John Aldag may have won his election as MP for Cloverdale-Langley City the old fashioned way – with shoe leather.
Newly elected Liberal Aldag personally knocked on 33,000 doors and walked more than 1,000 kilometres in the year before the election. He even put in two hours Oct. 19.
The time he spent talking to people in the newly created riding informed his priorities, he said.
“Being a newcomer to politics, I really didn’t know what to expect,” Aldag said.
“The thing that came up over and over again is money,” he added.
People were worried about saving for retirement or their kids’ college education, or just felt squeezed, he said.
Aside from the promises in the Liberal platform, Aldag said he wants to talk to Surrey and Langley City about things like his party’s promised investment in transit infrastructure.
Meetings between Surrey’s MPs and Mayor Linda Heppner, and with Langley City Mayor Ted Schaffer and his council, are in his immediate future, said Aldag.
Upgrading seniors and rental housing stock, another Liberal promise, is something else Aldag is interested in. He’s seen a lot of older rental buildings in Langley City over the course of the campaign that could benefit from that program.
Aldag also wants to reach out to an unlikely potential ally.
“The most experience politician in Langley is Mark Warawa,” Aldag said.
He’s hoping to touch base with his Conservative neighbour from Langley-Aldergrove to discuss local issues, and to see if there aren’t some areas where they can collaborate.
As for any private members bills, Aldag said he’s been keeping some notes, but now he’s going to have to take a look at them and give the matter some real thought.
The B.C. Liberal caucus is meeting for the first time this Thursday, and then Aldag will have to get on with setting up a constituency office and learning the ins and outs of being an MP, both in his riding and in Ottawa.
His next order of business, starting Tuesday, was to spend some time taking down the “democratic clutter” of election signs, some of which have been up since August.