Calgary mayoral candidates face off in fiery debate

It was at times a fiery debate night Monday as some of Calgary’s mayoral candidates tried to present their vision for the city for the next four years.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek attended this debate after apologizing for not showing up to a mayoral hopefuls’ forum earlier in the month. Other candidates included Jeromy Farkas, Sonya Sharp, Jeff Davison, Brian Thiessen and Jaeger Gustafson.

It started off cordially despite blanket rezoning being the topic, with Sharp and Davison reiterating their pledges to repeal it. But, it started to take a turn as candidates clashed on whether or not being part of a municipal party would hamper proper representation of Calgarians on council.

“If you belong to a party, especially if you are aligned with one government or the other, you are going to do their bidding,” Gondek said.

Thiessen, who heads The Calgary Party, fired back.

“I find it interesting that the two people on stage that have had the most difficulty working with others — the mayor talking about how she is only one vote on council, Coun. Farkas who was notoriously the most disruptive member of the previous council and never could get engaged in team play — are taking shots,” he said.

From there, candidates argued about public safety in Calgary, with former police commission chair Thiessen and former councillor Farkas clashing on the closure of Calgary’s last police station in the city’s downtown area.

“Measures like re-opening the downtown police station that was closed by the former police commission chair,” Farkas said.

Thiessen wasn’t pleased with that sentiment.

“Mr. Farkas mislead the audience last time and he has just done it again,” he said. “As he knows because he was on the commission, Calgary Police Service proposes their operational rollout and it was the Calgary Police Service that proposed closing the Beltline location.”

But, it was the Green Line and its alignment that saw candidates sharpen their attacks against each other.

“I will be advocating for those residents to be brought to the table so that those residents have transparency in terms of what Mayor Gondek has agreed to with the UCP,” Farkas said.

“Mr. Farkas while you were out at UCP fundraisers our last term I was fighting for the Green Line,” Gondek fired back.

Thiessen then took the opportunity to put in his two cents.

“I’m so happy that Mr. Farkas has discovered transit because when he was a city councillor he voted against the Green Line… He voted against MAX rapid bus routes in his ward and his constituents are paying for that decision it till this day,” the candidate said.

For some watching the debate, the jury is still out on who they are going to vote for.

“It’s kind of hard to differentiate the candidates, I find that a lot of them want to be everything to everybody,” said Calgarian Philip Sharman.

Another attendee had the same sentiment.

“I’m still undecided as of right now, but this debate definitely gave me something to think about,” said Michael Malolos.

For others like Eve Aboka, she was hoping candidates would have spent more time during the forum on employment, as Canada and Alberta see a strained job market.

“We have great talent in the city that is supposed to be helping this city grow economically, but we are not creating those avenues to employment or even to entrepreneurship to help the talent,” said Aboka, who is the founder and executive director of Immigrant Champions of Canada.

Election day is on Oct. 20, a date a former mayoral candidate says can’t come fast enough.

“This has been dead quiet,” said Wayne Stewart. “So, these debates are really important because they are the first chance, we see these people perform.”