SURREY, B.C. - When voters in Surrey City Centre head to the polls on October 24, the name at the top of the BC NDP ticket will be one the riding already knows: Amna Shah, the incumbent MLA who took the seat in 2024 by just 232 votes – and is now defending it against the same Conservative challenger she defeated.
Shah’s path to Victoria runs through some of Surrey’s most familiar community institutions. She emigrated from Malaysia to Canada with her parents and two siblings as a teenager, later attending Johnston Heights Secondary School. She has called Surrey home for nearly 20 years. Before running for office, she served on the board of directors of the Surrey Food Bank, where she helped lead the expansion of food distribution services across the city, and worked as the Director of Outreach and Stakeholder Relations for the BC NDP caucus – building relationships between government MLAs and B.C.’s diverse communities.
Shortly after her 2024 win, Premier David Eby appointed Shah Deputy Government Whip and Parliamentary Secretary for Mental Health and Addictions and for Anti-Racism Initiatives, a rapid elevation for a first-term MLA that reflected the trust the party places in her.
Her campaign leans on that record: expanded transit, stronger education, more healthcare facilities, and safer communities. “People in Surrey City Centre need a government that will act to make our lives easier: from expanded transit, to strengthened education, to new healthcare facilities – and that’s the BC NDP,” Shah has said.
The reason Shah’s race matters is the math. In 2024, she won Surrey City Centre with 6,726 votes, or 46.70 per cent, against Conservative Zeeshan Wahla’s 6,494 votes, or 45.08 per cent – a margin of just 232 votes that triggered an automatic Elections BC recount. It was one of the closest results in the province.
This time the contest is a rematch, but with a wider field: CentreBC’s Raman Sharma and OneBC’s Oliver Wildfong are also on the ballot, and their presence could pull votes from either of the two frontrunners. With the 2024 margin sitting inside the recount threshold, every vote in Surrey City Centre will count.
Shah’s journey – from an immigrant teenager arriving in Surrey to the Surrey Food Bank boardroom to the legislature – is one she puts at the centre of her pitch: a representative who understands the pressures facing working families because she has spent her career trying to ease them.
Advance voting in Surrey City Centre runs October 16 to 21, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at A.H.P. Matthew Elementary School, Creekside Elementary School, Forsyth Road Elementary School, Queen Elizabeth Secondary School, and Surrey Traditional School. General voting day is Saturday, October 24.
Photo: Amna Shah campaign (amnashah.bcndp.ca)
Sources: amnashah.bcndp.ca; BC NDP; Elections BC; Wikipedia; StudioX News
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