Out with the old, in with the new is a refrain common to this time of year, as the new year arrives, and with it, hopes of better things to come.
This year, it very much applies to Calgary’s new city council, with Calgarians hoping it will perform better than the old council, most of which was thrown out in October’s election.
But the ‘old’ is older than the last council. It goes back to Naheed Nenshi becoming mayor and starting the city down the road to social engineering.
It’s been 15 long years, from 2010 to 2025, of top-down, left-wing ideology when council was in the grips of Nenshi, followed by former mayor Jyoti Gondek and her fellow travellers, known as the Hateful 8.
The Gondek era will be remembered for its huge mistakes, from declaring a climate emergency, outlawing plastic bags and straws, to the largest social engineering experiment, the implementation of blanket upzoning.
Perhaps even worse was the continual lecturing and admonitions by Gondek and former councillors such as Walcott, Carra, and Penner on how Calgarians should lead their lives with wokeness and DEI.
It made for some contentious moments in council chambers, but based on the short time the new crew has been in office, they have thrown out those ideologies.
I have covered as many council meetings as many members of council have attended over the last two years, and there has been a decided difference since the new council came aboard.
The atmosphere in chambers is looser and friendlier. There have been no admonishments or lectures. It’s true, they’re new and just getting to know each other, but so far, it’s been a refreshing change.
There are witty quips between councillors, leading to laughs and guffaws not heard since the days of Ralph Klein. Mayor Jeromy Farkas is quick with the wit and even came to council in the days before Christmas wearing a Santa’s elf outfit.
It’s not all fun and games; a lot of good work has been accomplished, as in the days of Dave Bronconnier, by using a business approach and something not seen in many years in council decisions: common sense.
Farkas, who has experience as a councillor, manages the meetings well, and when a rookie councillor or two makes a procedural error, he corrects them, but in an instructive manner, not as a lecturer.
This group has been in the saddle for less than 75 days, and even though it includes 10 rookies, it has delivered on many election campaign promises.
A great deal of time was spent debating and establishing the property tax rate for 2026. Council debated over eight, 12-hour days to cut the proposed tax rate of 3.6% to 1.64%, a promise made by Farkas on the campaign trail. There were mumblings that there should not have been an increase of any kind, but in this day and age of rising costs that wasn’t likely, and the increase is the smallest in many years, working out to an increase of about $4.50 per month for the average homeowner.
Council also reversed the most egregious act of the former council by voting to put the wheels in motion to repeal the blanket upzoning bylaw. Previous council said the bylaw would help solve Calgary’s housing crisis, in terms of supply and affordability, but it did nothing of the kind. Fewer than 500 building permits under the bylaw have been issued since it went into effect in August 2024, and the new homes are selling for upwards of $800,000 and are being rented out at market values.
For many years, Calgary had a policy of raising foreign flags on countries’ national days, but when the Palestinian flag was raised at city hall on November 15, it triggered a demonstration that had the potential to become violent. Subsequently, on December 15, the new council, by a narrow 8 to 7 vote, banned the raising of foreign flags at city hall. The ban was the result of rapidly changing dynamics in the world and not as an affront to any one group of people. In the future, only Calgary, Alberta, and Canada flags will fly at city hall.
There have been many other items on the new council’s agenda since it entered office, and as it heads into 2026, there are many more facing them, including the initial construction of the Green Line in the southeast part of the city and the construction of the first stage of a project to replace the Bearspaw South feeder water main, which failed in June 2024, causing a state of local emergency.
Not many things are perfect in this world, including this new council.
It might be too soon to give it high marks, and Calgarians can fully expect that there will be days when things go south at city hall.
But as long as this group continues its common sense approach, 2026 will be a much better year than the 15 years before it.
Happy New Year
