Jeromy Farkas says he’ll run for mayor in 2021
Farkas #Farkas
First-term Coun. Jeromy Farkas says he’s planning to run for the mayor’s chair.
The Ward 11 councillor announced his intentions in a video released Wednesday morning, becoming the first city councillor to jump into the election fray.
“I’m asking you to think about what Calgary could be if we had new leadership, new ideas and new opportunity,” he said.
The next municipal election is more than a year away, on Oct. 18, 2021.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who’s been in office since 2010, still hasn’t said yet whether he’ll run for another term. He typically announces his plans a year before an election.
Speculation has swirled for some time about whether Farkas might launch a mayoral campaign. None of his fellow councillors so far have said whether they might try to do the same.
Farkas said in an interview Wednesday that his decision to run was based on conversations he had with his family and constituents, and not whether he could be going up against an incumbent.
“Frankly, if there’s good ideas to put in a platform, I want to be pushing on them right now, rather than waiting for a year,” he said. “I’m going to be continuing to put the ideas that I have in around the lines of responsible spending, transparency and making it easier to do business.”
Farkas first won his spot on city council in 2017, after former Coun. Brian Pincott opted not to run that year and left an open race for his ward. The councillor was 31 when he was elected, becoming the youngest elected official among the current council. He’s also bisexual, making him the first openly LGBTQ city councillor in Calgary’s history.
Farkas has been an avowed proponent of cutting city costs and reducing property taxes during his time in office, and he’s brought numerous motions to council on issues from wage rollbacks to tracking council attendance.
But his proposals aren’t always successful, and he’s been criticized by his colleagues for being confrontational instead of collaborative. He’s been accused of “grandstanding” and stirring up “drama” with statements that other councillors say are designed to be misleading.
In 2018, Farkas was nearly ejected from council chambers for a tweet where he characterized council’s closed-door sessions as “secret meetings” that “have also been abused and misused to instill fear, intimidate and shut down new ideas.”
Numerous councillors called for Farkas to apologize, with Coun. Peter Demong calling his statement “ludicrous,” but Farkas refused.
Later that year, Farkas actually was kicked out of a council meeting over a social media post where he said councillors were due for a pay increase, contradicting statements from the city’s chief financial officer that they would actually see a decrease.
His fellow councillors said Farkas had made them a target , painting them as “pigs at the trough.”
“I’m actually begging you to stop with the rhetoric,” Coun. Jyoti Gondek said at the time.
Earlier this year, the city’s integrity commissioner found that Farkas had undermined public confidence in council with the now-deleted post, and he should apologize. But Farkas said he wouldn’t, and made a separate statement saying the other councillors were trying to “silence” him.
On Wednesday, Farkas said he thinks “our mayor and council have lost touch” and he wants to show Calgarians an “alternative” to the status quo.
“My past three years have been spent asking city council to say yes: yes to spending restraint, yes to transparency and building a better economy for tomorrow.”
Only two city councillors besides Farkas have made their intentions known for the 2021 civic election.
Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating said in June that he’ll leave his seat after three terms. Ward 10 Coun. Ray Jones , who is currently the longest-serving councillor with nearly three decades in office, said shortly after he was re-elected in 2017 that this term would be his last.
masmith@postmedia.com
Twitter: @meksmith