Surrey-Newton’s extortion crisis: Jessie Sunner or Harj Dhaliwal?

At about ten past two on the morning of 14 January, Surrey Police Service officers were called to the 8000 block of King George Boulevard in Newton. Someone had fired shots into a business. Nobody was hurt, and police said the shooting appeared to be part of “the ongoing series of extortions in Surrey.”¹ Six days later it happened again in the 7200 block, where a business and the vehicles outside it were hit. Eight days after that, a business in the 8100 block of 120 Street was shot at.²³ Three businesses in Newton were shot up in fifteen days, and each time police pointed to extortion.

Newton is the neighbourhood that gives Surrey-Newton its name, and on 24 October the riding chooses between two candidates. Jessie Sunner is the BC NDP MLA and Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills. Harj Dhaliwal is the Conservative Party of BC candidate.⁴ It is one of the closest races in the province.

01 Where Harj Dhaliwal and Jessie Sunner stand on safety, costs and Surrey’s hospitals.

Here is where the two candidates stand. Jessie Sunner set out her own priorities in the Surrey Now-Leader’s questionnaire. Harj Dhaliwal had not answered it when we read it, and we found no positions he has published apart from his party’s, so his column gives the Conservative commitments he is running on.¹²

Harj DhaliwalConservative candidate

Jessie SunnerBC NDP MLA, incumbent

Extortion and public safety

His party’s Anti-Extortion Action Plan, launched in Surrey: “specialized investigators dedicated to extortion cases,” a repeat-offender court stream, and 1,000 more police officers, prosecutors and support staff.¹⁴

Her government formed the RCMP-led provincial extortion task force, with 40 members, in September 2025, and added a community advisory group in February 2026. She says she wants every child in Newton to have “safe communities.”²¹⁸¹³

Cost of living

“Raise the province’s basic personal exemption from $13,216 to $32,000,” which the party says is worth $1,000 a year to working British Columbians.¹⁹

“Suspend 10 cents per litre of provincial fuel tax,” cap grocery margins, “saving customers up to $700 a year,” and extend the ICBC rate freeze for three years.¹²

Surrey’s hospitals and projects

“Complete the new Surrey Hospital in Cloverdale, and build a new Women and Children’s Hospital in Surrey.”²⁰

“I’ll keep Surrey’s major projects moving, including the second hospital and cancer centre, SFU medical school, Surrey-Langley SkyTrain and new school seats.”¹²

Who they are

28 years in Surrey; six years a TransLink director and four on the BC SPCA board; a youth soccer leader in Newton.⁵

“A human rights lawyer, trade unionist and MLA for Surrey-Newton,” and Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills since July 2025.¹²

Harj Dhaliwal

Conservative Party of BC candidate, Surrey-Newton

In Surrey

28 years; he and his wife raised their family here

Education

MBA; PhD in Organization Development and Leadership

Career

Business executive; has led major construction development projects and taught business and management

Public boards

Six years a director of TransLink; four years on the board of the BC SPCA

In Newton

President of the Central City Breakers Football Club; chair of the Surrey Metro Soccer Association

Portrait and biography: Conservative Party of BC⁵

02 Surrey police recorded 9 extortion reports in 2024. This year they have recorded 147, and Newton has taken the shots.

The numbers come from the Surrey Police Service’s own count. In 2024 it recorded 9 extortion reports in the city. In 2025 it recorded 133, with 49 extortion-related shootings. By 12 October this year it had recorded 147, with 21 shootings, 3 arsons and 80 victims, 41 of them targeted more than once.⁶ In the first three months of 2026 alone there were 75 reports, against 3 in the same months of 2025.⁷

The Premier knows what this is doing to the community. On 3 February, after meeting Surrey business leaders, David Eby set up a community advisory group for the provincial extortion task force, and he said the police had not been telling people what was going on:

In our view, that is the right description of the problem: it is the number one issue in these people’s lives. Eight months after the Premier said so, the count has kept climbing, and this year has already passed all of last year.⁶ A family that runs a shop on King George Boulevard does not need another advisory group. It needs the shooting to stop.

03 Jessie Sunner says people deserve candidates who show up and answer questions. On her own posts, she restricted who could answer her.

Late on 16 October, Jessie Sunner wrote on X about a Surrey business forum:

We agree with her. So we looked at how she treats the people who try to ask her questions in the place where she campaigns most, on her own social media.

On Facebook, she restricted who could comment on 14 of the 21 campaign posts we read. Each of those posts carried the same notice from Facebook:¹⁰

Jessie SunnerFacebook campaign posts, 14 to 16 October 2026

The notice under her posts, as Facebook displayed it to us on 17 October 2026: “Only people who follow this Page for more than 24 hours can comment.”

That rule shuts out anyone who has not already followed her page for a full day, which means most of the voters who come across a post and want to ask her something. Across Facebook, Instagram and X, 16 of her 52 campaign posts carried a restriction notice.¹⁰ We set out the full record, for every BC NDP candidate, in our account of how the BC NDP silenced voters online.

