Former city councillor Jeromy Farkas has returned to City Hall — but not quite as the conservative firebrand many once knew. In a tight race, Farkas captured 91,065 votes, narrowly edging out Communities First candidate Sonya Sharp, who finished with 90,480.

Incumbent Jyoti Gondek trailed well behind at 71,397, ending her one-term tenure as Calgary’s most unpopular mayor in decades.

The results, posted Sunday night by Elections Calgary, show a clear realignment in the city’s political map — and the emergence of a new populist conservative force that has already reshaped the council chambers.

Farkas’s victory comes after a campaign that baffled many of his former supporters. 

Once known as the lone fiscal hawk standing up to Gondek’s tax-and-waste woke council, Farkas reinvented himself as a progressive “bridge-builder” — even floating policies straight out of the left’s playbook.

As Juno News first reported, Farkas used a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” to pitch a “hate-tracking” program and “culturally competent training” for city staff, while voicing opposition to Alberta’s efforts to ban child gender transitions. He even defended Gondek’s record on “Reconciliation” and backed “equity roadmaps” that sound more like DEI memos than municipal priorities.

“I do not support the use of the notwithstanding clause,” Farkas wrote, when asked about Alberta’s move to protect parental rights in schools. “It should be up to municipalities.”

For conservatives who once rallied behind him, it was a stunning reversal. The onetime Wildrose activist who used to rail against political correctness is now pledging “community-led hate education.”

But change is afoot. 

If there was a breakout success story on election night, it was the Communities First party. In its debut election, the centre-right slate made a major impact, finishing second for mayor and winning at least five council seats across the city:

• Ward 7: Terry Wong (re-elected)

• Ward 10: Andre Chabot (re-elected)

• Ward 11: Rob Ward (decisive win with 14,703 votes)

• Ward 13: Dan McLean (landslide with 11,514 votes)

• Ward 8: Cornelia Wiebe (strong 5,475 vote showing, narrowly missing first)

That’s a solid foothold for a brand-new party and enough to make them the single most organized bloc on the new council.

Their message of “fiscal sanity, public safety, and common sense” clearly resonated with voters frustrated by the Gondek years of bike lanes, tax hikes, and “15-minute city” rhetoric.

Adding a twist to Calgary’s political saga, Landon Johnston, the HVAC business owner who launched last year’s failed recall petition against Mayor Gondek, has now been elected to city council in Ward 14.

Johnston’s recall drive gathered over 69,000 signatures, but all 369 tested by city clerks were deemed invalid due to a technicality, missing a printed notice required under provincial law. Still, the effort became a rallying point for Calgarians disillusioned with Gondek’s leadership.

Now, Johnston will sit where he once protested, representing the city’s deep-southeast communities. His 6,831 votes were enough to secure a decisive win in a crowded field, cementing his role as the grassroots outsider who made it inside.

For outgoing mayor Jyoti Gondek, the result was a predictable but painful rejection.

Her term was marked by an avalanche of controversies — from the arrest of a pastor who protested Drag Queen story time at city facilities to her push for climate alarmism that never caught on with the public.

“I think what’s happening right now is people are trying to make political points,” Gondek told reporters, blasting councillors for questioning her 2021 declaration that turned Calgary into a “climate emergency” city.

That moment perfectly encapsulated her downfall. She was a mayor more focused on global virtue-signaling than local affordability.

Unofficial Mayor’s Race Results (2025 Calgary Election)

 

Candidate	Votes	Party	% (approx.)
Jeromy Farkas	91,065	None	26.1%
Sonya Sharp	90,480	Communities First	26.0%
Jyoti Gondek	71,397	None	20.5%
Jeff Davison	47,372	None	13.6%
Brian Thiessen	40,519	The Calgary Party	11.6%
Others	7,793	—	2.2%

 

Farkas may have reclaimed the mayor’s chair, but Communities First has captured the political momentum.

Calgary’s establishment has been shaken, Gondek’s “climate emergency” legacy lies in tatters, and a new generation of conservative councillors — some veterans, some total outsiders — now have the numbers to steer the city back toward common sense.

City Hall will never look the same again.