Connect party holds a majority of five seats in the chamber, followed by the Surrey First and Safe Surrey Coalition parties, which each have two seats.
It is unclear whether former longtime mayor Doug McCallum of the Safe Surrey Coalition will also seek re-election. He narrowly lost to Locke in 2022 by just 973 seats.
In recent weeks, Safe Surrey Coalition has significantly increased the number of news releases issued with McCallum as spokesperson, offering commentary and criticism on a range of city policies and issues, including statements this week on extortion-related crime in the community and the party’s push for the Surrey Police Service to operate its own police helicopter.
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