With 2025 drawing to a close, I want to write about one bright light in Calgary. In the October municipal election, ten out of fourteen city council seats were won by newcomers, and incumbent Mayor Jyoti Gondek was unseated by Jeromy Farkas. It was a much-needed turnover in a city council that had been marked by division and unpopularity for a decade.Change for the sake of change doesn’t always lead to good outcomes. With just under two months under their belt though, the new mayor and council have hit the ground running. They have tackled some very contentious issues right out of the gate when it’s often easier just to ride out the first few months and mail it in after an election..BURTON: Free trade or food security? Canada’s supply management debate demands both.To begin with, the mayor and council managed to wrangle down a proposed property tax increase from 3.6% to 1.6%. They also reduced spending in areas such as cutting $9 million from the 2026 climate and environment budget. This marks a sharp departure from the Gondek administration’s climate change-heavy agenda. While the reduction sounds modest, its still striking in its timing. Typically, Calgary’s city councils would offer tax reductions in an election year and then make up for it with a large hike upon being re-elected. They counted on the electorate having a short memory and it often worked. To see a city council reducing spending and reducing taxes during their honeymoon phase in office is unusual and bodes well..Calgary’s blanket rezoning legislation was likely the most unpopular policy imposed under the Gondek administration. If not, it ran a close second after the short-lived paper bag ban. The public hearings held for the blanket rezoning plan were heated, and opposition to the policy was fierce throughout the city. Citizens felt the plan was rammed down their throats and anger over the policy is much of what drove such a large turnover in the city council. Members supportive of the rezoning either didn’t run again or lost the election.While not every new member of the council is on the conservative side of the political spectrum, a clear majority of them realize that blanket rezoning is not what the majority of citizens want. If they aspire to hold their seats for more than one term, they understand that the policy must be revisited and revised if not outright scrapped. .MACLEOD: Independence without chaos.That’s why a motion to initiate a process of repeal of blanket rezoning passed easily through council chambers on December 15th. There will be new public hearings held on the issue in March and I suspect the council will be more genuinely receptive to the voices of citizens this time.Another hot button issue that greeted the new council was controversy over the raising of the Palestinian flag at city hall. While city hall has raised the flag for many nations over the years, the question of Palestinian statehood still remains in question. The Israel/Gaza conflict has created division which has spilled into the streets across Canada and symbolic gestures such as flag raisings can become flashpoints..The mayor and council passed a motion to end flag raisings for all countries and put the practice to an end. It really isn’t the role of a municipal government to wade into international politics on any level, and ending flag raisings allows them to keep clear of it. It seems like a common sense approach but it’s hard to believe the prior council in office would have made such a move.The most promising aspect of all in the first two months of this city council has been the unity. The issues they dealt with were contentious, yet on every vote a clear majority of the council voted together. During Nenshi’s tenure and continuing into Gondek’s, council division and fighting became hallmarks of their mayoral runs. It was rare to see decisive votes with clear majorities on one side or another on even the most benign of issues.That unity speaks to the leadership Mayor Farkas has offered so far. He has been fluid in his ideological stances, which can often be political suicide, but in his case, he appears to have found that elusive middle ground so many politicians fail to maintain. .MACLEOD: Alberta’s institutions make independence a practical choice.There is no better ground for a mayor to stand on than that. He doesn’t just represent the city, but works to lead a council consensus. If he can maintain the productivity and shared respect demonstrated in council chambers we have seen so far, his tenure as mayor could be one of the most significant seen in a generation.There are still well over three and a half years left for this mayor and council to work together. That leaves plenty of time for possible factioning and infighting. Mayor Farkas has his work cut out for him.For their first two months in office, though, I give Mayor Farkas and the city council an A+ for their performance. It bodes well for 2026, which will likely be a challenging year for other levels of government. If the city of Calgary can remain stable and well-guided, it serves the entire province well.
