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In June 2025,Farkas announced his candidacy for the Calgary mayoralty in the October 20,2025 election.
On September 16,2020,Farkas announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2021 municipal election,which was scheduled for October 18,2021.[1] On election day,he lost to Jyoti Gondek.[2]
Early life and education
Farkas was born and raised in the southeast Calgarian neighbourhood of Dover. His parents had left communist Hungary in 1956 and settled in Calgary.[3]
After graduating from Calgary's Bishop Carroll High School,Farkas attended classes at the University of Calgary and received his bachelor of arts in political science. Prior to being elected,Jeromy attended the University of Calgary for eight years and worked in the Israel Studies Program. Building on his experience as a Research Team Lead in medicine,Jeromy developed a small business focused on finance and data analysis.[4]
Manning Foundation
Prior to declaring his candidacy for Ward 11,Farkas worked as a senior fellow specializing in municipal governance at the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education from February 2013 to January 2016. He was the project lead for the Council Tracker project,and published a report in September 2013 called "Growing the Democratic Toolbox:City Council Vote Tracking" where he studied City of Calgary Council meetings from fall 2010 to April 2013,specifically examining 73 votes during that period to understand how council worked,look at voting blocs,time spent in-camera (deliberations that are not open to the public),among other issues.[5][6] He continued the project and established the website Counciltracker.com to track Calgary council activities,which he maintained until he left the Manning Foundation to run for Ward 11.
Farkas is a former Calgary Herald columnist writing about local issues,particularly city council.
Provincial and federal politics
He describes his political views as being motivated by an attitude that "you should have the biggest say in how you live your life... chasing,again,the best solutions rather than the ones based in ideology," and has been active in issues such as wildlife conservation and human rights activism.[7] He is openly bisexual,which made him Calgary's first openly LGBTQ male city councillor,[8] and played a key role in pushing the Wildrose Party to adopt a more progressive position on LGBTQ issues.[9]
Calgary city council
On his first day serving as the councillor for Ward 11,Farkas declined the pension that the mayor and councillors receive. He also declined the transition allowance afforded to him. The Canadian Taxpayer's Federation estimates that if he serves three terms and lives to age eighty-five,these rejected entitlements will save Calgarian taxpayers more than $1.1 million.[10][unreliable source?] He also vowed to oppose the city's new southwest bus rapid transit line.[11]
Throughout his term,Farkas has held monthly town hall events during which he answers questions from his constituents off the cuff. When the COVID-19 pandemic rendered such events unsafe,he compensated by hosting weekly Facebook Live sessions.[3]
In December 2017,his proposal for the city to provide additional compensation to residents of the Midfield trailer park,which is being closed due to poor site design that makes it impossible for the city to repair the neighbourhood's failing water and sewer lines without tearing down the homes,failed to advance after Farkas was unable to find a councillor willing to second the motion.[12]
In early 2018,he faced some criticism for being the sole councillor to vote against a motion directing city staff to draft a new parental leave policy for city councillors,on the grounds that taking time away from city council business would be a betrayal of the constituents.[13]
In December 2018,Farkas was kicked out of a council meeting for beaching code of conduct rules. He made a Facebook post regarding councillors salaries,which the basis of his post were deemed to be untrue. His actions were called "dishonest and irresponsible”by the mayor.[14] Farkas was accused of grandstanding on the issue from numerous councillors because he was not addressing his concerns through council and proper channels,but rather posting to social media.[15]
In May 2020,Farkas was found guilty of breaching the code of conduct by the integrity commissioner for his Facebook posts in 2018.[16]
On June 16,2020,Farkas was the only city councillor to vote against the approval of the Calgary Green Line.[17]
In March 2021,a complaint with the integrity commission was lodged against Farkas for advertising in wards outside of his own.[18]
On April 26,2021,Farkas was the only councillor to vote against the Downtown Revitalization Strategy,a plan that would have brought more mixed use activity to downtown Calgary.[19]
Also on April 26,2021,Farkas was one of three councillors who voted against immediately reserving $200 million for the Downtown Revitalization Strategy.[19]
On May 10,2021,Farkas was one of two councillors who voted against a pilot program allowing alcohol consumption in public parks. The motion was passed.[20]
On September 22,2021,a by-law was proposed for proof of COVID vaccinations for certain types of business. This was to further support business owners in applying the provincial health measures,and encourage more people to be vaccinated during a state of local emergency. Farkas was the only member of council to vote against this by-law. It passed 13-1.[21]
2021 Mayoral Campaign
On September 16,2020,Farkas announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2021 municipal election,which is scheduled for October 18,2021.[1] He was the first candidate to do so. He was also the first candidate to officially submit his nomination papers,which he did on January 4,2021.
