Two-time Cloverdale-Langley City MP John Aldag announced that he will be resigning from his seat as of May 27, and plans to seek the NDP nomination to run provincially in the Langley-Abbotsford riding.
The Liberal MP said he was announcing the resignation with “a heavy heart.”
“I have had no greater honour in my life than to serve for almost seven of the past nine years as your representative in Ottawa,” Aldag said.
He first won election in 2015, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swept to victory. Aldag’s riding was the high-water mark of the Liberal party in the South of the Fraser region, with Conservatives winning to the east.
In 2019, Aldag lost to Conservative candidate Tamara Jansen, in a close-fought race that came down to a gap of just under 1,400 votes.
In the 2021 election, Aldag won the seat back in a similarly close-fought campaign, winning by just over 1,600 votes.
“Over the course of these two terms, I have had the privilege of working with many incredible MPs and senators across parties on numerous pieces of legislation, both government-sponsored and private members’ bills,” Aldag said in a statement.
He said high points of his work in Ottawa included work on private members bills, including one that supported creating a national framework of cancers linked to firefighting.
“I am very proud of the updates to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act that I worked on in my first term and passed in my second, as well as numerous budget bills that helped address issues facing Canadians such as housing and affordability,” he said.
He highlighted cooperation with provincial and municipal politicians during his time of office, thanking the BC Legislature and mayors and councils in Langley City, Langley Township, and Surrey, past and present.
“But mostly, thank you Cloverdale—Langley City for having given me the opportunity to serve you,” Aldag said.
The resignation will trigger a byelection for the riding.
As for Aldag, in February he confirmed he had spoken to some local provincial NDP members about possibly running in this fall’s provincial election.
Aldag confirmed on May 17 that he will be seeking the nomination, which requires him to step down as an MP. He’ll be speaking to members of the NDP in the new riding and, if he gets the nomination, doing doorknocking.
He’s already speaking to people in the new provincial riding, which includes Murrayville, Aldergrove, South Brookswood, and much of the rural areas of eastern Langley, extending out to Bradner Road in Abbotsford.
Before entering politics, Aldag was a senior Parks Canada staffer and had worked at the Fort Langley National Historic Site, among other locations across the country.
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