Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum putting his name back on the ballot

Former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum has announced he’ll be running again for the top job in the city — and he’s promising drastic change.

He was mayor from 1996 to 2005 and served as a city councillor before that.

“People want that experience and that type of leadership,” he said.

“A lot of people said ‘just go run and get it changed.'”

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If elected, he said the RCMP is out and a municipal police force will be set up.

“We’ll start the process, if we’re elected, the day after we get in,” he said.

Share this on X Click to share quote on X: "We'll start the process, if we're elected, the day after we get in," he said.

“I think it’s perfectly capable of getting done and I think the city wants it’s own police force now. That’s certainly what I’m hearing and what different polling is saying.”

On transportation, he said light rail will be scrapped and SkyTrain will be extended down the Fraser Highway to Langley.

“The light rail, where it’s proposed in Surrey, doesn’t have the ridership along the path they’re going.”

And finally he said he’ll “pause” development and turn to “smart” development — which he said means working with the community to see what it wants, and getting infrastructure caught up to meet the growth.

McCallum ran in the last municipal election and lost to Mayor Linda Hepner.