With the recounts complete, and official results from Calgary’s election now available poll-by-poll, Calgarians are getting their first look at where and where not the candidates received their support from voters.

The estimated turnout for the election was 39.04 per cent, based on the 896,042 Calgarians who were on the Elections Alberta permanent electors register dataset on Sept. 16, and the 349,815 people who cast their ballots, who were both on the register or who registered on the day of the election.

Numerator and denominator issues aside, the turnout was a steep decline from 2021, which saw 393,090 Calgarians cast their ballots against a smaller number of enumerated electors for a 46.38 per cent turnout, but more in line with the 39.7 per cent turnout in 2018 for the referendum on hosting a potential Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In total, a slightly smaller number of electors chose to cast their ballots for a mayoral candidate, with just 348,865 for a turnout of 38.9 per cent, irrespective of spoiled or declined ballots.

LWC analyzed the results from all polling stations to show where support was found for the candidates. Our methodology was to present the data using the percentage of the vote that individual mayoral candidates received overall, and then show that poll by poll as to whether they received more than that percentage, or less.

What was clear from the data was that candidates had a wide spectrum of support depending on where voters live in the city or chose to cast their ballots at advance polls.

Candidates who did well in north Calgary were inversely successful to those who did well in the south, and likewise largely from east to west.

But as newly elected Mayor Jeromy Farkas said to LWC after seeing the data, he has made it clear that being elected means working for all Calgarians, regardless of where support came from.

“When I spoke on election night, I made very clear that I would be a mayor for every single Calgarian, not just those folks who voted for me,” he said.

“We achieved a really strong mandate around safety, around affordability, and that’s to that extends to every single corner of the city. So I’m very committed to continue those conversations, working with my councillor colleagues to make sure that every single corner of the city is represented, every single ward has access to a safe and affordable life in the city.”

By the numbers on where people didn’t vote, or did

At the advance, care and shelter, and election day polling stations, candidates saw a wide diversity in vote counts that ranged from 58 per cent and 55 per cent for candidates Sonya Sharp and Jyoti Gondek at two polls, to zero per cent polls across the mayoral candidate spectrum.

Incumbent mayor Jyoti Gondek had a single poll at Inn from the Cold, where no electors cast a ballot for her.

Calgary’s new mayor Jeromy Farkas saw two polls at Inn from the Cold and Chartwell Eau Claire where no ballots were cast for him.

Runner-up candidate Sonya Sharp saw four polls where electors declined to cast their ballots for her, at AgeCare Bow Crest, Bethany Riverview, Silverado Creek Seniors Community – Park Place Seniors Living, and St. Teresa Place – Covenant Care.

Jeff Davison saw eight polls across the city cast no votes for him, while Brian Thiessan saw 10—all of which for both candidates were care facilities or shelters.

Of all the candidates, only Thiessen failed to win any polls outside of the care centres and shelters, having won four of the care centres polls with vote counts ranging from one to 14, from a total of three to 38 for those same polls. Davison won three regular polls, and three care facilities across Calgary.

Across the entire city, the least number of election day ballots were cast in Ward 5 in northeast Calgary, with 9,388 ballots. Conversely, southwest Calgary in Ward 11 saw the most with 26,264.

Neck and neck: Farkas and Sharp

While both Farkas and Sharp received an above-average amount of support from voters in south Calgary and a lack of support in Calgary centre, differences exist in where exactly voters cast their ballots elsewhere in the city.

The data showed that voters in Ward 1, which Sharp represented as a city councillor was highly above the percentage she received overall from the electorate.

She also received pockets of support in Ward 3, and at Chinatown polls in Ward 7, where her fellow party member Terry Wong was running as the incumbent.

Mayor Farkas saw far lower support in Ward 1 and Ward 2, but had strong support in his former Ward 11 in southwest Calgary and in Ward 10—especially so in Dover, where Farkas grew up as a child and made frequent mention of during his campaign.

Neither candidate did well at the McKenzie Town Church poll in Ward 12. That result was also repeated at the Symons Valley United Church polling station, and at the Saint Michael Community polling station in West Springs.

Runners-up see diversity of polls across Calgary

The runner-up candidates in the battle for the top five in the election also saw a diversity in polling.

Incumbent candidate Gondek saw the greatest support of any candidate in both northeast and central Calgary, along with strong support at polling stations at care centres across the city.

An exception was at the downtown west end polling station at the Kerby Centre, which, despite her four years of support for downtown revitalization in the west end, saw her garner less than 10 per cent of the votes.

Among voters who cast their ballots at the University of Calgary, she saw strong support at over 40 per cent of the vote—far higher than any single candidate received overall in the election.

Davision, who ran as an independent conservative choice and was endorsed by the A Better Calgary Party, saw results that were similar to Sharp in southeast Calgary, but with a marked difference in southwest Calgary.

As a candidate, he saw the highest level of support in Ward 6, where he served as a ward councillor before running unsuccessfully for mayor the first time in 2021.

He also saw higher support than Sharp on average in north Calgary, versus his overall election percentage across the city.

Of all the candidates, Thiessen saw the least amount of regional specificity in voting patterns, garnering both above-average and below-average support in every ward in the city.

His highest level of support at 50 per cent came at the Wing Kei Care Centre in Crescent Heights, but didn’t muster past 21 per cent at any poll outside of care centres in the city.

Ten(s) of votes at the polls

Of the remaining four candidates who ran in the 2025 Calgary election, none garnered more than a per cent of the total vote.

Sarah Elder, business owner of Inglewood retail store Madame Premier, received the most votes of the quartet with 3,501 total. Her highest number of votes, which was the same for all four, was at the advance polling station at the Genesis Centre.

Her average number of votes received by polling station was just short of 10.

Grant Prior, who received the second-highest number of votes of the final four, received, on average, less than six per poll.

Perennial candidate Larry Heather—considered by critics as a ‘whackadoodle’ candidate for running despite eschewing the collection of donations to run, spending his own money campaigning, or engaging in any campaigning behaviour associated with winning or otherwise serious candidates—saw the third highest amount of votes with 1,202.

His results at the Genesis Centre with 75 total votes outpaced Prior’s 38, but saw an average per poll vote count of close to three.

Jaeger Gustafson, who despite a prolific reply to every campaign post on LinkedIn and ads on Facebook, tied with Heather for 1,202 votes, but had an average of just over two per polling station.