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Dianne Watts

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Dianne Watts
Official Opposition Critic for Employment, Workforce Development and Labour
In office
August 30, 2017 – September 24, 2017
LeaderAndrew Scheer
Preceded byPierre Poilievre
Succeeded bySteven Blaney
Member of Parliament
for South Surrey—White Rock
In office
October 19, 2015 – September 30, 2017
Preceded byriding created
Succeeded byGordon Hogg
35th Mayor of Surrey
In office
December 5, 2005 – December 8, 2014
Preceded byDoug McCallum
Succeeded byLinda Hepner
Surrey City Councillor
In office
December 2, 1996 – December 5, 2005
Personal details
Born
Dianne Lynn Watts

(1959-10-30) October 30, 1959 (age 65)
Vancouver, British Columbia
NationalityCanadian
Political partySurrey First (municipal)
Conservative (federal)
BC Liberal (provincial)
SpouseBrian Watts[1]
Children2
Residence(s)Surrey, British Columbia
OccupationPolitician
Websitehttp://diannewattsmp.ca/

Dianne Lynn Watts (born October 30, 1959) is a politician in British Columbia, Canada. She won her first federal election campaign in October 2015 to become a federal Member of Parliament for South Surrey—White Rock. Previously, Watts served as the mayor of Surrey, the second-largest city in the province from 2005 to 2014. She was elected in 2005 to this office as the city's first female mayor.[2]

Early life

Watts was born on October 30, 1959.[3][4] She is a second-generation Canadian with Ukrainian-Yugoslavian roots.[5]

She studied at Mount Pleasant Elementary School and Templeton Secondary School[6] in Vancouver's east side before moving to Kelowna.

Watts is listed in the 1974 Templeton Secondary School Annual on page 48 among 1958-born students as "Dianne Milan".

After graduating from Kelowna Secondary School, she married her first husband at the age of 18.[7] After a divorce, she travelled and worked in Australia and other countries in the 1980s.

After her return to Canada, Watts worked as a credit manager and a materials consultant for an architecture firm during her 20s and early 30s. She married Surrey resident Brian Watts in 1992.[8] She was a stay-at-home mother with two daughters prior to being a campaign manager for new provincial MLA and family friend Bonnie McKinnon in 1991.[7] Watts later won a seat on city council in 1996 with Doug McCallum's Surrey Electors Team.

Municipal politics

Before becoming mayor, she served on the Surrey City Council since her election in 1996.

She ran as an independent candidate, defeating incumbent Doug McCallum at the polls on November 19, 2005, who had been her political ally as recently as 2003. When she announced her intent to challenge McCallum, she claimed that a "culture of control and conflict has developed at city hall under Doug McCallum" and promised "better co-operation between the city and senior governments to bring more social services into Surrey to deal with homelessness, drug use and crime".[9]

Her election affected regional politics as well, since she replaced McCallum on the board of the Greater Vancouver Regional District.[10]

Dianne Watts at Winterfest 2008

Watts created a political slate called "Surrey First" for the 2008 municipal elections. The slate was made up of current councillors and aspiring individuals from the community. Surrey First is not an official party and its members are reportedly free to vote their consciences on land development and other contentious issues before City Hall. On November 15, 2008, Watts defeated her lone challenger for the mayor's chair by almost 43,000 votes and all six members of her Surrey First slate—Judy Villeneuve, Tom Gill, Barbara Steele, Linda Hepner, Mary Martin and newcomer Barinder Rasode—won seats on Surrey City Council.

She served a term as chair of the Mayor's Council on Regional Transportation (the board which oversees TransLink). She had also been touted as a possible future Premier of British Columbia.[2] Watts was ultimately selected as "the fourth-best mayor in the world, according to the 2010 World Mayor Prize."[11][12]

Watts was a driving force behind the controversial 2011 Surrey Regional Economic Summit, in which former US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton were featured speakers. Amnesty International, the Canadian Centre for International Justice, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Lawyers Against the War all called on Canadian authorities to arrest and prosecute Bush for the use of torture by U.S. forces.[13] Amnesty International stated it had provided the RCMP with more than 4,000 pages of documents[14] alleging that the former US president was engaged in war crimes, and called for his arrest. The human rights group stated that it had submitted a memorandum to Canadian officials outlining why Bush was legally responsible for human-rights violations that took place between 2002 and 2009.[15] The summit was also expected to draw protests.[13]

Watts won re-election to a third term as mayor of Surrey on November 19, 2011 with 80% of the vote. Her slate of Surrey First candidates won all seats on city council, defeating Robert (Bob) Bose, her sole opponent on Surrey City Council. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia will also have their new 76,000 square metre LEED gold certified headquarters in Surrey Green Timbers Park, near Surrey Central City, by early 2013.[16]

Federal politics

At the April 2014 opening ceremony for the new City Hall in Surrey City Centre (formerly Whalley), Watts announced that she would not seek re-election as mayor in the November 2014 municipal election. On September 18, 2014 Watts announced that she was running for the Conservative Party of Canada nomination to replace Russ Hiebert who is retiring as federal Member of Parliament for South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale.[17] As of March 2015, Watts won the party's nomination by acclamation for the revised constituency of South Surrey—White Rock.[18]

Watts won her first federal election campaign on October 19, 2015, and was the only Conservative candidate elected in Surrey's four ridings in the 2015 federal election. Watts received 44% of ballots, or 24,934 of 56,631, ahead of Liberal candidate Judy Higginbotham who received 41.5% according to unofficial Elections Canada results.

