DIANNE Watts quit as mayor of Surrey to run for Parliament as a Conservative candidate because she was assured of a cabinet post in Stephen Harper’s government – only that he lost in a Liberal tsunami that swept across Canada with Justin Trudeau and Watts was left high and dry. She then tried to be the B.C. Liberal boss, but lost to Andrew Wilkinson. So what? That’s life. That’s politics. Now it is the right time for her to return to Surrey and make the city a power to reckon with. After all, Surrey will one day be the largest and most important city in B.C. So think about it seriously, Dianne. After all, a poll shows that 52 per cent of Surrey-ites would love to have you back.

However, Watts slamming former BC Liberal minister Rich Coleman in an interview with Vancouver Sun that appeared in the newspaper on Thursday was pretty desperate. The fact is that in spite of the casinos’ money laundering scandal under Coleman’s watch, Coleman has more support than Councillor Tom Gill of Surrey First whom she supports – as a poll shows: Coleman – 20%, Gill – 15%. Anyway, let’s see how the civic election scene shapes up.

SURREY Police Force? Bad idea! I’ve been covering gangs and crime since 1994 when the notorious brothers Jim and Ron Dosanjh were fighting with the equally infamous Bindy Johal and his buddies. (The Dosanjh brothers were shot dead in 1994, one of them in broad daylight at the busy intersection of Kingsway and Fraser Street in rush-hour traffic, and Bindy Johal was shot dead in 1998 in front of hundreds of people at a downtown Vancouver club.)  Dozens and dozens of South Asian young men, lured by the false glamour of a gang lifestyle that always ends tragically one way or the other, have perished since then – and unfortunately continue to die because they won’t listen to sound advice. Too bad!

But the LAST thing we need is another municipal police force – whether in Surrey or Burnaby or Richmond, because of the way gangs operate especially now. There are NO borders. If there should be any change at all, it should be the formation of a Metro Vancouver police force. But right now, the Surrey Mounties need the resources to deal with a massive youth population that has its own dynamics – and it is very different from any other B.C. city. Just because there is a civic election in October, politicians should not shamelessly indulge in sensationalism and opportunism. Besides, we can’t have a Surrey police force overnight – it will be a long process and I believe it will only make matters worse. We need MORE coordination of police forces across the Lower Mainland – NOT more isolation. And we need South Asian parents to stop pretending they don’t know that their kids are involved with gangs and drugs and get police help to TRY and get them out of that deadly lifestyle.

ABBOTSFORD’S TerraLink Horticulture Inc.’s former employee Dillon Mazzei’s racist Facebook comments regarding the fatal accident of a South Asian senior who had been participating in the Canada Day parade in Abbotsford clearly show that racism is alive and kicking among many white guys. That white racism against South Asians and others is usually subtle nowadays because of a host of factors including the fact that South Asians are a powerful community – numerically, financially, politically and so on. BUT the fact that this guy actually made his disgusting views public – referring to South Asians as ” f–king Hindus” and “sh-t skins” so blatantly –  shows that he MUST have been using such terms openly with his friends at work and in his social circle. This is why white supremacists are able to create problems now and then in B.C.’s multicultural society. They well know that at least in B.C. they can do NOTHING about multiculturalism – it’s a losing battle as I had predicted time and again in The VOICE back in the 1990s.

As regards the term “f–king Hindus,” many South Asians, especially newcomers, get confused and even react with the words: “I am not Hindu! I am Sikh [or Muslim or Christian]!” Those racists are not really bothered about your religion. They are attacking all BROWN guys from South Asian countries by using that derogatory term.

JAGMEET Singh, federal NDP Leader, gets NO pay as the party’s head honcho.

And as he has not been elected to the House of Commons as yet, he does not even get the $176,000 a year salary of an MP.

Singh, according to his press secretary, will not draw a salary from his party until its finances improve significantly, the Toronto Star reports.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gets an annual salary of $350,000 and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer gets $260,000.

The NDP, of course, covers Singh’s expenses when he travels for the party’s affairs.

And while Trudeau and Scheer have donated more than $100 per month to their parties for a couple of years now, financial returns to Elections Canada show Singh’s ONLY contribution to his party since the 2015 federal election has been $10: $5 to his own leadership campaign and $5 to the party – that was made on August 16 last year!