Liberal John Aldag has won the riding of Cloverdale-Langley City.

After it took three days to count more than 3,700 mail-in ballots, Aldag emerged victorious by a count of more than 1,600 votes.

Aldag garnered 20,890 votes (39.2 %) while incumbent Conservative Tamara Jansen managed 19,272 votes (36.2 %).

The NDP鈥檚 Rajesh Jayaprakash got 10,584 votes (19.9 %), while People鈥檚 Party of Canada candidate Ian Kennedy got 2,559 votes (4.8 %).

The total vote count from all polling stations represented 53,305 votes in an electoral riding with 88,176 voters on the electoral list鈥攁 voter turnout of 60.45 per cent.

Aldag led most of way over the course of election night, but he said he was still pretty nervous until the advance polling ballots were counted.

Aldag said he got official word about the win Friday morning (Sept. 24) and was overjoyed at the voter response.

鈥淚鈥檓 happy for the hard-fought victory,鈥� he told the Cloverdale Reporter. 鈥淚鈥檓 ready to get back to work, to start recruiting my team. It鈥檚 absolutely critical for being able to serve the community.鈥�

Aldag said one of this first things he wants to do is set up another interfaith and cultural committee that brings faith leaders and community leaders to a round table that meets a few times a year.

鈥淚 found them to be very successful,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ut of about 80 individuals, we鈥檇 always get about 50 people out to the meetings. It was a pretty reflective group, all faiths, and they would share their thoughts, what their priorities were, and what they needed me to do to serve them.鈥�

Aldag said he鈥檚 looking to reach out to all constituents to see what their needs are.

鈥淚鈥檇 also like to thank all the candidates who put their names forward,鈥� he added. 鈥淎nd I like to thank our outgoing MP for her service to the community for the two years.鈥�

Neither Tamara Jansen nor her campaign manager Shajeelin Dwivedi, could be reached for comment despite repeated attempts to contact them.

A volunteer with the campaign, who asked to remain anonymous, said Jansen鈥檚 campaign worked very hard and they are 鈥渆xtremely disappointed,鈥� with the loss, he said.

鈥淒espite years of great scandal and financial mismanagement鈥攁nd a $600 million election that changed nothing鈥攚e now have more of the same.鈥�

The volunteer said he thought some Conservative supporters voted for Ian Kennedy and the PPC after being unhappy with Erin O鈥橳oole鈥檚 campaign. Kennedy took more than 2,500 votes in 2021. In the 2019 election, Kennedy only garnered about 900.

鈥淜ennedy may never admit, but he helped John (Aldag) get out in front of Tamara (Jansen).鈥�

Aldag said he鈥檚 going to Ottawa on Sept. 27 to get organized and will be back in Cloverdale once he gets access to the federal constituency office on Fraser Highway in about two weeks.

鈥淭o the greater community, watch for our office to be up and running,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 committed to serving all people in the riding across the political spectrum. I鈥檓 here to serve everyone.鈥�

editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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