If you were thinking of running for Calgary city council, your next chance will be in 2029.
That’s because nominations closed for the Oct. 20, 2025 election on Monday at noon.
In terms of the top job, who some think is being mayor, the city’s election website shows nine candidates have filed papers.
Alphabetically (by last name), they are Jeff Davison, Sarah Elder, Jeromy Farkas, Jyoti Gondek, Jaeger Gustafson, Larry Heather, Grant Prior, Sonya Sharp and Brian Thiessen.
According to the City of Calgary, the official list of all nominated candidates for Calgary city council, as well as trustees for the Calgary school board, will be available Tuesday afternoon at electionscalgary.ca/vote.
And another thing.
If you’re planning an election party the night of Oct. 20 to celebrate victories or commiserate losses, put that party on hold.
For the longest time, in a city with a smaller population, Calgarians have learned the election results the same night as the election or in the wee hours of next the day.
Now, Elections Calgary has advised the vote count this year could take as many as two days, with the possibility of longer because this year, electronic vote tabulators will not be used.
Instead, the old fashioned method of tallying ballots by hand is returning, which some candidates have denounced, including Thiessen, who called it irresponsible and unacceptable.
The return to hand counting is one aspect of the Alberta Government’s reforms to civic elections in 2024, which also allowed the introduction of municipal political parties.
The tabulators were not well received by some Albertans, but the alternative may raise more hackles, as the cost of the hand count is estimated to be in the area of $3.3 million.
"Those costs are really to account for the hand counting of the ballots," said city Returning Officer Kate Martin. "With the prohibition of the vote tabulators, moving to a hand count, that is going to cost us more in terms of the number of voting stations, the number of election workers that we're hiring and, of course, all the supplies."
Despite making the rules, the province is not covering the extra costs.
In 2024, Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Minister, Ric McIver, said reverting back to counting by hand was not due to evidence that it was something that needed to be done, but because a minority of Albertans didn’t trust the tabulators.
"I myself don’t feel that way," McIver told reporters last year. "But the fact is I don’t want one out of three Albertans walking around feeling like they can disrespect their local municipal council because they think that they weren’t legitimately elected."
There are 261 voting stations in Calgary, and the city feels confident Calgarians will get results from those stations on election night.
The delay from getting all results is in the counting of advance votes, which doesn’t start until 7:30 election night, with the city planning to count only mayoral ballots that night at a counting centre, but not councillor ballots. In the 2021 Calgary election 36% of voters took advantage of advance polls.
Elections Calgary says the counting centre will close at 1 a.m. Oct. 21 and reopen at 10:30 a.m. the same day.