SURREY, B.C. - When voters in Surrey-Fleetwood head to the polls on October 24, the OneBC candidate on the ballot will be a lifelong Surrey resident who has worked in restaurant kitchens and now runs a small business. Carolyn Hofbauer is pitching herself as a mother, business owner, and Newton-raised local who wants to take that experience to the legislature.
Hofbauer grew up in Surrey’s Newton neighbourhood and attended Frank Hurt Secondary School. She began working at 15 while continuing her education, and after high school studied music, English, and history at what is now Kwantlen Polytechnic University. During her college years she also worked as a substitute teacher.
Much of her early career was spent in the restaurant industry. She worked as a chef at Fresgo Inn before becoming head chef at The Vault Restaurant in Cloverdale, where she spent nearly a decade. She later joined her family business. Today, she manages BC Firearms Academy alongside her husband. Running a small business, she says, has given her firsthand experience with the challenges facing employers, employees, and families in British Columbia.
Hofbauer and her husband are raising their son, Blake. In her campaign materials, she describes family as the centre of her life and the lens through which she thinks about the future of her community.
Her stated priorities are blunt. She wants to repeal SOGI, the province’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity classroom resources, so teachers can focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic. She wants to cancel DRIPA, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which she says creates uncertainty for homeowners. And she wants to cut taxes in every bracket by 25 per cent, arguing that industry and jobs will return with it.
“I will never support a tax increase, if I do – fire me. I will never be dishonest, if I do – fire me,” she has said. She argues the NDP has to go, but that the province also needs what she calls a safeguard to protect conservative parties from being taken over by liberal interests.
OneBC is a new provincial party, formed in June 2025 by former BC Conservative MLAs and led by interim leader Dallas Brodie of Vancouver-Quilchena. The party is running 34 candidates provincewide.
Surrey-Fleetwood was won by BC NDP incumbent Jagrup Brar in 2024 with 9,923 votes, ahead of Conservative Raminder Gill at 9,170 and Green candidate Tim Binnema at 1,321. The 2026 ballot has five names: Brar for the NDP, Garry Purewal for the Conservatives, Paul Brar for CentreBC, Binnema again for the Greens, and Hofbauer for OneBC.
Advance voting in Surrey-Fleetwood runs October 16 to 21, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at Coyote Creek Elementary School, Johnston Heights Church, and Northwood United Church. General voting day is Saturday, October 24.
Photo: OneBC (1bc.ca/candidates/chofbauer)
Sources: 1bc.ca; Elections BC; Surrey Now-Leader candidate questionnaire (via europesays)
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