Dianne Watts: World Mayor 2010 Contender
Six years ago, one very early morning, I was sitting in the lobby bar of the Sheraton Guilford waiting for a friend to meet me for breakfast. It was a fairly sunny late summer day and I was on my way to Scottsdale on business that afternoon.
I hadn’t a minute to waste and was anxious to hear the “big news” she’d promised.
As I was thumbing through the morning’s papers, she’s notoriously late, the silence broke upon her gleeful arrival.
“She’s in”
“What the devil are you talking about?” I said. “Who’s in?”
“Dianne Watts” said she, “I think she’s going to run for Mayor against Doug McCallum, the wheels are already in motion and the people lining up behind her are going to steamroll Doug”
Her joy was palpable and I wasn’t sure if I was more happy for her or for the City of Surrey. After breakfast when we were saying our goodbyes, I felt like something big was about to happen. The cronyism and corruption of the McCallan years would be replaced with someone fresh and honest.
The whole plane ride down, it was all I could think about. With Gordon Campbell then looking like he’d one day crash and burn (I’m a prophet on occasion) I kept thinking that something really big was indeed happening…
I’d met Dianne Watts some years earlier at a hearing in council chambers over a proposed (and as yet unresolved–it’s quite complicated) road that would join White Rock and Surrey. She struck me as intelligent, highly-presentable, reasonable and pragmatic. Her comments were cogent and sensible.
And she laughed. Heartily. “Who does that in politics?” I asked myself quietly. Act human, respond without a hint of hypocrisy or make-believe? “Transformational!” I thought.
During the campaign of 2005, I was already morphing into a scribbler, and I can remember making a prediction from the victory celebration honouring Watts, to my same friend.
“There will come a day” I said, “when that woman, if she plays her cards right, and doesn’t forget this moment, will become a political force that may transform the way politics is done–and not just in Surrey…she’s amazing, she just knocked off Goliath has shattered the status quo culture of corruption”
“Sure” said my friend, “but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Roll forward to the over one dozen interviews I’ve done with Mayor Megawatts, and the countless calls I’ve made to her office over the years, that she promptly and politely returned, and it didn’t take much for me to ask her, well before anyone else in the media had even though about it, if she’d one day think of running for Premier.
She laughed and playfully called me crazy.
Well, who looks nutty now?
Dozens of columns have been written about her, just in the last six months, and about the absolutely extraordinary job she’s done as Mayor of Surrey–the fastest growing city in B.C. and the most desirable place to want to raise and family, start a business; live and love.
To mention someone like Gregor Robertson, for example, (who wishes he were all these things Watts is) in B.C.’s largest city, who could only dream to accomplish even a fraction of what Watts has done, is an abject insult–so it’s not a stretch at all to see Dianne Watts in the list of finalists for World Mayor 2010.
She transformed (there’s that word again) Surrey. When I lived there during the McCallum years, it was a much different place. All the jokes you ever heard about the then armpit of B.C. not only rang true, they could have parked themselves on your lawn nightly or thrown up on your doorstep every weekend.
Now take a drive through one of the country’s most beautiful places to live. People are happy, they greet each other on the street. Merchants are helpful, sometimes to a fault. Business is booming, school kids are eager to learn. Old folks feel safe.
Did Watts do all this herself? Of course not. But if it wasn’t for her, none of it would have been possible.
Business incentives, workplace equality, safe zones, no-drug wars–just a massive crackdown on thuggery, unparalleled co-operation between the police and the community, REAL drug treatment–both private and public, fairness doctrines, community support–you name it and Dianne Watts’ name is on it.
And politics is done much differently: with openness and honesty; courage and purpose. (Now wouldn’t that be a refresher in Victoria?)
Are there places to improve upon? Of course there are. There always will be. But Watts has been an extraordinary leader that has helmed an extraordinary group of councillors through her truly non-partisan vehicle, Surrey First.
So, to the woman who may, very soon, end up having to answer the question “Your Worship, the news out of Victoria that the Premier has resigned puts you squarely at the top of the list of possible replacements, are you in?”–our heartiest congratulations for making it down to the final 25 from a list of thousands of possible candidates for World Mayor 2010.
And if the prize goes to someone else, she’s still ‘the most successful Mayor in the Canada’–she could trademark that phrase and get away with it.
Think of that next time someone wants to tell you a Surrey joke…
And think of Surrey’s motto: “The future lives here”
Because they might want to change that to, “…and anywhere else Dianne Watts goes”
She is doing all the right things. Surrey is nothing like the Car City used car wasteland it was in the 1970′s. Amazed how Whalley is transforming into a place you’d want to live in, not like it was before, a place you just went through and glad you did.
Surrey now is not the Surrey we knew on the other side of the Fraser River back in the 1970s.
But she has mostly some very good people she knows and that helps.
Sh also has smarts which many politicians (including our idiot Premier) don’t.
