Coun. Barinder Rasode has unveiled an unforgettable slogan in her bid to replace Dianne Watts as mayor of Surrey.

Today Rasode launched her campaign at the SFU Surrey campus with the Twitter hashtag #onetoughmother to signify her intention to put public safety at the top of her agenda.

The mother of three has already won the support of former mayor Bob Bose, former NDP cabinet minister and ex-party president Moe Sihota, B.C. Liberal organizer Mark Marissen, and celebrity chef Vikram Vij.

Earlier this year, Rasode split from Watts's Surrey First party after criticizing the lack of transparency at Surrey city hall and inadequate efforts to combat crime.

She has called for hiring trained community-safety officers to ramp up crime-prevention and augment the RCMP.

In an interview with the Straight last month, Rasode said that this approach has worked in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax, and the Victoria suburb of Langford.

She suggested that this could be done within Surrey's existing budget.

"I've done a lot of work both with developmentally disabled youth and on the issue of domestic abuse, where the models we've used is prevention at the beginning," she said at the time. "I'm very supportive of restorative-justice programs and harm-reduction programs."

She also said at the time that it was "unfortunate" that Surrey council's committees on transportation and public safety have no public representation.

Rasode is a fan of creating rapid-bus lines connecting Surrey's town centres. At the same time, she supports the council's vision to have light-rail lines built.

"While we're talking about the long-term solutions for LRT or any type of transportation models, what we're forgetting about is the moms lined up at the bus stop at 6 in the morning, getting wet with their strollers because there's not enough buses on the road," she told the Straight.

Her opponents will be three-term mayor Doug McCallum, Coun. Linda Hepner, and Vikram Bajwa, a real-estate agent and mortgage broker.

Prior to being elected to council for the first time in 2008, Rasode was a constituency aide to former NDP MP and MLA Penny Priddy, who's sometimes referred to as the Queen of Surrey.

Rasode's parents immigrated to Kamloops from Punjab and her dad worked in the forest industry. She's been a resident of Surrey for 25 years.