Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer has decided that one term in office is enough, announcing on Friday that he won’t be running for re-election in October’s Calgary municipal election.

Spencer first posted the announcement on social media on the evening of Jan. 10.

In that post, he said the journey started with the simple habit of putting up his hand to help and ultimately led him into the position. Before being a councillor, Spencer served in the Ward 12 office with former Coun. Shane Keating.

“It was your trust and hard work that placed me here, and I have approached every decision with that in mind,” he wrote to constituents.

He said the decision wasn’t made lightly; it was, however, influenced heavily by the environment in which city councillors must operate.

“While I have cherished the opportunity to learn, grow and serve the people of Ward 12, today’s political realities have shifted considerably,” Spencer wrote.

“Collaboration is at the core of who I am, and I believe in the power for working together to achieve common goals. Unfortunately, we are living in a time where politicians are increasingly rewarded for their ability to attack, criticize and grandstand vs. move forward while respecting and explaining the tensions being balanced by our institutions.”

Spencer said he stands by his decisions as the Ward 12 councillor, however said that he admits trust has eroded during his term in office.

The Ward 12 councillor won his 2021 race rather handily, with 9,822 of the 25,249 votes cast. It was a deep field of candidates, with seven others running for the seat vacated by Shane Keating.  The next closest was conservative candidate Craig Chandler with 5,188 votes and then Steven Phan with 4,998.

Politics of the job never fit comfortably, Spencer said

In conversation with LWC about the decision not to run for re-election, the Ward 12 councillor said this council’s picked up an awful lot of baggage in its nearly four-year run.

He said the politics of the job were the difficult part to accept every day.

“The politics of the job are the part I never fit comfortably. For me, I don’t enjoy that part of it,” he said.

“It’s just exponentially gotten harder as we’ve gotten deeper into the term for a whole variety of reasons.”

After coming to terms with his decision, Spencer said he doesn’t have nearly as much weight on his shoulders.

“I feel lighter, for sure,” he told LWC.

Despite the challenges this term has faced – with citywide rezoning being one of the biggest, Spencer said – he said he can stand behind the decisions he’s made along the way.

“I’m most proud of the fact that I made decisions based on what I would like to think is the best policy, evidence-based, all that information that flows through Council, I really stand behind the decisions and the votes that I’ve made. I do think they are ultimately what’s best for the for the City of Calgary,” Spencer said.

“Many of them have hurt from a political perspective, but I’m not leaving this term with too many decisions, where I went, ‘boy, I kind of stepped away from my values for a political gain.”

He’ll also look back fondly on some of the lifelong friends he’s made. Spencer said there was a large group of them that went through an immense learning curve to start the job back in 2021.

“There was a voracious appetite to do that learning, and we all were quite excited about the kinds of impact that each of us could bring collectively, together in the City of Calgary,” he said.

“Then we learned why some of those things tend to happen. We’ve learned why, because there’s often significant headwinds for some of the most important work.”

For whoever fills his spot around the council horseshoe come October 2025, Spencer said if you’re doing it for the right reasons, the 2025 edition of Calgary city council will be lucky to have the next person.

“Because it asks an awful lot of anyone that steps in into that position,” he said.

He encourages his successor to stick to the facts of a debate and focus on the reports, not what’s going to make one popular on social media.  Spencer said politics has become a form of entertainment for some, and needs to get back to the roots of engaging with individuals on the ground and the issues they’re facing.

“I do believe we’re witnessing a provincial government, and we’re witnessing some of my colleagues and even a federal movement that is capitulating to fear, is capitulating to a very pessimistic view of how robust our institutions are and their ability to serve people,” he said.

“We’ve conflated some of the worst of what’s happening in governance across our globe and down to the city level. It’s unfortunate, and it creates headwinds for us making progress on really, really important work.”

Spencer said he won’t rule out a return to public service at some point in the future if he sees an opportunity to make meaningful progress in Calgary. Once the term ends, he’ll continue advocacy in other ways, including at the community level.

Calgary’s municipal election will be held on Oct. 20, 2025.