Platform
Over the course of the campaign,Farkas released a ten-point mayoral platform in which he pledges to support the following measures if elected:[22]
A four-year property tax rate freeze.
Reducing red tape by creating a one-for-one cap to regulations,requiring at least one existing regulation to be repealed for each new regulation that is ratified.
Connecting downtown Calgary to the airport with a passenger train.
Giving citizens the ability to challenge whether in camera meetings of council are justly held behind closed doors.
Replace the current pension scheme for city councillors with a defined contribution plan.
Enact a policy restricting the sale and development of municipal parks.
Extend emergency snow removal services to residential streets.
Better synchronize traffic signals with vehicle traffic.
Support single-family detached residential zoning by repealing the Guide for Local Area Planning (formerly the Guidebook for Great Communities) and redesigning it after public engagement.
Encourage the police to re-establish a downtown police station.
Council Compensation
On October 31,2020,Farkas announced his opposition to the Mayor's second pension,saying "Calgarians these days are lucky to receive one pension,let alone two". The Mayor of Calgary was the only Canadian mayor to receive two pensions.[10] The second pension was later abolished on November 3,2020 after Council approved a suite of recommendations to reform Councillor compensation from a citizen committee.[23]
Police
In November 2020,Farkas announced his opposition to proposals to defund the Calgary Police Service,stating that "by courting the abolish and defund police movement,City Council is playing with fire and it's Calgarians who are getting burned".[24] He proposed that money for social programs should come from areas of lower priority like bike lanes or public art.[25]
On November 17,2020,Farkas launched a petition against the proposed $20 million cut from Calgary's police budget. As of December 6,2020,the petition has received 2,584 signatures.[26] On November 27,2020,Council backed down on its proposal to defund the police,voting 11–3 to instead fund additional social services with Calgary's fiscal stability reserve.[27]
Property Taxes
On October 17,2020,Farkas called the prospect of a possible 25% tax hike on industrial landowners a "wake-up call" for Calgary to "get [its] budget under control".[28] Farkas expressed concern that the proposed tax hikes targeted "major industries that we're trying to cultivate and attract to come to Calgary".[29]
Farkas is in favour of "rein[ing] in the City's ever-increasing budget and giv[ing] Calgarians a break on taxes," particularly in light of "unprecedented times like the COVID-19 pandemic."[30]
Speed Limits
On September 27,2020,in response to a report recommending that Calgary lower its unposted speed limit from 50km/h to 40km/h on collector roads and 30km/h on residential roads,Farkas said that "making the entire city a playground zone has to be the silliest idea [he has] ever heard".[31] He expressed concern about the time and money it would take to implement such changes.
Transparency and Accountability
Farkas believes that Calgarians should have easy access to voting records and documents to understand how their councillors are conducting council business and spending public money. Additionally,he has supported term limits and representative recall,which would allow Calgarians to petition for a councillor's removal before the end of their term.[30]
Opinion Polling
On January 26,2021,lobby group Common Sense Calgary released a poll of 1,284 Calgarians conducted by an independent third-party polling firm between the 17th and 19 January. The poll asked Calgarians who they would support in a number of hypothetical scenarios featuring different combinations of declared and rumoured mayoral candidates. When all declared and rumoured candidates were considered,a statistical tie (given a 2.5% margin of error) emerged between incumbent Mayor Naheed Nenshi—who later opted not to seek re-election—with 40.5% of the support and Farkas with 38.9%. In a straight head-to-head between Farkas and Ward 3 Councillor Jyoti Gondek,Farkas had 30% of the support and Gondek had 25%.[32]
On February 1,2021,the Western Standard released a poll of 1,603 adult Calgarians conducted on January 25–26 by Mainstreet Research. Incumbent Mayor Naheed Nenshi,who later opted not to seek re-election,led with 44% of decided and leaning voters. Farkas had 39%,Jyoti Gondek had 8%,Brad Field had 2% and other candidates collectively had 7%. Yet Farkas still lost the mayoral race.[33]
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