Calgary held its municipal election on October 20, 2025 — the first under sweeping new provincial rules that reshaped how the city votes. The UCP government's Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, which took effect in October 2024, introduced registered municipal political parties to Calgary for the first time and mandated hand-counted paper ballots in place of electronic tabulators. Nine candidates ran for mayor, 73 for the 14 council seats, and 44 for school board trustee positions. Turnout fell to 39.0%, with 349,815 of 896,042 eligible voters casting ballots — a significant decline from the 46.4% recorded in 2021. Advance polls drew 96,549 voters across six days, representing 10.7% of eligible electors. On election day itself, long lines caused by new paperwork requirements — including a mandatory Elector Register completed for every voter — left some Calgarians waiting up to three hours to cast a ballot. Hand-counting pushed final tallies well past midnight. Elections Calgary estimated compliance with the new provincial legislation added $3.3 million to the cost of running the election. Three registered parties — Communities First, The Calgary Party, and A Better Calgary Party — fielded candidates alongside independent contenders, marking a fundamental shift in the structure of Calgary civic politics.

Mayoral Race

Jeromy Farkas won a razor-thin victory in a five-way contest that was not resolved until a recount completed on October 27. The unofficial results showed Farkas leading Sonya Sharp by 585 votes out of nearly 349,000 ballots cast. Sharp requested a recount under the Local Authorities Election Act, citing the potential for errors introduced by the new hand-counting procedures and election worker fatigue. The recount actually widened Farkas's margin: he finished with 91,112 votes (26.1%) to Sharp's 90,496 (25.9%), a final difference of 616 votes. Incumbent mayor Jyoti Gondek placed a distant third with approximately 71,466 votes (20.5%), making her the first sitting Calgary mayor to lose a re-election bid since Ross Alger in 1980. Jeff Davison finished fourth with approximately 47,373 votes (13.6%), and Brian Thiessen placed fifth with roughly 40,800 votes (11.7%). Four minor candidates combined for fewer than 8,000 votes. The top two finishers were separated by just 0.18 percentage points — the narrowest mayoral margin in modern Calgary history.

Mayoral Candidates

Jeromy Farkas was born and raised in Calgary, the son of Hungarian refugees who fled the 1956 revolution. He studied political science at the University of Calgary and served as executive administrator for the university's Israel Studies Doctorate Program. Before entering politics, Farkas was a regular Calgary Herald columnist on municipal affairs and worked as a senior fellow at the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education from 2013 to 2016, specializing in municipal governance. He won election to council in Ward 11 in 2017 and gained a reputation as council's most outspoken fiscal conservative, declining both his council pension and transition allowance at an approximate personal cost of $290,000. He ran for mayor in 2021, finishing second to Gondek with 116,698 votes (29.9%). His 2025 campaign ran as an independent, emphasizing fiscal restraint, public safety, opposition to blanket rezoning, and a promise to restore trust in city hall.

Sonya Sharp is a lifelong Ward 1 resident who spent 20 years working for the City of Calgary, including 14 years in planning and development, time as a small business coordinator, and a final role as head of the city's business and local economy team. She also operated small businesses in Calgary and British Columbia. Sharp won election to council in Ward 1 in 2021 in a landslide, garnering 14,038 votes — nearly 9,000 more than her nearest competitor. In December 2024, she co-founded the Communities First party alongside councillors Andre Chabot, Dan McLean, and Terry Wong. Running for mayor under that banner, Sharp campaigned on a platform of public safety, pledging to hire 500 police officers, expand transit security, open a 24/7 downtown police station, and repeal blanket rezoning. She was endorsed by the Calgary Police Association.

