Former councillor Jeromy Farkas announces 2025 Calgary mayoral bid

Former city councillor Jeromy Farkas is gunning for Calgary’s top job, again.

The 2021 mayoral runner-up announced Wednesday he’s launching a campaign for the mayorship in the upcoming October municipal election.

Farkas came second to Mayor Jyoti Gondek in the vote four years ago.

“I am running for mayor because Calgary needs a new path forward,” he said in an interview with CityNews. ” In the next ten years, Calgary will more than double in size to three million people, we need a plan to be able to address that — jobs, housing, safety, trust.”

Farkas was the councillor for Ward 11 from 2017 to 2021 and also served as a police commissioner and community volunteer. Since October 2023, he’s served as the chief executive officer for the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation.

He says many Calgarians feel their priorities are being ignored by city hall.

“Right now city hall is stuck, they are out of touch, wasting time, wasting money and picking petty fights,” Farkas said. “Meanwhile, Calgarians are falling behind, our infrastructure hasn’t kept up and our neighbourhoods don’t feel safe.”

Looking ahead to the campaign, Farkas says he is excited for the challenges ahead.

He’s the fourth person to announce his plan to run for mayor, along with Gondek, former councillor Jeff Davison, and lawyer Brian Thiessen.

The next municipal election is Oct. 20.

This election will be the first time Alberta allows municipal political parties in local elections thanks to Bill 20.

So far, Calgary only has one municipal political party, A Better Calgary (ABC), which describes itself as right-of-centre. It held a well-attended launch party last June.

Farkas, Gondek, and Davison have said they will run as independents.

Thiessen will run under the banner of The Calgary Party, of which he is the leader. .