The BC Conservatives secured a decisive victory this past weekend, sweeping much of the Lower Mainland and all ten ridings in Surrey.

While the victory means a number of new and returning Conservative MLAs in the legislature — some with controversial and questionable views — many are wondering what changes are to be expected from the party’s first 100 days in office.

Doerkson himself has said provincial finances, a pipeline and repealing DRIPA are priorities. 

But in Surrey, constituents are expecting transformative changes to make up for what has felt like years of neglect across a number of policy areas, said Mohkam Singh Malik, member of Surrey’s Liveability, Social Equity and Public Safety Committee.

“The reason why Surrey flipped has nothing to do with ideology or one single person. It more so has to do with the kind of visceral frustration that the community was feeling,” Malik told PressProgress.

“I would count myself among those voices to say, ‘hey, you promised us a lot and we haven’t seen anything.’ Even though the NDP were matching all of the Conservative promises, kind of promise for promise, they weren’t seeing any traction.”

Four ridings in Surrey were previously strong BC NDP ridings: Surrey-City Centre, Surrey-Newton, Surrey-Guildford, and Surrey-Fleetwood.

During the campaign, Doerkson made big promises for the city, including building an additional skytrain to Newton, completing the Cloverdale Hospital, building a women’s hospital and creating a 10-lane George Massey bridge to replace the tunnel — scrapping the NDP’s plan for an eight-lane replacement tunnel. 

Malik pointed out that Surrey, despite being BC’s fastest growing city, is often left behind in terms of public infrastructure and services when compared to other parts of BC. 

“9 in 10 Vancouver residents have access to transit within 10 minutes of where they live. But it’s 25%, so 3 in 10 if you round up, in Surrey,” Malik said. 

Under the BCNDP, construction began on a number of public works projects in the city. The Cloverdale hospital and cancer centre, which broke ground in 2023,  is expected to be completed in 2030. It will be Surrey’s second hospital. Neighbouring Vancouver currently has six hospitals.

The Surrey-Langley skytrain has also begun construction and Simon Fraser University’s School of Medicine, located in Surrey city centre, was completed and welcomed its first students this year. 

 While the NDP has made leeway in building new schools in the province, public school teachers say that more investment is needed into public education, particularly in Surrey, where there are still over 300 portables.

Malik pointed out that if there was equity in terms of services in Surrey compared to other parts of the province, the city wouldn’t have been such a pivotal provincial battle ground. 

“It’s an electoral issue because you [the government] feel we can go without,” he added.

“When we started talking about healthcare, and we started talking about portables, and we started talking about insurance — if you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have to fall on your sword,” Malik said.

Surrey often isn’t on the radar of politicians until elections roll around, and Malik said that in order to earn the continued support of Surrey residents, elected officials need to live up to big promises and contribute to people having “pride in place.”

“We like living here and we worked hard to. A majority of Surrey residents are homeowners, so you work hard to live in your own home. Yet when you say ‘I’m from Surrey,’ someone winces, and that is not something that politicians are looking to solve right now.”

Now, Malik said what remains to be seen is if the party actually follows through, or if Surrey gets left behind once again. 

“Our city is growing to where we want it to be, and I think that’s one of the reasons people bought into Doug McCallum’s global city message, because they were like, ‘Yeah, I want to be proud of where I live.’”

The post How did the BC Conservatives turn Surrey blue? appeared first on PressProgress.

Actors David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris are passionate about parties. “A theme party, a holiday party, a dinner party, a cocktail party —­ we love them all,” the couple writes in their book Both Sides of the Glass.

Burtka and Harris describe themselves as a “mixed sobriety couple” and have built a reputation for hosting parties that are lively and inclusive — whether their guests drink or don’t. Both Sides of the Glass (co-written with Zoë Chapin) aims to help everyone else do the same.

Burtka, a Cordon Bleu–trained chef, stopped drinking almost a decade ago, around the same time that Harris was becoming more interested in mixology. “We realized that what we valued most were the moments of togetherness — of sitting down to a cocktail before the evening chaos began, celebrating a friend’s new job or engagement, or serving up a perfectly themed pairing at our annual Christmas party,” they write.

At the time, Burtka recalled to me on a video call, there weren’t many enticing options. He would be offered either a beverage that he would drink during the day, like sparkling water, or a mocktail that felt “geared towards children,” he said, like “your pineapple juice with your ginger syrup.”

So, not to banish himself and fellow non-drinkers to the corner with bitters and soda for eternity, Burtka and Harris set about creating their own concoctions that could satisfy all partygoers, adhering to the ethos that, as they write, “the cocktail and the mocktail must coexist!”

Today, a growing number of interesting, ready-made nonalcoholic options are available. But you don’t need to acquire a huge arsenal of professional gear or spend hours in the kitchen to make your own homemade libations, says Burtka: “There’s so many shortcuts, you don’t necessarily need tons of products.”

Here are the tools and tricks that Burtka recommends having up your sleeve so that all your guests can feel like the life of the party, no matter their drink of choice.

OTTAWA – Despite best efforts and an emotional journey through time and space, three ghosts visiting Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre failed to inspire him to change his ways through the spirit of Christmas.  “Normally, I would take him to the past to show he’s gone wrong,” said the Ghost of Christmas Past. “So I […]

The post Report: Three ghosts took Pierre Poilievre on spiritual journey through time to no effect appeared first on The Beaverton.

Miami Florida- This morning the Kraft Heinz Corporation, who produce the beloved snack Bagel Bites announced that they will be discontinuing the deeply unpopular alternative, Bagel Chewed.  Bagel Chewed was introduced to an indifferent and disgusted public in 2020. Since hitting the market, the mush-based bread product has failed to hit any of its sales […]

The post Bagel Bites continue to outsell Bagel Chewed appeared first on The Beaverton.