The ever increasing weight of Surrey in the BC Legislature

Surrey first got their own MLA in time for the 1966 election and has seen their portion of the MLAs in rise consistently over the years.

Surrey  Total Pct of   Election
MLAs    MLAs  Total 
 1      55     1.8% 1966, '69, 72, '75 (Vancouver had 12 MLAs)
 2      57     3.5% 1979, '83
 3      69     4.3% 1986 
 5      75     6.7% 1991, '96
 7      79     8.9% 2001, '05
 8      85     9.4% 2009, '13 (Vancouver has 11 MLAs)

Based on the increased population, Surrey will rise to 9 MLAs in the next redistribution meaning that more than one in ten BC MLAs will come from Surrey.    Surrey has consistently risen and is almost at Vancouver levels of representation.  

It is not only Surrey that has grown, all of the suburbs of the lower mainland have grown.  Of the six ridings in BC that have too high a population, all of them are core suburbs of the lower mainland.   The suburbs have a reasonable claim to have three more seats which means those seats have to come from somewhere else in the province or we have to add four more MLAs to the legislature.

If we were to add four more seats, the lower mainland suburbs would go from 35 of 85 seats to 39 of 89 seats.   This is not yet a majority but it is getting close.   It will be the same number as MLAs that do not come from the lower mainland