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The City of Surrey and nearby North Delta have grown so rapidly in recent years that they can tip the balance in provincial elections.

That's because 10 of the province's 87 seats are in this part of the Lower Mainland.

In the 2017 election, the B.C. NDP captured seven of these 10 seats on its way to forming its first government since 2001.

So what's the strategy to keep most of Surrey and North Delta in the B.C. NDP camp?

There's a clue in the party's decision this weekend to nominate its first candidate for the next provincial election: Surrey-Guildford NDP MLA Garry Begg.

The news release that followed includes some of his party's goodies to this region south of the Fraser River:

* removing road tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges;

* beginning the Pattullo Bridge replacement project;

* building two new elementary schools and four additions while proceeding with four seismic upgrades to schools;

* funding 400 new childcare spaces in Surrey;

* eliminating medical services premiums for individuals;

* and creating the B.C. Child Opportunity Benefit.

But the cornerstone of the B.C. NDP's reelection bid in Surrey is its pledge to complete a second hospital in the city.

According to NDP spinmeisters, B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson "delayed" this health-care facility in the Cloverdale area by selling off hundreds of parcels of land when he was the minister of citizens' services in the Christy Clark government.

One of those properties was near 152nd and Highway 10. The NDP insists that when it was ruling the province in the 1990s, it bought this site for a new hospital.

"Because of Wilkinson’s land sale, the BC NDP government had to find and acquire land to move the hospital forward," the party claimed in a February 20 news release.

More recently, the NDP seized on a comment by Wilkinson about the new hospital to suggest he wasn't fully committed to the project.

It came during a news conference when he stated that whether the new health-care facility would be a branch of Surrey Memorial Hospital or another hospital altogether "is another question".

Even though Wilkinson said that the time had come "to plan the hospital expansion", it still gave the NDP a window to ratchet up some health-care-policy heat on the B.C. Liberal leader.

Family ties

So far, the B.C. NDP has not made an issue of Wilkinson's wife, Barbara Grantham, serving as the long-time president and CEO of VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation—including when the Wilkinson-approved government land sales occurred.

That's because there's not a lot of political upside in sweeping up the spouses of politicians in controversies.

This is especially so when a politician's wife has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for health charities that have helped save many lives.

Barbara Grantham and Andrew Wilkinson appeared together in a recent Christmas message from the B.C. Liberal leader. Andrew Wilkinson

Last July, a few months after Wilkinson became the latest B.C. Liberal leader, Grantham announced her intention to quit her job. And on January 1, she was replaced by the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation's chief development officer, Angela Chapman.

This April, Grantham will become president and CEO of the humanitarian organization CARE Canada.

This means that she won't be linked to the B.C. health-care system in any way by the time her husband is running to become B.C.'s next premier.

But if the B.C. NDP brain trust gets desperate and feels a need to throw a long political bomb, there's no guarantee that its canvassers won't bring up Grantham's past connection to Vancouver hospitals on the doorsteps in Surrey.

They could merely crack a "joke" by quipping that Wilkinson may have sold land for a hospital in Surrey to make it easier for his wife to raise money for cash-rich Vancouver hospitals. Away from the eyes of the media, of course.

Keep in mind that John Horgan and his crew have shown they're much more willing to throw mud at their political opponents than when the health minister, Adrian Dix, was leading the B.C. NDP.

It may be one reason why Horgan, and not Dix, is the premier.

And with former B.C. Liberal deputy premier and casino-regulation kingpin Rich Coleman now not seeking reelection, Horgan's minions may be even more eager to impugn Wilkinson's motives for the land sales that they're already criticizing.

Especially when B.C. elections can be won or lost in Surrey and North Delta.