The questions that did get through went unanswered. Her campaign posts on X drew 1,888 replies, and we found no answer from her to any of them. On Facebook and Instagram we read 213 comments under 37 of her posts, and we found no reply from her there either. When we graded every BC NDP MLA’s campaign accounts, she failed on open replies and on answering voters, and her overall grade was F.¹¹

In our view, a minister who tells voters they deserve candidates who answer questions should be the first to answer them. She has the staff, the platform and the following to do it. Instead, her page restricted who could ask.

04 Her priorities for a second term are gas, groceries and ICBC. Extortion is not on her list.

The Surrey Now-Leader asked every Surrey-Newton candidate for their top three priorities. Sunner’s answers were these:¹²

Jessie Sunner’s top three prioritiesTo the Surrey Now-Leader, 13 October 2026

1. Make life more affordable by lowering fuel and grocery costs.
2. Protect ICBC savings and extend the rate freeze.
3. Deliver on Surrey’s healthcare, school, and transit infrastructure projects.

Her plan for her first 100 days is the same: suspend 10 cents a litre of provincial fuel tax, cap grocery margins, freeze ICBC rates for three years, and keep the hospital, the medical school, the SkyTrain line and the new school seats moving.¹² Those are real concerns, and the projects matter to Surrey. But in a riding where three businesses were shot at in fifteen days, extortion and public safety appear nowhere in her answers.

When she announced she was running again, she wrote that she wants every child in Newton to have “safe communities.”¹³ In our view, the families of Newton have heard the promise of safe communities for nine years of NDP government. What they have seen is 9 extortion reports become 147.⁶

05 Harj Dhaliwal has spent 28 years in Surrey, running boards, businesses and Newton’s youth soccer.

Harj Dhaliwal is a first-time candidate, and the record he brings is a record of service in the community rather than in politics. His party describes him as a business executive and educator who has held senior posts in private business and in post-secondary education, and has led major construction development projects in British Columbia. He holds an MBA and a PhD in organization development and leadership, and he has taught business and management courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.⁵

He has also governed public bodies that Surrey families use. He served six years as a director of TransLink, which runs the buses and SkyTrain that Newton depends on, and four years on the board of the BC SPCA.⁵ And for years he has been a fixture of the soccer fields in Newton:

He has chaired the South Fraser District Association and the Surrey Metro Soccer Association, sat on the board of the BC Coastal Soccer League, and served as president of the Central City Breakers Football Club in Newton.⁵ In our view, a man who has spent years organising youth soccer for Newton’s kids already knows the families who are living with the shootings.

When the party named him to its Surrey team on 29 September, it said small business owners are struggling under “a wave of extortion and violence that has left many afraid to open their doors.”¹⁵ Two weeks later it put a plan behind those words. On 13 October, in Surrey, the Conservatives launched an Anti-Extortion Action Plan. It promises “specialized investigators dedicated to extortion cases and clear reporting and protection pathways for businesses and families who are threatened.” It adds a dedicated court stream for repeat offenders, tougher bail and warrant enforcement and more electronic monitoring, on top of the party’s commitment to hire 1,000 more police officers, prosecutors and support staff.¹⁴ The party’s Surrey team put it plainly:

06 Surrey-Newton is a one-point race, and Harj Dhaliwal is within reach.

338Canada turns the published polls into a projection for every riding. Its update of 16 October rates Surrey-Newton a toss-up, with the BC NDP at 48% and the Conservatives at 47%, each with a margin of nine points either way.¹⁶

Surrey-Newton, projected vote

338Canada, update of 16 October 2026. Bars show the projection; the thin lines show its margin either way.¹⁶

Jessie Sunner, BC NDP

48%

Harj Dhaliwal, Conservative

47%

Harman Preet Singh, CentreBC

5%

0%30%60%

Harman Preet Singh, the CentreBC candidate, is projected at 5%. 338Canada gives the BC NDP a 60% chance of holding the seat and the Conservatives 40%, which is as close to a coin toss as its model gets.¹⁶

The last result shows how little it would take. In 2024, Sunner won Surrey-Newton by 1,266 votes over the Conservative candidate, Tegjot Bal, with 51.2% to his 43.0%. If 634 of her voters had chosen the Conservative instead, the seat would have changed hands.¹⁷

In our view, Surrey-Newton is within reach, and Harj Dhaliwal is the candidate to take it.

07 Three Newton businesses were shot at in fifteen days. Newton needs an MLA who puts that first.

Advance voting runs until 21 October, and Final Voting Day is Saturday 24 October. Elections BC’s Where to Vote app lists every voting place in Surrey-Newton.¹⁸

In January, shots were fired into three businesses on King George Boulevard and 120 Street.¹²³ Their MLA says people deserve candidates who answer questions, and then restricted who could ask her any.⁹¹⁰ Her challenger has spent 28 years in this city, and his party has made stopping extortion its first promise to Surrey.⁵¹⁴

Newton needs an MLA who puts its safety first. In our view, Harj Dhaliwal is ready to be that MLA.