Conservative Party of BC candidate for MLA in Surrey-Guildford. He is vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education.
Garry Thind is the Conservative Party of BC candidate in Surrey-Guildford. BC NDP MLA Garry Begg won the district in 2024 by 22 votes. The Surrey school district's own page says Thind was first elected as a school trustee in 2014 and is now the board's vice-chair. He is also on the City of Surrey's list of school trustee candidates for the local election of October 17, 2026. He ran for MLA once before, in Surrey-Fleetwood in 2020 for the BC Liberal Party, and finished second with 5,776 votes (30.72 percent).
A researched record of Garry Thind's 2026 run for MLA in Surrey-Guildford, his years on the Surrey Board of Education, and his 2020 run in Surrey-Fleetwood.
Attendance is identified for each event. Unconfirmed listings are not confirmed candidate appearances.
5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Public forumAttendance unconfirmed
Surrey and White Rock Provincial Candidates Forum
To be announced by the organizers
The organizers invited candidates of five parties in all 10 Surrey and White Rock districts. Neither the organizers nor the campaign has named him as attending.
Hosted by the Surrey & White Rock Board of Trade, the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce and the White Rock Business Improvement Association. Free, with registration required.
On dates without a confirmed appearance the public schedule is unknown; the candidate may still have activities that day. This static page changes only when its research is updated.
01 / Introduction
About Garry Thind
Elections BC lists Garry Thind as the Conservative Party candidate in Surrey-Guildford. On the copy of the list stamped October 1, 2026 11:00:06 PM, the other accepted candidates in the district are Garry Begg of the BC NDP and Jodi Murphy of the BC Green Party. Nominations close at 1 p.m. on October 3, 2026. The party's release of September 29, 2026 names him as "Gurpreet Gary Thind".
Elections BC's 2024 statement of votes shows Garry Begg won Surrey-Guildford with 8,947 votes (46.93 percent) to 8,925 (46.81 percent) for Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa. voche.me found no candidate named Thind in the 2024 results on 2026-10-01.
The Surrey school district's board page lists him as Vice-Chairperson and says he was first elected to the Board of Education in 2014 and is serving his fourth term. The district reported that trustees elected him vice-chair at the November 2025 board meeting, for a term that ends November 30, 2026.
The City of Surrey lists him as a school trustee candidate for Surrey First Education in the local election of October 17, 2026. The Surrey Now-Leader described him on September 28, 2026 as the board vice-chair who recently announced he is running for re-election to the school board. voche.me found no statement from him on 2026-10-01 about holding both offices.
Elections BC's 2020 statement of votes shows a Garry Thind as the BC Liberal candidate in Surrey-Fleetwood, with 5,776 votes (30.72 percent). Jagrup Brar of the BC NDP won with 11,457 votes. A 2020 candidate profile on YouCount describes that candidate as a Surrey school trustee, a past president of the Rotary Club of Surrey and a Century 21 Coastal Realty realtor, the same details the party gives in 2026, so voche.me treats them as one person.
During the 2020 campaign, the BC NDP asked Elections BC to investigate a group chat run in his campaign's name over mail-in ballot requests. Elections BC said it found no evidence that corrupt voting had occurred. The section on accountability below gives the details.
The party says he has lived in Surrey for more than 27 years, works as a realtor with Century 21 Coastal Realty, is a past president of the Rotary Club of Surrey, leads the BC region of the Pingalwara Society of Ontario and has helped raise more than $5.4 million for charity since 2002. voche.me has not checked these claims with the employer, the club or the charity.
Published positions and selected commitments, separated by election cycle. Status labels describe the evidence reviewed, not a numerical score or a complete audit of the platform. Council approval is different from delivery.
11 commitments shown · Checked Oct 1
2026 · EducationCampaign pledge
Provincial money now to buy land for Surrey schools
Told the Surrey Citizen in June 2026, as vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education, that the provincial government should spend money now to buy land for future schools, even if the schools are built later.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
He said this as a trustee, before the party named him as its candidate. The article reports that the board's 2027-28 capital plan asked the Province for $5.49 billion. He named no amount of provincial money, no budget and no date for the land purchases.
What still needs checking
As MLA, how much would he ask the Province to spend on school sites in Surrey, and in which budget?
Conservative Party of BC Surrey release on affordability
The party's release naming its Surrey candidates says they are ready to make life affordable again. It names grocery, housing and gas prices as the problem. The release quotes Thind, but these words are the party's.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. His own quote in the release names no issue. The release gives no measure, number, cost or date.
