Calgary gets the dynamic mayor it needs
Calgarians like their mayors young and trail-blazing.
Jeromy Farkas, 39, was officially sworn in as Calgary’s 38th mayor this week, alongside 14 city councillors, 10 of whom are rookies. Former mayor Dave Bronconnier assumed the mantle at age 39; Naheed Nenshi was 38.
In 2010, Nenshi was widely hailed as the first Muslim mayor of a big North American city. In 2021, Jyoti Gondek was elected as the city’s first female mayor. Farkas identifies as bisexual, making him Calgary’s first openly LGBTQ mayor.
His worship is still beaming when we talk; he’s been mayor for less than 24 hours and has spent very little time in his new digs at the refurbished historic city hall. Wednesday night’s swearing-in ceremony was emotional, his team reports. They necessarily held off celebrating until the conclusion of an official recount of the Oct. 20 votes by Elections Calgary.
Farkas won with a 616-vote margin of victory over his closest competitor, former city councillor Sonya Sharp. Gondek finished a distant third, becoming the first incumbent to fail to win re-election since 1980, when Ross Alger lost to Ralph Klein.
“I am perpetually late for stuff,” Farkas chuckles, dashing into his office from a meeting with his executive leadership team. When the internet crashes, on his end, he assures me, “occasionally the WiFi goes on the fritz, but we have the ability to plug you in.” He then proceeds, unflummoxed — just like every other Millennial I know — to do just that.
The new council is in the midst of onboarding and orientation, including getting familiar with the city’s 2026 budget to be approved by the end of November. Not surprisingly, Farkas has been poked and prodded on the upcoming budget, and assures everyone all options are on the table and pencils will be sharpened to bring down the tax increases proposed by the previous council.
Beyond the budget, there are other challenges ahead for Farkas, in what looks to be a new council split between conservative-thinking folks and progressives. Farkas ran as an independent — without partisan affiliation — in Calgary’s first municipal election under new provincial rules allowing party alignment. When I take a look at the new city council, it’s quite feasible the mayor will find himself becoming the deciding vote on some of the more divisive issues, including blanket rezoning, the federal policy that ties housing funding to much higher density.
“You have a new council, with those on the right wanting removal of blanket rezoning and those on the left opposed to change,” I observe, then ask Farkas, pointedly: “How are you going to build consensus, on what’s clearly a hill to die on for so many in council?”
The new mayor is ready for my question, and his response is thoughtful and compelling; I seriously hope his predictions come true.
“You know, I would challenge the premise,” he answers, amicably. “I don’t think that any one of my colleagues is willing to accept the status quo. We heard a lot through the course of the campaign about issues around housing, around affordability, around public safety.
“I think there’s a broad consensus amongst Calgarians,” he says, “that the blanket rezoning approach hasn’t worked in terms of delivering housing at an affordable price point and at the right location, supported by services and infrastructure, or even at the speed and scale that’s required.
“You’ll see $600,000 bungalows being torn down, replaced with four $750,000 luxury condos,” he continues, “and that hasn’t delivered housing that’s affordable. So obviously, I can’t speak for every single one of my colleagues, but there’s a broad consensus that the blanket rezoning hasn’t worked; even amongst some of the more progressive housing advocates, they recognize that there’s issues with the idea of say an eight-plex going in the middle of a block.”
“What about all that federal funding, tied to blanket rezoning?” I ask.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to speak directly with the prime minister, at least until Monday,” Farkas responds, “but in my early conversations with some of our federal counterparts, I understand that the housing accelerator funds are tied to performance, tied to units built, and if we can still build the units but in a more targeted way — closer to LRT stations, education, employment — then we’ve fulfilled our obligations. So again, the money is not tied to building expensive eight-plexes in the middle of a block. The money is tied to building housing, and if we can show that we’re still building the housing with a more targeted approach, we should be good to go.”
It’s the voice of reason many Calgarians — indeed, many Canadians — have been longing for.
The guy has been in the job less than a day, but I have another burning question, and the WiFi at historic city hall is still working so I wade into the sensitive question of how to manage Calgary’s exponential growth trajectory.
Premier Danielle Smith is on the record, projecting a goal of 10 million people in Alberta by 2050, and it stands to reason roughly half of that growth would be in the Calgary area. The new mayor agrees. “Our council, and me as mayor, we are going to be here to welcome the two millionth Calgarian,” he shares, “which is an amazing number, but rightfully so, it causes some anxiety in the public in terms of the strain on housing, on infrastructure, on services, and this is an opportunity or challenge that could break us or make us.”
“On the debate stage,” Farkas explains, “I was agnostic in terms of whether the number was the right number or the wrong number. As mayor, I do not have control over the number of people moving to the city. But once they are here, I have a clear responsibility and duty to ensure that every single Calgarian has access to a safe and affordable life here.”
It’s a daunting task, we both agree. And recent strike action by the province’s teachers has laid bare the consequences of not being prepared for that scale and speed of growth.
According to recently obtained stats from the government of Alberta, the net international migration of school-aged children into Alberta rose from 3,347 kids in 2020-21 to 30,120 in 2023-24; net inter-provincial migration numbers are magnitudes lower. And at the Calgary Board of Education, the largest school board in the province, nearly one in three students is in an English as an Additional Language program. Roughly 44,000 K-12 students, in Calgary, are learning English. The implications, in classrooms, are staggering.
I’m left with the impression this young mayor knows what he’s up against, and he’s ready for what’s coming at him. “It’s a great place to be,” Farkas quips, “because, like our city and me personally, I’m now old enough to know and still young enough to do.”
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