Surrey elder statesman Bob Bose is endorsing councillor Barinder Rasode for mayor.

All is forgiven, it seems. Recently, Bose was hoping a “dark horse” would emerge to give Rasode and others a run for the mayor’s seat.

Now, the retired politician is backing Rasode.

“Her past history is of not much interest anymore, because you have to, at some point, decide that that’s done,” Bose told the Straight in a phone interview. “Let’s move on.”

Still, he’s quite disappointed that no alternative candidate surfaced: “I wish there was other options.”

Bose, who served as mayor and councillor at various times for many years, has a bit of history with Rasode.

In 2005, Rasode ran for council under Bose’s Surrey Civic Coalition, and lost. She eventually defected to mayor Dianne Watts’s Surrey First, and broke new ground by becoming the first South Asian woman on Surrey council in 2008. Rasode and Bose sat on the same council until 2011. In that year’s election, she captured the eighth and last seat on council, sending the legendary Bose, who came ninth, into retirement.

Rasode, who bolted Surrey First in April, has yet to declare her plans for the fall election.

In June, Bose told the Straight that there’s a “bit of a problem” for Rasode.

“She burned a lot of bridges when she left Surrey Civic Coalition,” Bose said at that time.

In the latest interview, Bose said that it was Rasode’s commitment to implement a ward voting system after public consultation that won his approval.

The conversation about electoral reform was actually started by Doug McCallum, who declared early on that wards are among his priorities in his campaign to get his old job back.

“I’m not entirely sure he’s serious,” Bose quipped about his former nemesis’s stand on wards. But just the same, Bose said that he encourages McCallum to advance this issue.

Councillor Linda Hepner, who was chosen to succeed Watts as the standard bearer for Surrey First, has promised a referendum on wards in 2018, although she admits that she isn’t a huge fan of the neighbourhood-based voting system.