Is Farkas the one to beat Gondek？
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Summary
Jeremy Farkas was the runner-up in the previous Calgary mayoral race with a strong second place finish, but didn t quite get over the top. Now he s back again, and, according to some polls, he s the leading candidate to defeat incumbent mayor Jody Gondek.
Transcript
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Good day and welcome. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.
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Today I'm joined by Calgary mayoral candidate Jeremy Farkas. Many of you will recall that he
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was the runner-up in the previous Calgary mayoral race with a strong second place finish but
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didn't quite get over the top. He's back again and, according to some polls, the leading
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candidate now to defeat incumbent mayor Jody Gondek. I've known Jeremy for a long time,
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we go back a ways, but I'm pleased to welcome him to our studio today.
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Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This is a great opportunity.
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So, there's a couple different areas. There'll be policy to get into. But me, I'll start
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with the few parts of this. So, the one big thing a big majority of Calgarians are agreed
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I'm not a fan of how she's governed. It was largely a continuation, I think, many like myself
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would see as from the Nenshi government, or sorry, administration, possibly going even
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further in that direction. Most Calgarians want her gone. And she is, according to most
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polls, on track to be the first incumbent since, I think, the early 1980s to actually
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lose. Calgary mayor incumbents don't lose. They retire when they're going to lose, so they
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don't actually lose. She looks, I mean, knock on wood, I'm going to spoil the whole thing
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here. I'm going to exit. But she is on track to very possibly lose. So the question is, who
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do we vote for, both to make sure she loses and to get the best possible city administration
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in place. In the last mayoral election, you were, I think, correctly perceived as the most
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conservative major candidate. And you didn't win, but you had consolidated most of the conservative
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vote. Jeff Davison, I think, was viewed as a very moderate, kind of light conservative.
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Now, so-called splitting of the vote would not have been enough. Jody Gondack would have
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Yeah, even if you were to add Jeff and I together as one candidate, it still wouldn't have been
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Yeah. And I say so-called vote splitting, because it's kind of a thing, but not as much as people
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actually think. But it is a bit of a thing. But, you know, after the last election, you
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went on, I call it your Forrest Gump run. You know, you-
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Oh, I was here telling Corey all about it. Yeah.
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I think the bigger point is, despite the fact I lost, like, my phone just kept ringing.
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Like, it was amazing. So many Calgarians from a broad cross-section of the city, even
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political spectrum, reached out. And it's the perfect example of him to make a lemonade.
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Yeah. But I know what it's like to lose an election. It sucks. It's hard. And you got-
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Exactly. You really do. You learn who we're just kind of a hangers-on, who want to maybe
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be on the winning team and maybe get a piece of the pie when it's all done. You know, they
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want to be in your staff or they're going to want contracts or whatever. You figure out
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who those are when you're down. But, you know, after a loss, I didn't go on an actual big
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Forrest Gump run, but I had my figurative walk in the desert too, where, you know, you're
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reflecting. But you came out of that, I think it's fair to say, a guy with perhaps different
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political, a different political persuasion. You're, I think, pretty broadly viewed as having
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shifted away from being a more strident conservative that you were known as before to uncharitably
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saying more left words, maybe being more charitable, you know, to the center, depending, you know,
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however you want to phrase that, you know, less conservative. And I would push back a little
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bit about that because I think you and I have been relatively consistent, like relatively
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social libertarians, fiscally responsible, live and let live.
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Oh, no, I'm radicalized since I'm not a libertarian anymore.
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I, I, I, I, I, but the reason I rock, the reason I say that is like, people can make a point
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of me attending the pride parade this year. Well, I've, I've attended pride for the last 10 plus
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years. You could run the tape and you could see photos of you and I wearing pride shirts
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in the pride parade for the wild rose 10 plus years ago. Right. So for me, I've always been
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about fighting for my constituents, for financial responsibility, for transparency. And I don't
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know, like many Calgarians, I don't think it's really easy to put me in the box. Like I'd
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describe myself as like an old school PC, like fiscally responsible, socially live and let live.
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But you weren't PC. You were a wild rose. You were on the libertarian.
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Yeah. I didn't like the corruption, right? I wanted the voice of the people represented in
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the decisions that were being made. And that was always what I did as a city councilor,
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like advocating for the people. And you know, it's hard, but you got to keep your promises.
