Liberal John Aldag is in a comfortable lead in the riding of Cloverdale-Langley City.
Although an official winner has not been declared, Aldag was leading by about 1,100 votes as of 11 a.m. Sept. 21, with 201 of 202 polls reporting.
Aldag was ahead with 19,365 votes (38.7 %) over incumbent Conservative Tamara Jansen’s 18,215 votes (36.4 %).
The NDP’s Rajesh Jayaprakash has 9,956 votes (19.9 %), while People’s Party of Canada candidate Ian Kennedy had 2,494 votes (5 %).
The total vote count from 201 polling stations represents 50,030 votes in an electoral riding with 88,176 voters on the electoral list—a voter turnout of 56.74 %.
Mail-in ballots will not be counted until Tuesday at the earliest, so a winner may not be declared until later in the week.
Aldag was feeling cautiously optimistic on Sept. 21.
“I’m very, very pleased right now, but I have mixed emotions.”
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.
If he’s named the winner, he said he’ll be honoured to serve the people of Cloverdale-Langley City once again.
“I’m happy for now. If we do win, it will be a hard fought victory,” he said. “I’m excited at the prospect of getting back to work and we’ll be ready to go once it’s official.”
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’s campaign worked very hard and that they are “extremely disappointed,” he said, conceding defeat.
“Despite years of great scandal and financial mismanagement—and a $600 million election that changed nothing—we now have more of the same.”
The volunteer said he thought some Conservative supporters voted for Ian Kennedy and the PPC after being unhappy with Erin O’Toole’s campaign. Kennedy took about 2,500 votes in 2021. In the 2019 election, Kennedy only garnered about 900.
“Kennedy may never admit, but he helped John (Aldag) get out in front of Tamara (Jansen).”
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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