What still needs checking
Which cost of living measure would he push for first?
The party's platform page lists a plan titled Get BC Building, described as a plan to end the housing shortage and make life more affordable. The page says the platform is coming soon and does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on housing. The page gives no measure, number, cost or date.
What still needs checking
Does the party publish the plan, and does Thind speak on it?
The party's platform page lists a plan titled Putting Patients First, on access to care and wait times. The page says the platform is coming soon and does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on health care. The page gives no measure, number, cost or date.
The party's platform page lists a plan titled Safe and Secure, described as a plan to restore public safety and confidence in the justice system. The page says the platform is coming soon and does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on public safety. The page gives no measure, number, cost or date.
The party's platform page lists a plan titled A Free and Prosperous BC that says the party will encourage investment and grow living standards. The page says the platform is coming soon and does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on jobs or the economy. The page gives no measure, number, cost or date.
Party leader Lorne Doerkson said in a release dated September 27, 2026 that his government would bring in no new taxes. The release does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
The promise is the leader's. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on taxes. The release gives no budget figure.
What still needs checking
How would the party pay for its plans without new revenue?
The party's platform page lists a plan titled Powering BC, for what it calls a clean and affordable energy future. The page says the platform is coming soon and does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on climate or energy. The page gives no measure, number, cost or date.
Conservative Party of BC plan on economic reconciliation
The party's platform page lists a plan titled Economic Reconciliation, Healthy Communities, for partnerships, economic development and respect for Indigenous governance. The page says the platform is coming soon and does not name Thind.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Thind on reconciliation. The page gives no measure, number, cost or date.
His public role is school trustee. The board's minutes could not be opened, so his dated actions come from the district's own news and from reporting, and none of them earns a score.
Official record
Elected vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education
The district reported on November 13, 2025 that trustees nominated and elected him vice-chair at the November board meeting, for the period ending November 30, 2026. He followed trustee Terry Allen in the role.
Scope, limits and sources
An election to a board office is a role and earns no score.
The Surrey Citizen reported that the board passed its 2027-28 five-year capital plan at its June 10, 2026 meeting. The plan asks the Province for 19 school additions, 29 new schools and 26 site purchases. Thind spoke about the plan to the newspaper as vice-chair.
Scope, limits and sources
The report does not say how each trustee voted, and voche.me could not open the minutes, so the decision is not attributed to him.
Read original statements and reporting, or open the publisher’s video. A summary of a speech is labelled separately from a full recording.
Statement
Quoted in the party's Surrey candidates release
The party release quotes him saying the Surrey team will work to make the city a place to live, work and raise a family, and that the candidates are unified behind leader Lorne Doerkson.
Surrey Citizen interview on the school capital plan
As board vice-chair he said Surrey has 83,000 students and expects a student population of 90,000 in the next 10 years, said the Province should buy school land now, and said the education minister told the board there was no money.
Records are labelled by type, including official findings, civil proceedings and political disputes where applicable. Each entry identifies the response found in the sources and the latest status verified for this page.
Campaign dispute
2020 complaint to Elections BC over mail-in ballot requests
Global News reported on September 29, 2020 that the BC NDP, in a letter from lawyer Rachel Roy, asked Elections BC to investigate a WhatsApp group called "Garry Thind-Fleetwood". The letter alleged that members were asked to collect voters' personal information to request mail-in ballots for them. The letter said the Election Act does not allow a person to request a ballot for someone else. CBC News reported that screen shots listed Thind as one of the group's administrators.
Candidate or party response
Elections BC told Global News that his campaign and the BC Liberal Party denied the allegations and said no voter information was received and no ballot requests were made for voters. A BC Liberal spokesperson told CBC News that a volunteer had given team members incorrect instructions. On October 3, 2020, Thind told Global News the accusations were false and asked the people who spread them to apologize to his campaign volunteers.
Verified status and limits
CBC News and Global News reported on October 3, 2020 that Elections BC had concluded its investigation and found no evidence that corrupt voting had occurred. voche.me did not open Elections BC's own statement.
A dated reading list from independent publishers. The headings below are voche.me summaries; follow each link for the original article, context and any corrections.
Reporting
North Delta Reporter · Tom Zillich
Conservatives name candidates in all 10 Surrey districts
Lists "Gurpreet Gary Thind" as the party's Surrey-Guildford candidate and repeats the party's statements.
Names him as the Conservative candidate against Garry Begg and describes him as the school board vice-chair who had announced he would seek re-election to the board.
