Considerable reflection during a Caribbean cruise helped Linda Hepner decide she wanted to try and become the next mayor of Surrey.
She had nine years' experience as a city councillor in Mayor Dianne Watts's Surrey First party, but wasn't sure she wanted the job when Ms. Watts asked Ms. Hepner to replace her.
So she went off to sea with her husband. "We spent 10 days on a boat, without any phone going on or off and talked about what our life would look like if I went for the big chair and what it would look like if it didn't."
She decided she liked the first scenario.
That's why the former Maritimer and long-time municipal civil servant is making the case to voters that's she's best positioned to continue the growth agenda of Ms. Watts and Surrey First. It's a role that has her explaining unpopular decisions of the past, and putting them in perspective, while promising new approaches if she and her team are re-elected.
Ms. Hepner, who declines to give her age but wryly says only that she's younger than 70-year-old rival Doug McCallum, was born in Fredericton, but eventually landed in Surrey where the family decided to stay as their son established roots in the community.
Eventually, she became a corporate administration manager and then economic-development manager for Surrey, watching politicians enact the policy she helped develop.
"I really wanted to be at the table where policy was developed," she says of her decision to run.
However, she adds there was another reason for deciding to step away from the backstage.
She remembers a newspaper article that said many parents considered politics the lowest of professions they would like their children to try.
"Once I had read that piece, I was committed to making sure that when I served, I served straight up, dead on – 'What I say to you, I will deliver.' "
Ian Bailey