Surrey mayor to serve second term

Dianne Watts has been re-elected as the mayor of Surrey in a landslide victory.

She was elected in 2005 as the city's first female mayor. She ran as an independent, ousting incumbent mayor Doug McCallum.

Before being elected mayor, Watts had served as a city councillor since 1996.

Surrey'snew downtown is facing serious challenges in the current financial crisis, Watts said, andthat's where strong leadership comes in.

"To make sure that we're creating an environment for investments. We have an investor that we've been working with for a year that about three weeks ago announced his $1.6-billion project in our city centre," Watts said."That'll unfold over the next ten years,so there are people that have significant investments that want to invest in the city and we'll continue to create that environment and make that happen."

Surrey's city councillors are Judy Villeneuve, Tom Gill, Barbara Steele, Linda Hepner, Mary Martin, Barinder Rasode, Bob Bose and Marvin Hunt.

School trustees are Pam Glass, Terry Allen, Shawn Wilson, Reni Masi, Laurie Larsen and Ijaz Ahmed Chatha.