Dear friends,
The results of the municipal elections have presented our campaign with what is quite possibly our biggest and most important victory to date. Last night, the electorates in Surrey and Langley have overwhelmingly selected Mayors and Councils who will join us in calling for SkyTrain and working to make an expanded system South-of-Fraser a reality!
In the City of Langley, where a preference for SkyTrain was declared by Council earlier this year, the two strongest contenders (Val Van den Broek and Peter Fassbender) both stated their support for SkyTrain over LRT. Last night, Val Van den Broek was elected as Langley City's new Mayor!
In the City of Surrey, Doug McCallum with the Safe Surrey Coalition party, who has promised to both make SkyTrain a priority and scrap LRT, took the Mayors' seat with a lead of approximately 17,000 votes compared to the next most popular candidate. All-in-all, more than 67% (two-thirds) of voters in Surrey selected Mayoral candidates in support of SkyTrain, sending a clear message that SkyTrain - not Light Rail Transit - is the rapid transit technology that is wanted for our city! In addition, McCallum's Safe Surrey Coalition took 7 out of 8 Council seats, with the remaining seat filled by a candidate from Surrey First. It looks like they will be able to work swiftly in setting a mandate to expand SkyTrain in our city!
We are very excited to work together with our elected representatives in fighting for SkyTrain expansion in our region!
*** WHAT THIS MEANS FOR OUR CAMPAIGN ***
Our work isn't done yet! Although the mandates have been made clear at the local level, our focus will shift to the provincial and federal governments and ensuring that they recognize the clear mandate set by South-of-Fraser voters to get SkyTrain (and not light rail) built in our cities.
This petition page will most likely continue to run until such time that a SkyTrain expansion to Langley is made a priority in the Regional Mayors' Council's plan for transportation, at which point it will be shut down and we will declare a 'campaign victory'.
Those of you who wish to join us for our continuing activities, we encourage you to stay in touch with us by email or by joining our Facebook discussion group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nolrt4surrey/.
To the many of you who stuck with us over the years, helped us over the years and once again as we launched a third-party campaign for the elections, we salute you. It's been a long and difficult journey, but it has also been a rewarding one and we really couldn't have done this without you. We hope that you will be there to celebrate with us on the day that construction breaks ground for the Expo Line: Langley Extension!
SKYTRAIN - soon to become a reality in our cities!