Langley—Abbotsford

Langley—Abbotsford is a new riding created for the 2024 election, bridging the boundary between the Township of Langley and the City of Abbotsford in the eastern Fraser Valley. The district draws together suburban neighbourhoods, agricultural land within the Agricultural Land Reserve, and sections of the Trans-Canada Highway corridor that connect the communities. The economy mixes agriculture—particularly blueberry, poultry, and dairy operations—with logistics, light manufacturing, and the commuter-driven service sector that serves a growing population drawn by relatively lower housing costs compared to Metro Vancouver's urban core.

Candidates

Harman Bhangu (Conservative Party) — Bhangu had spent 17 years working in the heavy-load trucking industry and was nominated as the Conservative Party of BC's candidate for Langley—Abbotsford in June 2024. This was his first campaign for elected office.

John Aldag (BC NDP) — Aldag was a former Liberal Member of Parliament who had represented the federal riding of Cloverdale—Langley City from 2015 to 2019 and again from 2021 to 2024. He had a 32-year career with Parks Canada before entering politics. He resigned his federal seat on May 31, 2024, to run provincially with the BC NDP, citing inspiration from Premier David Eby's leadership.

Melissa Snazell (BC Green Party), Karen Long (Independent), and Alex Joehl (Libertarian) also contested the riding.

Local Issues

The Surrey—Langley SkyTrain extension was the most consequential infrastructure project shaping the riding's future. The 16-kilometre elevated guideway along Fraser Highway from King George Station in Surrey to 203 Street in Langley City entered major construction in late 2024, with site preparation and utility relocation underway throughout the year. The project promised to transform commuting patterns for residents who had long depended on congested highway corridors to reach employment centres in Metro Vancouver. Eight new stations were planned, with an anticipated in-service date of late 2029. The extension had been decades in the making—previous promises of rapid transit to Langley had been made and broken over multiple election cycles—and residents followed construction progress closely.

Agricultural land protection remained a defining issue in a riding where the boundary between suburban development and the Agricultural Land Reserve shaped the landscape. The NDP government's earlier reforms through Bill 52, which had strengthened ALR protections and penalized illegal fill dumping on farmland, remained in effect, but development pressure along the highway corridor continued to test the integrity of the reserve. Residents debated the balance between the housing construction needed to accommodate population growth and the preservation of some of British Columbia's most productive farmland.

Health care access and affordability rounded out the dominant concerns. The shortage of family physicians in the Fraser Valley left many residents without a regular doctor, while Langley Memorial Hospital faced capacity pressures as the population grew. Housing costs, while lower than in Vancouver proper, had climbed sharply over the NDP's term as demand from buyers priced out of the urban core pushed eastward along the highway corridor. The riding's large Sikh and South Asian community brought additional priorities around immigration services, multicultural programming, and economic opportunity to the campaign.