Suhana Gill takes office as Surrey's youngest city councillor at 20

Suhana Gill was sworn in to Surrey City Council on November 2, 2026. At 20, she is the youngest person ever elected to council in Surrey, RED FM Canada reported at the ceremony. She ran with the Safe Surrey Coalition, the elector organization led by Mayor Doug McCallum, and received 27,809 votes in the October 17 election.

Who she is

Gill was born in Surrey and finished high school two years early, Kwantlen Polytechnic University reported in June 2024. She completed Grade 11 work by Grade 9 and Grade 12 work by Grade 10, KPU quoted her saying, and graduated early. She then started at KPU at 16, first in business studies and then in political science. She graduated in June 2026 with a bachelor of arts in political science, The Runner, KPU's student newspaper, reported in September 2026.

CBC described her as 19 in April 2026. RED FM Canada reported she was 20 at her November 2 swearing-in. The swearing-in took place at Surrey City Hall before a large crowd, with McCallum taking his oath first, followed by the eight councillors as a group.

Before her council run, she was the Kwantlen Student Association's women's representative for the 2024 to 2025 term and chaired the association's governance and university affairs committees, The Runner reported. The Safe Surrey Coalition says she was the youngest person elected to that KSA role and that she represented more than 22,000 students; those figures are the coalition's own.

She told The Runner she works as a real estate agent, which she said gives her a view of the housing market and what young families face when trying to buy a home in Surrey.

The election

Gill ran with Doug McCallum's Safe Surrey Coalition in the October 17, 2026 election. She received 27,809 votes, according to the City of Surrey's official election results certified October 21, placing her fifth among the eight councillors elected.

The top vote-getter among councillors was Harry Bains with 31,340 votes. Doug Elford received 30,835, Meera Gill received 29,875 and Mandeep Singh Nagra received 29,687. Gill received 27,809, Allison Patton 27,135, Laurie Guerra 26,568 and Cheney Cloke 26,326.

The Safe Surrey Coalition holds 7 of the 8 seats. Harry Bains, the top vote-getter, ran with Surrey Connect, outgoing mayor Brenda Locke's party. Gill, Elford, Meera Gill, Nagra, Patton, Guerra and Cloke all ran with the coalition.

What she said she would focus on

In a statement to The Runner in September 2026, Gill wrote that her campaign focused on affordability, infrastructure, safety, and youth and young families. She wrote that Surrey is changing and that council needs leadership that reflects its population.

"I am running because Surrey is changing rapidly, and our council needs leadership that reflects our actual demographic reality," The Runner quoted her.

She added that young people should be in the room when decisions are made about Surrey's future.

Awards before the election

The Surrey Board of Trade named Gill one of its Top 25 Under 25 for 2024. The Surrey Now-Leader gave her the top honour in its 2024 Community Leader Awards in the Environmental Leader category, presented November 21, 2024. KPU reported in June 2024 that Drishti Magazine named her one of its Top 15 Women of Influence Breaking Barriers. These are from the awarding bodies' own announcements and reports.

CBC Radio's On the Coast interviewed her in July 2025 about lowering the voting age. CBC News quoted her in April 2026 about social media rules for young people.

The Safe Surrey Coalition's promises

Gill ran on the Safe Surrey Coalition's platform. The coalition's promises, which are the coalition's own, include a four-year property tax freeze at zero percent, a SkyTrain extension down King George Boulevard to Newton, a new women's and children's hospital in Newton on City-owned land, a police helicopter and drone fleet within 90 days, residential building permits approved within 60 days or the fees are waived, free business licences for new businesses for two years, and Surrey's withdrawal from the Metro Vancouver Regional District with core services kept.

Surrey Citizen reported that the hospital and the SkyTrain extension require provincial approval and funding. Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson committed to both during his campaign, according to Surrey Citizen, but gave no specific funding details. Without the Province acting, the council motions establish the City's position but cannot move construction forward.

Gill's own stated priorities, as she told The Runner, were affordability, infrastructure, safety, and youth and young families. She said her experience as a real estate agent gave her a direct view of the housing market and the challenges young families face when trying to find a home in Surrey. These are her own priorities, separate from but overlapping with the coalition's platform.

The Surrey promise tracker logs each of the coalition's commitments and will be updated as council acts on them through the four-year term.

What comes next

The council's first regular meeting is November 9, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Surrey City Hall. The City of Surrey said in its November 2 press release that the council will vote on all 15 of McCallum's election commitments at that meeting. The Safe Surrey Coalition holds 7 of the 8 seats, which means the coalition's platform commitments have enough votes to pass as council motions on November 9 if all members vote with the coalition.

The meeting is open to the public. The City says it will be livestreamed at surrey.ca.

Anyone who wants to follow Gill's votes and promises through the term can visit her page on the Surrey promise tracker or the Surrey results page, which shows the full official vote count from October.