Dianne Lynn Watts (born October 30, 1959) is a former 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. In 2017 she resigned as MP to pursue a failed leadership bid for the BC Liberal provincial party. 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]
Dianne Watts | |
|---|---|
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| Official Opposition Critic for Employment, Workforce Development and Labour | |
| In office August 30, 2017 – September 24, 2017 | |
| Leader | Andrew Scheer |
| Preceded by | Pierre Poilievre |
| Succeeded by | Steven Blaney |
| Member of Parliament for South Surrey—White Rock | |
| In office October 19, 2015 – September 30, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | riding created |
| Succeeded by | Gordon Hogg |
| 35th Mayor of Surrey | |
| In office December 5, 2005 – December 8, 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Doug McCallum |
| Succeeded by | Linda Hepner |
| Surrey City Councillor | |
| In office December 2, 1996 – December 5, 2005 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Dianne Lynn (Milan) Watts October 30, 1959 Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Political party | Surrey First (municipal) Conservative (federal) BC Liberal (provincial) |
| Spouse | Brian Watts[1] |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence(s) | Surrey, British Columbia |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Website | http://diannewattsmp.ca/ |
Early life
editWatts 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
editBefore 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]
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.
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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
editAt 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 was retiring as federal MP 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
editWatts 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
editWatts 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
editFederal
edit| 2015 Canadian federal election: South Surrey—White Rock | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Dianne Watts | 24,934 | 44.03 | -8.85 | $161,579.40 | |||
| Liberal | Judith Higginbotham | 23,495 | 41.49 | +22.40 | $40,658.82 | |||
| New Democratic | Pixie Hobby | 5,895 | 10.41 | -8.78 | $38,925.44 | |||
| Green | Larry Colero | 1,938 | 3.42 | -2.44 | $12.62 | |||
| Libertarian | Bonnie Hu | 261 | 0.46 | – | – | |||
| Progressive Canadian | Brian Marlatt | 108 | 0.19 | – | $400.00 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 56,631 | 100.00 | $208,357.11 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 219 | 0.39 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 56,850 | 74.73 | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 76,078 | |||||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -15.63 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[22][23] | ||||||||
Mayoral
edit2011
edit| 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
edit| Candidate | Vote | % |
|---|---|---|
| Dianne Watts (X) | 51,423 | 85.9 |
| Murray Weisenberger | 8,465 | 14.1 |
2005
edit| 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
edit- ^ Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts: More than meets the eye. Frances Bula, The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2010
- ^ a b Hume, Mark (November 6, 2010). Surrey mayor considers her next political move. The Globe and Mail, p. A8. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
- ^ David Jordan, "Surrey Mayor". Surrey Leader, June 25, 2012.
- ^ Dianne Watts: Surrey's Saviour. BC Business, September 1, 2007.
- ^ "Interview with Dianne Watts". jjmccullough.com. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Ward, Doug (June 10, 2006). "From shy to sure". The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on March 1, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
- ^ "SET co-founder moves on to back Watts for mayor". The Now, October 10, 2005.
- ^ "Surrey voters will determine GVRD's future". The Georgia Straight, November 10, 2005.
- ^ Watts named world's fourth-best mayor (in 2010) Archived September 4, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Vancouver Sun, December 8, 2010.
- ^ "A Global Honour for Surrey Mayor". Metro, December 8, 2010.
- ^ a b Occupy Surrey protest to welcome George W. Bush to Canada. The Georgia Straight, October 13, 2011.
- ^ "Hundreds demand George W. Bush's arrest at Surrey protest". The Globe and Mail, October 20, 2011.
- ^ "Amnesty International calls for George W. Bush’s arrest as Surrey visit looms". The Georgia Straight, October 12, 2011.
- ^ RCMP E Division Headquarters Relocation Project Fact Sheet. Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2010.
- ^ Surrey mayor to seek federal Conservative nomination. The Globe and Mail, September 17, 2014.
- ^ "Former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts bolsters Conservative cause". The Globe and Mail. March 25, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
- ^ "Conservative MP Dianne Watts announces bid for B.C. Liberal leadership | The Star". Toronto Star. September 24, 2017.
- ^ “Andrew Wilkinson elected leader of B.C. Liberals”. CBC, February 3, 2018.
- ^ a b "Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts: More than meets the eye". Retrieved October 9, 2018.
- ^ Canada, Elections. "Voter Information Service - Find your electoral district". www.elections.ca. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
- ^ Canada, Elections. "Error page". www.elections.ca. Retrieved June 11, 2019.