SURREY, B.C. - Megan Knight of the Conservative Party of BC is the projected winner in Surrey South in the Oct. 24, 2026 provincial election, holding a commanding lead over BC NDP candidate Parik Tahlan in Elections BC’s preliminary count, with CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko running third in the riding she once represented.
Update, Oct. 25: Elections BC’s final election-night count gave Knight 12,556 votes, ahead of Tahlan (4,535) and Sturko (2,074), a margin of 8,021. Results are preliminary; the final count runs Nov. 6 to 10.
In Elections BC’s final election-night count, Knight had 12,556 votes and 61.39% of the vote in Surrey South, ahead of Tahlan at 4,535 votes, a lead of 8,021 votes. Elections BC counted 20,452 valid votes in Surrey South. Results remain preliminary; the final count runs Nov. 6 to 10, 2026.
Full Surrey South results
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Megan Knight | Conservative Party of BC | 12,556 | 61.39% |
| Parik Tahlan | BC NDP | 4,535 | 22.17% |
| Elenore Sturko | CentreBC | 2,074 | 10.14% |
| Bill McConnell | BC Green Party | 1,021 | 4.99% |
| Denis R Hurtubise | Unaffiliated | 266 | 1.30% |
Elections BC counted 20,452 valid votes in Surrey South in the final election-night count. Knight’s lead of 8,021 votes is larger than Tahlan’s entire vote total, and she holds nearly three times his support, which is why she is the projected winner. The race had no incumbent on the ballot: Brent Chapman won Surrey South for the Conservatives in 2024 with 13,056 votes, but he crossed the floor to OneBC on Sept. 22, 2026 and his name does not appear on the 2026 ballot.
A sitting mayor heads to Victoria
Knight goes to Victoria from city hall. She has led the neighbouring City of White Rock as mayor since 2022, when she defeated incumbent Darryl Walker 2,001 votes to 1,811, after serving as a White Rock city councillor from 2014 to 2018. She has called the White Rock area home for more than 46 years, graduated from Semiahmoo Secondary, studied at the University of British Columbia, and was commissioned as a British Columbia Notary Public in 1998, building a practice she ran for 25 years serving local families and businesses.
Her reach extends well beyond one small city. Knight has served on the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors and the TransLink Mayors’ Council, giving her firsthand experience with the regional transportation, growth and cost decisions that shape daily life for South Surrey and White Rock families, and in 2022 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medallion for community service. This was not her first run at provincial office: in 2020 she sought the BC Liberal nomination in neighbouring Surrey-White Rock, a race ultimately won by Trevor Halford. Her Surrey South run came together quickly after the Conservatives turned to her when Chapman left the party; she had been planning to seek a second term as mayor, and because the civic withdrawal deadline of Sept. 18 had already passed, her name still appeared on White Rock’s Oct. 17 mayoral ballot even as she campaigned provincially. On the campaign trail, her pledge was to be a strong voice for safer communities and lower costs, in a party whose first promise of the campaign was to never raise taxes.
CentreBC leader Elenore Sturko runs third in her old riding
The night’s most striking subplot in Surrey South is the third-place finish of a provincial party leader. Elenore Sturko, the leader of CentreBC, took 2,074 votes and 10.14% in the riding where her own provincial career began. Sturko, a former RCMP staff sergeant who served 13 years in the force and was a Surrey RCMP spokesperson from 2018, was first elected in a September 2022 by-election in Surrey South for the BC Liberal Party. She crossed the floor to the BC Conservatives in June 2024 and won Surrey-Cloverdale that October with 10,268 votes, before being removed from the Conservative caucus on Sept. 22, 2025 and sitting as an independent.
Sturko joined the newly formed CentreBC on Sept. 18, 2026, alongside seven other former Conservative MLAs, and became the party’s leader four days later when those seven returned to the Conservative Party and she stayed. She campaigned from her home base in Surrey South on a centrist platform of affordability, safety and opportunity. As of 10:49 p.m. PT, CentreBC was not leading in any of the province’s 93 districts, leaving its leader well behind in the race for the seat she once held.
What it means for South Surrey
Surrey South covers South Surrey, from the King George Boulevard corridor to the Ocean Park and Crescent Beach edges of the city, and it is one of Surrey’s fastest-growing areas, with new subdivisions and townhouse developments adding families every year. Its voters now send an MLA to Victoria who sits with the governing party, and who arrives with a mayor’s background in the municipal files that dominate daily life in the riding. South Surrey residents will be watching for delivery on the issues that defined the campaign locally: school space in a fast-growing corner of the Surrey school district, traffic and transit along King George Boulevard, health care access for a growing and aging population, and the cost pressures on families that both Knight and her party put at the centre of their campaigns. Her seat at the government table also means South Surrey’s growth files, from road upgrades to new school construction, will be argued by an MLA on the governing side for the first time under a Conservative government.
Conservatives form a majority government
Knight’s projected win is part of a province-wide Conservative victory. As of 10:49 p.m. PT, Elections BC’s preliminary results showed the Conservative Party of BC leading in 64 of 93 districts, the BC NDP leading in 27 and the BC Green Party in 2. A party needs 47 seats for a majority, and the Conservatives, led into the election by interim leader Lorne Doerkson, will form a majority government, ending nine years of BC NDP government. Conservative candidates led in all 10 Surrey ridings late Saturday night.
Full riding-by-riding numbers are on the Apna News live results hub and update as Elections BC reports. This story will be updated after Elections BC’s final count, Nov. 6 to 10.
Source: Elections BC news release / official results, October 24, 2026
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