BC Liberal leadership

Watts announced on September 24, 2017, her resignation from the House of Commons in order to seek the leadership of the British Columbia Liberal Party. The resignation took effect on September 30.[19] Whilst failing to secure a plurality of votes in any of the rounds, Watts led the leadership race vote until the fifth ballot when she lost to Andrew Wilkinson.[20]

Personal life

Watts married her first husband in 1977 at the age of 18. The marriage ended in divorce. She spent the next few years travelling to places like Australia, Nepal and South America before returning to British Columbia sometime in the late 1980s. In 1992, she married her second husband Brian Watts.[7][21] The couple have two daughters, Elora and Elisha. In 2009, she had three cats and three dogs.[7] She has expressed an interest in Buddhism.[21]

Electoral record

Federal

2015 Canadian federal election
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Conservative Dianne Lynn Watts 24,934 44.0% -8.9 –
Liberal Judith Higginbotham 23,495 41.5% +22.5 –
New Democratic Pixie Hobby 5,895 10.4% -8.8 –
Green Larry Colero 1,938 3.4% -2.5 –
Libertarian Bonnie Hu 261 0.5% – –
Progressive Canadian Brian Marlatt 108 0.2% – –
Total valid votes/Expense limit 56,631 100.0     $207,072.75
Total rejected ballots 219 – –
Turnout 56,850 – –
Eligible voters 76,068
Conservative hold Swing -15.7
Source: Elections Canada[22][23]

Mayoral

2011

Candidate Party Vote %
Dianne Watts (X) Surrey First 55,826 80.29
Ross Buchanan Independent 6,267 9.01
Vikram Bajwa Independent 4,481 6.44
Clifford Inimgba Independent 1,183 1.70
Deanna Welters Independent 1,147 1.65
Shan Rana Independent 330 0.47
Touraj Ghanbar-Zadeh Independent 298 0.43
Joginder Ranhawa Independent 0 0.00

2008

Candidate Vote %
Dianne Watts (X) 51,423 85.9
Murray Weisenberger 8,465 14.1

2005

Candidate Vote %
Dianne Watts 45,981 55.3
Doug McCallum (X) 35,558 40.3
Joe Pal 456 0.5
Joginder Singh Randhawa 448 0.5
Brady Warren Halverson 403 0.5
Jag Bhandari 327 0.4

References

  1. ^ Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts: More than meets the eye. Frances Bula, The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2010
  2. ^ a b Hume, Mark (November 6, 2010). Surrey mayor considers her next political move. The Globe and Mail, p. A8. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  3. ^ David Jordan, "Surrey Mayor". Surrey Leader, June 25, 2012.
  4. ^ Dianne Watts: Surrey's Saviour. BC Business, September 1, 2007.
  5. ^ "Interview with Dianne Watts". jjmccullough.com. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  6. ^ Templeton, The Students of (1974). The Way We Were, 1974 Annual of Templeton Secondary School. Vancouver, BC, Canada: BC School District 39, Vancouver School Board. p. 48.
  7. ^ a b c d Bula, Francis (January 2, 2009). "Her Worship: Dianne Watts transformed herself from an ignored, bullied, and abused young woman into a highly effective and appealing mayor. She's remaking the oft-abused city of Surrey in much the same way". Vancouver Magazine. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  8. ^ Ward, Doug (June 10, 2006). "From shy to sure". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved February 28, 2015.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "SET co-founder moves on to back Watts for mayor". The Now, October 10, 2005.
  10. ^ "Surrey voters will determine GVRD's future". The Georgia Straight, November 10, 2005.
  11. ^ Watts named world's fourth-best mayor (in 2010) Archived September 4, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Vancouver Sun, December 8, 2010.
  12. ^ "A Global Honour for Surrey Mayor". Metro, December 8, 2010.
  13. ^ a b Occupy Surrey protest to welcome George W. Bush to Canada. The Georgia Straight, October 13, 2011.
  14. ^ "Hundreds demand George W. Bush's arrest at Surrey protest". The Globe and Mail, October 20, 2011.
  15. ^ "Amnesty International calls for George W. Bush’s arrest as Surrey visit looms". The Georgia Straight, October 12, 2011.
  16. ^ RCMP E Division Headquarters Relocation Project Fact Sheet. Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2010.
  17. ^ Surrey mayor to seek federal Conservative nomination. The Globe and Mail, September 17, 2014.
  18. ^ "Former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts bolsters Conservative cause". The Globe and Mail. March 25, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  19. ^ https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/24/conservative-mp-dianne-watts-announces-bid-for-bc-liberal-leadership.html
  20. ^ “Andrew Wilkinson elected leader of B.C. Liberals”. CBC, Feb 3 2018.
  21. ^ a b "Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts: More than meets the eye". Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  22. ^ Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for South Surrey—White Rock, 30 September 2015
  23. ^ Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates Archived August 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
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