SURREY, B.C. - When voters in Surrey-Cloverdale head to the polls on October 24, one name on the ballot will be familiar from the last campaign: Pat McCutcheon, the BC Green Party candidate and a retired professional engineer who has lived in Cloverdale for more than two decades and is running his second straight provincial race in the riding.
McCutcheon’s pitch is built on a single idea: “For decades traditional political parties have all governed reactively instead of proactively.” It is the line at the top of his campaign biography, and it frames everything else he is running on – stronger public services, more affordable housing, climate action, and long-term planning instead of short-term fixes.
His background is in engineering. McCutcheon graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Applied Science and built a long career in the field. In 1995, he founded his own engineering consulting firm, providing services to heavy equipment manufacturers across the Lower Mainland, and he operated the business for 28 years. He says that professional life gave him experience in problem-solving, long-term planning, and working with businesses across the region – and he remains an active member of the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce.
That community involvement extends beyond business. McCutcheon volunteers with nonprofit organizations that provide free food, clothing and essential programs to neighbours in need, as well as with organizations focused on addressing climate change. He joined the BC Greens in 2019, motivated by a belief in evidence-based policy and the need for environmental, economic, social and fiscal sustainability. He has also tested his candidacy before: he ran for the Greens in Surrey-Cloverdale in the 2024 provincial election, and for the Green Party of Canada in the Cloverdale-Langley City federal by-election.
The reason McCutcheon’s race matters is that Surrey-Cloverdale is genuinely up for grabs. In 2024, Conservative Elenore Sturko took the riding with 10,268 votes, or 48.31 per cent, ahead of NDP incumbent Mike Starchuk’s 9,682, or 45.56 per cent – a 586-vote gap. McCutcheon himself earned 1,150 votes, or 5.41 per cent. This time the two frontrunners are both gone from the riding ballot: Sturko is running for CentreBC in Surrey South, and Starchuk is not running at all. The Conservatives have nominated Nicholas Cartmell and the NDP have nominated Stephen Dooley, meaning a new vote split could open space for a Green candidate with a known name.
McCutcheon is a longtime Cloverdale resident who raised his two sons in the community with his wife. He has seen firsthand, his campaign says, how pressures on healthcare, public education, housing affordability and the environment affect local families.
Advance voting in Surrey-Cloverdale runs October 16 to 21, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at Hillcrest Elementary School, the KPU Cloverdale Campus, and Katzie Elementary School. General voting day is Saturday, October 24.
Photo: BC Green Party (bcgreens.ca)
Sources: bcgreens.ca; Elections BC; BC Ballot; Cloverdale Reporter (Black Press)
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