Jyoti Gondek served as Calgary's 37th mayor from 2021 to 2025 and was the first woman to hold the office. Born in England to Punjabi Sikh parents, she immigrated to Canada at age four and grew up in Manitoba. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and criminology from the University of Manitoba, a master's in organizational sociology from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in sociology from the University of Calgary. Before entering politics, Gondek founded Tick Consulting, a corporate social responsibility firm, directed the Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies at the Haskayne School of Business, and served on the Calgary Planning Commission. First elected to council in Ward 3 in 2017, she won the 2021 mayoralty with 45.2% of the vote. Her term was defined by the $1.22-billion arena deal with the Calgary Flames and the Calgary Stampede, ongoing negotiations over the Green Line LRT, and the passage of blanket rezoning in May 2024 — a decision that proved deeply polarizing.

Jeff Davison earned a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Calgary in 2003 and later completed Cornell University's Strategy Program in Marketing in 2017. He spent more than 20 years in leadership roles with publicly traded companies in the energy, technology, and creative services sectors. Elected to council in Ward 6 in 2017, he co-developed Calgary's economic strategy and the $200-million downtown recovery plan. After leaving council, he became CEO of the Prostate Cancer Centre, a Calgary-based health charity. Davison ran for mayor in 2021 and finished third with 13.0% of the vote. His 2025 campaign ran as an independent, focusing on economic growth, affordability, public safety, and infrastructure.

Brian Thiessen is a labour and employment lawyer and managing partner in the Calgary office of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, bringing more than 30 years of legal experience advising Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and national sports organizations. He chaired the Calgary Police Commission from 2016 to 2019 and served on the boards of the Calgary Police Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House Southern Alberta. A former president of the Alberta Party, Thiessen described himself as socially progressive and fiscally conservative. He ran as the mayoral candidate for The Calgary Party, which launched his campaign in October 2024, focusing on public safety, affordability, and centrist governance.

Campaign Issues

Blanket Rezoning emerged as the election's defining wedge issue. In May 2024, council had voted 9-6 to pass a city-wide land-use redesignation allowing higher-density housing in all residential communities — a policy opponents labelled "blanket rezoning." An earlier motion to hold a public plebiscite on the policy was defeated 8-6 in March 2024. Polling showed 52% of Calgary residents somewhat or strongly opposed the change, with 43% in favour. Four of the five leading mayoral candidates proposed some version of a repeal or major revision. The issue mobilized residents in established suburban communities and fuelled the Communities First party's campaign.

Public Safety ranked as a top concern. All major candidates proposed increased police staffing and expanded transit security. Sharp's pledge to hire 500 officers and open a 24/7 downtown police station drew significant attention. The Calgary Police Association endorsed all Communities First candidates. Concerns about disorder on transit and in the downtown core — compounded by the opioid crisis and visible homelessness — animated debates across ward races as well.

The Green Line LRT remained a source of frustration and uncertainty. Originally envisioned as a $4.5-billion, 28-station north-south transit line, the project's scope had been repeatedly reduced and its cost estimates revised upward. By election time, the estimated cost for a shortened alignment had risen to approximately $6.2 billion, and the province had withdrawn its original funding commitment before bringing forward its own plan for the downtown segment — an elevated alignment that drew substantial opposition from area businesses and residents. Most mayoral candidates favoured a below-ground downtown segment, but no consensus existed on how to resolve the impasse between the city and province.

The Arena Deal also drew scrutiny. In April 2023, council had approved a $1.22-billion agreement with the Calgary Flames and Calgary Stampede to build a new events centre in Victoria Park, with the city contributing $853 million up front and the province committing $300 million for surrounding infrastructure. Public polling showed 59% of Calgarians disapproved of the deal. The project's cost and governance structure became a proxy for broader debates about fiscal priorities and council transparency.

Housing Affordability rounded out the major issues. Calgary's population growth — among the fastest in Canada — was straining the rental market and pushing prices higher. Candidates disagreed sharply on whether blanket rezoning was the right tool to address the supply shortage, with some arguing it was necessary to accommodate growth and others contending it threatened neighbourhood character without meaningfully improving affordability.