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Like I was the only city councilor who actually kept their promise to decline the city council
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golden pension at great personal cost. And now we have other candidates in this race actually
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attacking me for that decision. It's pretty crazy, right? So if there is an actual fiscal
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conservative in this race, it's probably the person who left half a million dollars at city
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I do agree very much that some of the, some of the flack, I've never seen someone take
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flack for not taking the pension. I've seen politicians try to downplay it because they
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did take it. Okay. And I'm going to get into that with some of the other candidates here.
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Uh, I I'm, I'm with you a hundred percent on that. Um, but you know, uh, I don't get too
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deeply into that part. There's a difference between a social progressive and a social libertarian.
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You know, I always saw myself as a libertarian when I was in the wild rose. I'm less libertarian
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today. I still have some of those parts of my views there, but you know, I've, I've hardened
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up in some areas. Um, uh, but that social progressive is someone who used the power of the state to
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advance in a particular direction rather than just kind of a laissez faire social.
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That's why I've described myself as socially live in that lip, right? You know, I, I want
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to, which is why I would use the word social progressive. That's different than a social
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libertarian, but I hate the labels. The, the, the short and large of it is the labels don't
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really work at municipal politics. And that's part of the reason I'm running is to be able
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to represent Calgarians and not some political party or some ideological bent. And it's really,
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it's been the sharp and gondex of the world bringing in their ideology, right? Day one,
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sharp and gondex declaring it's a climate emergency, right? Saying we're done with oil
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and oil. Sharp wasn't for the climate emergency. She voted for it. You're sure about that?
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Absolutely. You can run the tape, uh, day one support for the climate emergency. Okay.
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It's a 13 to two. Okay. Uh, I know she's very much said she was against it, but, uh, let's
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make a no production to, we'll, we'll fact check. Oh, she was for it before she was against
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it. Okay. Well, let's, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll fact, we're going to fact check
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that one. Western standard production fact, check the claim and confirmed that Sonia Sharp
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did in fact supported the climate emergency declaration, but voted against adopting the
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climate strategy due to concerns over its lack of detail on costs, funding sources and implementation.
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But the bigger point though, is how do we build a city that's focused on being affordable and
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around being safe? How do we take the ideological persuasions out of it and just focus on getting
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the, the job at the city done. And that's really what my platform has been about. And
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that's the through line of my career as a city councillor, keeping my promises, picking
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up the phone when people called and doing the work of the people who elected me.
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Okay. But you're very widely perceived as, okay. Last election, you were very widely perceived
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as the, the more solidly conservative candidate. I remember, you know, you voted against, uh,
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the mask mandate. Nenshi had brought forward a vote. I think it was very much engineered
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for election timing because majority of Calgarians were just kind of going along with what was
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going on at the time. Yeah, sure. Okay. Council wants a mask mandate. They would support it.
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It would harm you electorally, but you voted against it nonetheless. Um, you know, uh, how
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would you, if I mean, we have a lot of hindsight now, but would you change how you voted? Cause
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that, that, that was a kind of a pivotal moment perhaps in the mayoral campaign when you voted
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against the maximum, uh, mask mandate on the minority side of council. How would you vote
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again today? Well, I, I've been clear to Calgarians. I've grown in the past 10 years.
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The city's grown in the past 10 years. I don't regret fighting for my constituents, right?
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I can walk you through the evidence, the details on a vote by vote basis, but I find it's very
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interesting how the candidates in this race would rather attack me in the positions I took
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10 years ago than talk about their own failed record. Right. So when I'm asking about how you voted
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four years ago and how you voted was something I very much supported how you voted, but would
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you change how you voted in hindsight? Cause you've evolved in four years. Has your, have
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your views changed about how you would have voted four years ago, say on the mask on that
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issue? No, my, my concern was just the jurisdiction of the municipality, right? Uh, for me, it was
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a open choice for whether Calgarians should be, uh, masking and I, I maintain that position
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today. You know, it's, it's not up for me to decide, but again, uh, how much time the
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other candidates are spending attacking me and the positions I took versus talking about
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what they've done. The fact is that it was sharp and gone back cutting our police budget,
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cutting our mental health funding locally here. That's caused the, the great surgeon, uh,
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Calgarians feeling unsafe in the downtown. They had seven years, uh, or rather 12 years collectively
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as members of council, 20 plus years working in city administration to be able to do all this
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stuff that they say all of a sudden that they coulda, shoulda, woulda done. So again, I'm
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happy to debate my record when they were declaring the climate emergency. I was walking, crawling,
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bleeding for 172 days across North America. When they were ignoring our water pipes, I was
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working with our provincial government to build a new flood mitigation project on the Bow River
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to protect Calgary from another slide. I'm happy to talk about the record, but they can't keep
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attacking positions I took 10 years ago in order to defend themselves from their record from last week.