As much as she would be very good (and does be careful about who gets into her decision circle) can’t see her running and winning the BC Liberal leadership. She’s considered ‘Big City” by the country bumpkins, and the Boys ad Girls on Howe Street want someone they can knead and shape like Silly Putty as they have with Gordon Campbell.
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I’ll agree on everything except the part about her not being able to win the leadership. I think she could do it without question. And I also disagree on how she’s viewed by the rural fellas and gals–she identifies very well with them and that’s the appeal. As for the Howe Street crew, they cannot run the province forever. They are still influential, yes, but they will play no role this time around. Not unless Kevin Falcon wins–and that’ll only happen if she or Carole Taylor don’t run. Falcon is favoured by Howe street, without question–to his credit, he’s made an effort to keep in touch.
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I still say she has a better set of legs than any of the others, and it can’t hurt to show them. It hasn’t hurt in the past; apparently she has a pretty (good) head on her shoulders too, which is even more important.
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I suppose it’s all relevant, but for as long as I’ve know Watts, she never trades on her attractive looks. I think someone would get a rather rude awakening if they tried to go there with her. She’s tough as nails–her nails!
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I agree Alex she has star power and is very adept politically. Indeed she knocked off McCallum like a tiresome bug because of her star power. Where does she line up though? Hard right, or soft right and what does that look like? I agree Surrey has been served well under her leadership. Dianne Watts certainly appears to be the one to defeat the NDP handily much more than Carole Taylor could ever dream of doing. My one concern regarding Dianne Watts is that she would align herself with the BC lieberals who have spinelessly sat back and collected cheques and accolades while our Province has been run like a bananna republic by a man beholden to big business.
Does Dianne Watts really want to be a part of this group of sociopaths?
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These, of course, are questions only she can answer.
But I’ll give it whirl, here…
I think Watts is a gifted woman: she genuinely understands that her beliefs, as a public servant, must be tied to common sense and reason. She gets it. That’s neither right nor left. It’s level-headedness that makes for a good politician–and in this day–it’s a very rare attribute. She’s definitely a fiscal conservative but a great social liberal. She thinks outside the box and isn’t afraid to embrace inovation, but again, innovation that makes sense.
As for the current crop of MLAs…I think you’d see some significant changes if either of Watts or Taylor were to make an appearance. Stay tuned!
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Bewlay – Let’s trust that she might not pander to certain groups by giving away our heritage. Canada, and specifically B.C. probably have more indigene based names than any other country in the world, starting with the name “Canada”. In less than a year, at he behest of the provincial Liberals with Vision backing, and their support of New York socialists, we have seen the change of the Queen Charlotte Islands to Haida Gwaii, and the Strait of Georgia to Salish Sea, and now they want to rename the world famous Stanley Park to some unpronounceable Indian name. It appears that Gregor Robertson supports it, as does Ellen Woodsworth and provincially, Kevin Krueger. There’s a typical Teutonic return to savagery, and Thor and Odin and the dark oaken forests of primeval Europe. As for the so-called Noble Savage, they practiced slavery with all the relish of the whiteman, and partook of the vilest forms of torture. (Read on the death of Jean de Brebouef and his followers) And though they would have you believe they were a matriarchal society, truth is that many treated their women on par with the slaves and dogs. Certain prairie tribes were noted for cutting off the noses of women who were accused of sleeping with white men. Spare me the political correctness please.
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@ 5:29 I don’t subscribe to your brand of Canadian heritage so please refrain from including me when you say “our heritage”. Yes most of us are aware of the selective coastal first nations history you spout, I don’t think it amounts to a pinch of camel shit when you consider the whole question of treaty rights though. If your regime of tranquilisers has not rendered you senseless this morning perhaps you could think about that for a while. I’m sure you will be telling me next that Israel should not exist, that segregation was a good thing, and Hitler was just misunderstood. Your hatred and loathing will be your demise, I am sure of that. Now please be a good chap and feck-off.
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Easy there, le tigre… some good points, but I know the gentleman and what’s funny is that I think you’ve both misunderstood one another–you might both find yourselves on the same side of many issues you’ve just touched.
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My dear Bewlay, I wasn’t referring to you on the political correctness thing, but political correctness in general. That said, I think Alex is wrong on the point that we may agree with one another on more things than we disagree. I find you rude and your argumentum ad hominem childish, almost bitchy, and bitchiness I can’t tolerate, especially in a man. Perhaps I have guessed your gender wrongly, but judging from the spelling and the the assumption that I am a chappie, suggests you’re one of those class conscious (edited–AGT). I support the right of Israel to exist, will live in any neighbourhood I wish and have no time for Hitler or most Englishmen, for that matter. Oh, and as for treaties, they were made mostly by British chappies, like Duncan Campbell Scott, and I’m not sure the Brits have honoured any of the many treaties they’ve been involved in around the old Empire.
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Okay guys, enough. Can we get back to topic please?
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