Calgary’s mayoral field is growing, with Jeromy Farkas ready to take life lessons learned over the past four years and bring them back to municipal politics.
Farkas, the former Ward 11 city councillor and second-place mayoral race finisher in 2021, is joining current mayor Jyoti Gondek, former Ward 6 Coun. Jeff Davison and former Calgary police commission chair Brian Thiessen as contenders vying for the mayor’s seat in this year’s municipal election.
The one-time city council rabble-rouser has been on a journey of sorts since his 2021 defeat, one that included raising nearly a quarter-million dollars for Big Brothers Big Sisters Calgary with a walk up the Pacific Crest Trail, scaling 25 peaks in 25 days to raise money for the Alex Community Health Centre, and spearheading a campaign to preserve a massive parkland area on the outskirts of northwest Calgary.
“When I lost that election, I thought that my life was over. I looked out at a crowd of supporters. I saw my mom begin to cry, and I thought in that moment I just had to keep it together,” Farkas recalled.
“It was the morning after that, a mentor called me, and he said that this isn’t the first time and it’s not going to be the last. There was a long silence because he obviously knew that was not what I wanted to hear at the moment. Then I said, ‘Well, what do I do next?’”
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Farkas said that what he’s learned through all of this is that he doesn’t have to be the smartest person in the room to solve a problem. He said he’s learned it makes him stronger as a leader to rely on others.
“I think I’m at a point in my life where I can show that I can bring people together and just focus on getting stuff done, and that’s what the nonprofit sector showed me. It’s real problems in the real world,” he said.
“Politicians don’t seem to get that and it’s something that nonprofit leaders do in terms of the social sector and actually working inside and outside of government to be able to tackle those problems. So, I’m running because I want to be able to help Calgarians solve those problems.”
Dealing with the naysayers
Farkas said he knows there will be those out there who don’t buy the transformation, that it’s for political expediency to bolster a potential mayoral redo.
“The City’s grown in the past 10 years and so have I. I’ve learned that leadership means owning your mistakes,” he said.
“It means attacking the problem and not the person. It means not having to be the smartest person in the room. Some of these lessons you learn the hard way.”
The former Ward 11 councillor was often accused of using tired tropes, using partial information to influence voters, and being an inflammatory presence on city council.
“Well, I’m not running against myself. I’m not running from myself,” he said.
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He challenges those folks to look back at his record to see where he collaborated with others – including frequent foes, Coun. Druh Farrell and Mayor Naheed Nenshi – to show that he’s able to work well with differing perspectives.
“What I would say is that we need from our next mayor that pragmatism, that practicality,” Farkas said.
“I don’t squarely fit in a box, and I know that there’s going to be progressives out there that don’t easily classify me, and there’s going to be conservatives, the same thing.”
He knows he’s stubborn; he admits it. But he’s hoping to use that determination to win the election as Calgary’s next mayor.
“I think what this next six months is going to be about is really putting those plans on the table, being crystal clear in terms of the direction,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, this is only something I can show. It’s not something I can tell. What I’ll say is, judge me by the results.”
The Farkas vision for Calgary
Farkas has a clear mandate, should he be elected. He wants to ensure Calgary can take on what he says could be another 1.5 million people in the next decade, whether that’s infrastructure, public safety, housing or affordability.
“I want us to not just be tough on crime, but tough on the causes of crime. I want us to be smarter, but I also want Calgarians to have a greater say in the work that’s being done at City Hall,” Farkas said.
“I think both on the left and the right, we’ve had a bit of a siege mentality. City council is stuck. They’re wasting time on many issues that aren’t really relevant at the end of the day to everyday Calgarians.”
He sees the Green Line as a failure in leadership – both municipally and provincially. He’d like to focus on moving more people, in both buses and trains, with more accessibility and frequency, all connecting to alternative mobility options.
While he’s been a vocal critic of the Event Centre, it’s not the arena specifically, but the public money attached to it.
“What does it say about a city that we’re closing Vecova and we’re spending a billion dollars on a new arena?” Farkas asked.
“What does it say that we have a billion dollars cash for new arena, but we’re going to have to borrow for the next 35 years to fix our water pipes?”
On citywide rezoning, which many potential candidates have said they will try to repeal after the next election, Farkas said that there’s a bigger question of inadequate services that go along with density. However he was quick to point out that councillors campaigning to rid the city of upzoning are already showing they aren’t impartial to a potential debate.
Ultimately, Farkas said Calgarians want a mayor who can get things done.
“I think there’s also the opportunity where Calgary has always had that can-do attitude, that atmosphere this is the place that things like this should be able to get done,” he said.
“I think it’s that focus on labels, that focus on parties that I think would be to our detriment. I think that’s the real opportunity of this election, is to really double down on what has made Calgary so incredible. Obviously, it’s a growing, evolving story, and we have to be ready to meet not just today’s needs, but that city of 3 million people in 10 years.
“We can be ready, and we must be ready.”
Calgary’s municipal election is Oct. 20, 2025.
