SURREY, B.C. — Oct. 1, 2026 — Former Surrey journalist and recovery professional Kevin Diakiw has announced his intention to run as an Independent candidate in Surrey–White Rock in the Oct. 24 B.C. provincial election.
Diakiw, who says he has lived in the community for 30 years, spent more than two decades working as a journalist with The Surrey Leader. His campaign says his reporting covered Surrey city politics, policing, courts, health care, addiction, mental health, homelessness and the city’s rapid growth.
In a statement announcing his candidacy, Diakiw said his journalism career involved reporting on government decisions while speaking with residents affected by those decisions.
“My job was to sit across from politicians and keep asking until the answer made sense,” Diakiw said.
His campaign highlighted several investigative and feature projects from his journalism career, including Equal Opportunity Destroyer, which examined mental illness through the experiences of patients, families and others affected by the system.
The campaign also points to The Faces of Fentanyl, a project produced with photographer Evan Seal during B.C.’s toxic-drug crisis. According to the campaign, the project received national recognition at the 2017 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards.
From journalism to recovery work
Diakiw left journalism in 2017 and moved into addiction and recovery work.
His campaign says he became a recovery coach, facilitator and trainer and co-founded Surrey-based Still Here Recovery. He says that work gave him a different perspective on the systems he had previously covered as a journalist.
“When you’re up close, you see what the headlines miss,” Diakiw said, describing situations involving treatment referrals, recovery support and families navigating services.
Addiction and recovery reform is expected to be one of the central issues of his campaign.
“B.C. has spent heavily on the addiction crisis. Some of it is working. Some of it isn’t,” Diakiw said. “An MLA should be able to speak to both without worrying about offending their party.”
Issues identified by Diakiw
Diakiw says his campaign will also focus on access to family doctors, emergency-room wait times, public safety, housing and affordability.
He said young people are concerned about whether they can afford to remain in the communities where they grew up, while seniors face questions about access to care.
“I won’t pretend to have a tidy answer to every one of these,” Diakiw said. “What I bring is a method: find the people who know, follow the evidence, and never accept the first answer when it doesn’t add up.”
He said his approach is influenced by both his journalism career and his recovery work.
Why he says he is running as an Independent
Diakiw said he chose to run without a political party because he wants to make decisions independently of a party whip.
“No party whip. No borrowed talking points,” he wrote in his campaign statement.
He said he would assess legislation based on its effect on residents of Surrey–White Rock rather than party affiliation.
“Every vote I make gets the same test: Is this good for Surrey–White Rock?” he wrote.
Diakiw’s campaign has not yet released its full platform. The campaign says additional platform details will be announced in the coming days.
Surrey–White Rock race
The 2026 B.C. provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 24, with nominations closing Oct. 3 at 1 p.m.
Elections BC says its current online candidate list includes only candidates whose nomination applications have been accepted. The agency also notes that the list does not include everyone who has publicly announced an intention to run. The final candidate list will be available after nominations close.
As of Sept. 30, BC Ballot reported Trevor Halford as the only candidate who had filed in Surrey–White Rock with Elections BC at that point.
Diakiw’s campaign says he intends to contest the riding as an Independent.
StudioX News will update the Surrey–White Rock candidate field as nominations are officially confirmed by Elections BC.
StudioX News | Surrey
Harnaik Singh Rathor is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of StudioX News Canada, Canada's multilingual digital news network serving diaspora communities across 44 languages. With a background in media production, public relations, and multicultural communications, he founded StudioX Film and TV Corporation to bridge the gap between mainstream Canadian media and the country's diverse immigrant communities. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), RTDNA Canada, CPRS Vancouver, NEPMCC, and the Canadian Freelance Union (Unifor). Based in Surrey, British Columbia. | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harnaiksinghrathor/ | Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/harnaiksinghrathor | Email: editor@studioxnews.ca