Council Races

The 2025 election produced the most dramatic council turnover since 1915. Ten of 14 incoming councillors were newcomers, with only four incumbents returning: Jennifer Wyness (Ward 2), Raj Dhaliwal (Ward 5), Andre Chabot (Ward 10), and Dan McLean (Ward 13). Two sitting councillors — Terry Wong in Ward 7 and Kourtney Penner in Ward 11 — were defeated outright. Multiple wards were open seats due to councillors running for mayor, retiring, or choosing not to seek re-election.

In Ward 1, Kim Tyers of Communities First won the seat vacated by Sonya Sharp's mayoral bid. Tyers had previously run unsuccessfully in Ward 2 in 2021. In Ward 2, incumbent Jennifer Wyness won re-election as an independent, defeating John Garden of A Better Calgary Party. Ward 3 saw independent Andrew Yule pull away from an eight-candidate field, winning with nearly triple the votes of his nearest competitor, Christy Edwards of A Better Calgary Party. The seat was open after Jasmine Mian did not seek re-election. In Ward 4, DJ Kelly won the open seat — a notable result given that Kelly had lost to Sean Chu by just 52 votes in 2021. Chu did not run again in 2025.

In Ward 5, independent incumbent Raj Dhaliwal won a comfortable second term, earning close to double the votes of his nearest challenger. Ward 6 went to independent John Pantazopoulos, CEO of Lucky Strike Energy, who outpolled his closest competitors by roughly two to one in the seat vacated by Richard Pootmans. Ward 7 saw independent Myke Atkinson, a former service design lead at the Calgary Public Library, unseat incumbent Terry Wong, who had run under the Communities First banner.

In Ward 8, independent Nathaniel Schmidt, a criminal defence lawyer, prevailed in a competitive race against Communities First candidate Cornelia Wiebe, receiving approximately 8,800 votes to Wiebe's 7,700. The seat was open after Courtney Walcott did not seek re-election. Ward 9 produced one of the tightest council races: independent Harrison Clark, owner of a mid-century modern furniture store in Inglewood, edged out independent candidate Gar Gar by just 267 votes. Gar Gar's request for a preliminary recount was denied. The seat was open following Gian-Carlo Carra's departure.

Incumbent Andre Chabot of Communities First held Ward 10 comfortably. In Ward 11, Rob Ward of Communities First defeated incumbent Kourtney Penner by approximately 8,500 votes — one of the most decisive incumbent defeats of the night. Ward 12 delivered the closest council race: Mike Jamieson of A Better Calgary Party defeated Sarah Ferguson of The Calgary Party by just 59 votes after an automatic recount. The official final count was 6,865 to 6,806. Incumbent Dan McLean of Communities First won Ward 13 handily, earning nearly double the votes of his nearest challenger. In Ward 14, Landon Johnston — an HVAC company owner who had led the Recall Gondek campaign — won the seat vacated by retiring 14-year incumbent Peter Demong.

Notable Outcomes

The election marked several firsts and historic benchmarks. The introduction of registered municipal parties was the most significant structural change to Calgary elections in decades. Communities First emerged as the most successful party, electing four councillors (Tyers, Chabot, Ward, and McLean), though their mayoral candidate Sharp fell just short. A Better Calgary Party elected one councillor (Jamieson in Ward 12), and The Calgary Party elected none. The majority of incoming councillors — ten of fourteen — ran as independents.

Gondek's third-place finish ended a 45-year streak of incumbent mayors winning re-election in Calgary; the last sitting mayor to lose was Ross Alger, defeated by Ralph Klein in 1980. The council turnover — ten new members out of fourteen — was the most sweeping since the current ward system was established. Farkas won the mayoralty with just 26.1% of the total vote, meaning only about one in ten eligible Calgarians voted for the incoming mayor. The new hand-counting mandate and Elector Register requirements caused significant logistical difficulties, with results not fully tabulated until early on October 21 and the mayoral recount not completed until October 27. The election underscored widespread voter frustration with the status quo — the defeated incumbent, the mass council turnover, and the low turnout all pointed to a city in a restless mood heading into a new political era.