Garry Begg
Canadian politician
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Garry Begg is a Canadian politician who has served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia since 2017, representing the electoral district of Surrey-Guildford.[2]
Garry Begg | |
|---|---|
Campaign portrait, 2024 | |
| Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of British Columbia | |
| In office November 18, 2024 – July 17, 2025 | |
| Premier | David Eby |
| Preceded by | Mike Farnworth |
| Succeeded by | Nina Krieger |
| Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for Surrey-Guildford | |
| Assumed office May 9, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Riding Established |
| Personal details | |
| Born | |
| Party | New Democratic Party |
| Spouse | Val Begg |
Biography
Born in Ontario, Begg had a 38-year career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), eight of which was spent in Surrey;[1][3] he attained the rank of inspector with the force.[4] He previously ran in the 2015 federal election as the federal New Democratic Party's candidate in Fleetwood—Port Kells,[4] but was not elected.[5]
In the 2017 provincial election, he ran in the newly established riding of Surrey-Guildford as a BC NDP candidate against Liberal Amrik Virk, also a former RCMP inspector. Begg defeated Virk to become a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia,[2][3] and served as government caucus whip in his first term.[6][7] He retained his seat in the 2020 provincial election.[8]
Begg faced a tight race against BC Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa in the 2024 election, with initial results indicating that Randhawa was leading by 103 votes.[9] After mail-in and absentee ballots were counted, Elections BC posted updated results on October 28, with Begg winning by 27 votes;[10][11] that figure was later revised to 21 votes.[12] As the margin was less than 1/500th of the total ballots cast, an automatic judicial recount was triggered.[10][11] The recount was completed on November 8, with Begg re-elected by a margin of 22 votes, allowing the NDP to hold on to a majority government.[12][13]
He was named to the Eby ministry on November 18, 2024 to serve as Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.[1][7][14] He was succeeded by Nina Krieger in July 2025.[15]
Electoral record
Provincial elections
| 2024 British Columbia general election: Surrey-Guildford | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
| New Democratic | Garry Begg | 8,947 | 46.83 | |||||
| Conservative | Honveer Singh Randhawa | 8,925 | 46.81 | |||||
| Green | Manjeet Singh Sahota | 824 | 4.32 | |||||
| Independent | Kabir Qurban | 370 | 1.94 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 19,066 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Source: Elections BC[16] | ||||||||
| 2020 British Columbia general election: Surrey-Guildford | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Garry Begg | 10,403 | 60.59 | +10.99 | $40,309.39 | |||
| Liberal | Dave Hans | 5,139 | 29.93 | −8.21 | $42,168.46 | |||
| Green | Jodi Murphy | 1,345 | 7.83 | −1.98 | $1,281.64 | |||
| Independent | Sam Kofalt | 282 | 1.64 | – | $1,015.24 | |||
| Total valid votes | 17,169 | 100.00 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 148 | 0.85 | +0.14 | |||||
| Turnout | 17,317 | 45.69 | −10.07 | |||||
| Registered voters | 37,905 | |||||||
| Source: Elections BC[17][18] | ||||||||
| 2017 British Columbia general election: Surrey-Guildford | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Expenditures | ||||
| New Democratic | Garry Begg | 9,263 | 49.85 | $67,072 | ||||
| Liberal | Amrik Virk | 7,015 | 37.76 | $71,381 | ||||
| Green | Jodi Murphy | 1,840 | 9.90 | $,1838 | ||||
| Christian Heritage | Kevin Pielak | 462 | 2.49 | $1,015 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 18,580 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 133 | 0.71 | ||||||
| Turnout | 18,713 | 55.76 | ||||||
| Registered voters | 33,561 | |||||||
| Source: Elections BC[19][20] | ||||||||
Federal elections
| 2015 Canadian federal election: Fleetwood—Port Kells | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Ken Hardie | 22,871 | 46.90 | +31.24 | $50,601.97 | |||
| Conservative | Nina Grewal | 14,275 | 29.27 | -18.56 | $77,785.90 | |||
| New Democratic | Garry Begg | 10,463 | 21.46 | -11.60 | $100,039.24 | |||
| Green | Richard Hosein | 1,154 | 2.37 | -0.20 | $3,625.85 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 48,763 | 100.00 | $206,797.64 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 269 | 0.55 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 49,032 | 65.25 | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 75,150 | |||||||
| Liberal gain from Conservative | Swing | +24.90 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[21][22][23] | ||||||||