Sources checked October 1, 2026. Official records establish decisions; campaign material establishes stated positions; reporting adds investigation and context. None alone establishes every claim.
No campaign website was found on 2026-10-01: the party page links to no site of his own, and five likely addresses did not answer. His X account (@gpthind) answered a direct request and showed its profile line, which describes a Century 21 Coastal Realty realtor and Surrey school trustee, and five posts dated 2022 to 2025. The account lists 1,176 posts, so most were not read, and no 2026 campaign post was shown. Search results also showed Instagram and Facebook accounts and a RE/MAX realtor page under the same name. No page read ties them to this candidacy, so nothing from them is used. The Surrey Board of Education's minutes are on an eScribe portal that answers direct reads and WebFetch with a browser check (HTTP 403). The Internet Archive holds copies of 18 documents from that portal, captured from 2023 to 2026, and none of them is a set of minutes, so no vote or motion is attributed to him. The party's candidate page labels him "Interim Conservative Party Leader". The party's team page lists him only as the Surrey-Guildford candidate, so voche.me does not repeat that label. His Rotary Club of Surrey presidency, his role with the Pingalwara Society of Ontario, the $5.4 million raised for charity, his realtor work, his school board committee chairs and his seat on the advisory board of Western Community College are stated by the party and by his trustee campaign; voche.me has not checked them with those bodies. The tie between this candidate and the 2020 Surrey-Fleetwood candidate rests on a YouCount profile whose details match the party's 2026 page. The outcome of the 2020 complaint comes from CBC News and Global News; Elections BC's own statement was not opened. The 2022 and earlier school board election results were not opened; his terms come from the district's board page. He is a candidate in both the October 17 local election and the October 24 provincial election. voche.me found no statement from him on 2026-10-01 about which office he would keep if elected to both. The Surrey First Education platform is a team platform for the school board race and is not scored here. Nominations close October 3, 2026, so other candidates may still be added. Campaign finances and endorsements were not reviewed. The questionnaire has not been sent.
Research status
What voche.me has checked
Evidence reviewed on 2026-10-01: the Elections BC candidate list and key dates page, the 2024 and 2020 statements of votes, the party's candidate, team, platform and news pages and two party releases, the Surrey school district's board page and its November 2025 news item, the City of Surrey's school trustee candidate pages, his Surrey First Education page, his X account, a 2020 YouCount profile, and reporting from the Surrey Now-Leader, North Delta Reporter, Peace Arch News, Surrey Citizen, CBC News and Global News.
voche.me found no campaign website on 2026-10-01. The school board's minutes could not be opened, so no board vote or motion is attributed to him. An empty section records what voche.me did not find on this date.
03 / Background
Experience & community
2014 to 2026
School trustee, Surrey Board of Education
The district's board page says he was first elected in 2014 and is serving his fourth term.
Proposed questions for a future interview. They have not been sent to the candidate, and no answers have been supplied.
If you are elected both as a school trustee on October 17 and as MLA on October 24, which office will you keep?
No response has been submitted.
How much provincial money would you ask for to buy school sites in Surrey, and in which budget?
No response has been submitted.
Which parts of your party's platform would you put first for Surrey-Guildford?
No response has been submitted.
Have your own question?
Ask Garry Thind directly. We send it to the campaign, and publish the reply here if we get one.
05 / About this page
Questions about this page
Facts voche.me can state about Garry Thind's page itself, answered directly rather than left blank.
Is this an official page for Garry Thind?
No. This page is researched by voche.me from public sources, listed below, and is separate from Garry Thind's own campaign.
What party is Garry Thind running with?
Garry Thind is running for MLA with Conservative Party of BC.
Does Garry Thind currently hold public office?
Yes. Garry Thind currently serves as Vice-chair, Surrey Board of Education.
How many sources does this Garry Thind profile cite?
This profile lists 7 sourced references, each with the date voche.me checked it, in the Sources section below.
Why do some questions on Garry Thind's page show no answer?
The "Questions & answers" section on this page lists questions voche.me would put to Garry Thind in a future interview. They have not been sent yet, so the page says plainly that no answer has been supplied instead of leaving the section blank.
When is the election Garry Thind is running in?
The 2026 British Columbia election, including the MLA race, is decided on October 24, 2026.
06 / Candidate contributions
Space for campaign updates
No campaign updates yet
Announcements, event details and messages can be added here, with their source and publication date. No campaign submission has been added.
