The longest Canadian election since the 19th century kicked off on Sunday, Aug. 2, and will conclude on Oct. 19.
For the first time in a decade, Langley voters will be divided among two different ridings, following a restructuring of boundaries due to population growth.
The new riding of Cloverdale-Langley City includes portions of Surrey, all of Langley City, and a strip of Langley Township north of the City and west of 200th Street.
Langley-Aldergrove includes the remainder of the Township and a portion of western Abbotsford.
Candidates for all the major parties have been selected and will likely be hitting the campaign trail in the coming days. Here’s who’s running for the four major parties in each riding:
Cloverdale-Langley City
Liberal: John Aldag
Aldag is best known locally as manager for several years of the Fort Langley National Historic Site, and he has served as president of Flip City Gymnastics and as head of the Fort Langley BIA.
Conservative: Dean Drysdale
Drysdale is a businessman and Kwantlen Polytechnic instructor who was a two-term Langley Township councillor from 1996 to 2002 with the Langley Leadership Team. He also ran for the Canadian Alliance in 2000, parachuted into the Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding in Quebec.
Green: Scott Anderson
Anderson is a construction manager with Bosa Construction and a longtime Surrey resident. He has been interested in environmental issues since he was a teenager. This is Anderson’s first run for elected office.
NDP: Rebecca Smith
Smith is the owner of Valshiva Consulting, which works with corporate and non-profit clients. She is also a former executive director of the B.C. Psychological Association and a founder and past president of BullyFree BC.
Langley-Aldergrove
Green: Simmi Dhillon
Dhillon’s great-grandfather settled in Abbotsford after working on the Canadian Pacific Railroad more than 100 years ago. She is interested in action on climate change and works in Abbotsford.
Liberal: Leon Jensen
Jensen is a retired Canadian Forces lieutenant-colonel who served in the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia Hercegovina and the NATO Implementation Force. He is a former director of the Military Liaison Teams to B.C.’s Disaster Management Program.
NDP: Margot Sangster
Sangster has worked most recently in Afghanistan as a technical advisor in the Afghanistan Workforce Development Program, and has also been an addictions and mental health educator for Vancouver Coastal Health.
Conservative: Mark Warawa
Warawa was elected in 2006 and has represented the Langley riding until the realignment put him in the new Langley-Aldergrove riding. Before making the jump to federal politics, he was an Abbotsford city councillor and worked for ICBC.