Mary Polak
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Mary Polak is the former chair of the Surrey School Board in Surrey, British Columbia and is now a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (MLA) for the riding of Langley.
She tried unsuccessfully to gain a seat in the Legislature as a candidate for the right-of-centre BC Liberal Party, but lost the 2004 Surrey-Panorama Ridge by-election to Jagrup Brar, the New Democratic Party of British Columbia candidate. This was a substantial defeat for the governing Liberals. Polak tried to blame her defeat on ethnic South Asian voters supporting Brar.[1]
Mary Polak was recruited to run as a member of the socially conservative Surrey Electors Team by school trustee Heather Stilwell. As chair of the Surrey School Board, she voted to ban sex education and condom machines in Surrey schools, even though Surrey has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in BC. She also voted, along with the majority of the school board, that books dealing with families where both parents were of the same sex not be included as optional learning resources. These books were requested by a kindergarten teacher to reflect the realities of today's families and to teach his pupils about diversity and tolerance.
A legal battle to overturn the decision to ban the three books went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, where the school board's decision was overturned. The judgment cited the need for families headed by same-sex couples to be respected. Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin dismissed the school board's argument that children would be confused or misled by classroom information about same-sex parents. The legal fees ended up costing Surrey taxpayers over $1,200,000.
As school board chair, Polak made Surrey the first school district in B.C. to publish school-by-school results for both elementary and secondary schools. She also served as Chair of the Council of British Columbia School Districts and on the Board of Directors of the B.C. School Trustees Association.
Despite her controversial past, Polak won the 2005 provincial election in Langley. Her margin of victory was much less than that won by the Liberal incumbent, Lynn Stephens in 2001, though she still managed to win by over 52%, 18 points ahead of her next closest competitor.
In September 2006, Polak unsuccessfully ran for the chair of the BC Liberal Caucus, which was vacated when the previous chair Gordon Hogg was appointed to cabinet. Polak currently chairs the all party legislative committee on aboriginal affairs