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Sure. Um, well, let's see where I'm coming from. And I, I think, you know, most blessed set of readers,
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viewers would say is they really liked your positions 10 years ago. They liked that Jeremy
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Farkas and a lot have concerns that you have shifted. And I know you, I don't think that's
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political opportunism. If you have changed, I think it's, it's a genuine change of heart that you come
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by it honestly. But yeah, the concern of a lot of kind of conservative leaning Calgarians is that
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you're, you know, that you're perceived by many to not be that guy we really liked.
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Do you remember how the media went at me the last time in 2021? I was this, I was way too
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right wing. And now the same kind of smear campaign is happening that I'm way too left wing,
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but in this race, I'm the only one who's actually kept his promises. You know, I,
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I followed through on the decision to turn down the pension. I've done, uh, the work of representing
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my constituents. And there's a lot of people out there who might be mad at me for positions I've
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taken or things that I've done, but never have I actually broken my promises. And that's the
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challenge that I, I give to these folks is don't compare me to the almighty comparing me to the
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alternative. I'm the only one in this race who can defeat Jody Gonda can do what hasn't been done
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in 45 years to unseat a sitting mayor. So again, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the
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I, I, I will get into, uh, you know, the cut of the strategic voting and who could
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beat, uh, Gondek that, uh, cause it's, it's a very important part here. Um, but, uh, you know,
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yeah, Gondek is certainly coming at you from, you know, how you voted when you were on council,
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um, before the last election here. Um, but the concern for more conservatives is, you know,
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concern that you have, that your, your own views have shifted over the last four years.
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I think the question is on what, right? Be specific. If you go to my website today,
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let's put it to you in general. Like, do you think you are say more of a centrist now
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I'm not using those labels. Like I'm focused on financial responsibility. I'm focused on
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controlling the city budget. I'm control. I'm focused on, uh, cracking down on Calgary's repeat
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violent offenders. I'm focused on reopening a downtown police station, right? I do not care what
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labels people give to me. I've been called everything under the sun. I just want to do the
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work of building this team, bringing this council together, working together with our premier to get
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things done. Uh, I'm sick and tired of the labels. And I know like a lot of Calgarians,
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I don't fit comfortably in a box, right? So judge me based on my ideas. I've always followed through
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on my promises and that's what I'm committed to do as Calgary's next mayor.
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But you, in the last election, you fit relatively comfortably into a
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broadly speaking conservative box. I mean, I know you, you've got nuances in position. You don't agree
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with say party lines on everything. I never have as well. Those labels are imprecise and imperfect,
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but in the broad strokes, they mean something. Yeah. Um, I think it'd be fair to say last time you
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fit into the broadly speaking conservative box, just the Jeremy Farkas brand of conservatism. Um,
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do you think you still fit within the broader, you know, would you still say you are broadly in a very
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broad, broadly speaking a conservative still? I would describe myself as fiscally responsible,
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socially living that lip, right? Like I, I would say I'm happy to spend money on the things that
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we actually see the value for. I'm not happy with blowing a billion dollars for the flames like, uh,
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Sharpe and Gondek did. That's not particularly fiscally responsible, but again, I'm, I'm asking
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Calgarians to judge my platform as a whole, right? If you look at my website today at Jeremy.ca,
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number one is fiscal responsibility. Number two is public safety. Number three is repealing blanket
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rezoning, right? So on an issue by issue basis, that's the challenge that, uh, I'm posing to
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Calgarians is this, the, the question of Calgary's next mayor is not who is the best conservative.
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The question is who can beat Jody Gondek, who can defeat a sitting mayor and do what hasn't been done
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in 45 years. Other candidates have tried, but at best in the polling, they've been able to match
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Jody Gondek's support. So my pitch to Calgarians again is I'm the only one in this race who can,
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uh, stop a political party takeover of city council, change the direction of city hall
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and actually deliver safety and affordability for Calgarians.
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Okay. So let's talk about that. Um, kind of broadly speaking, strategic voting, however we want to put
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that. Um, Calgarians broadly speaking, Juan Jody Gondek gone. Um, I'd say broadly speaking,
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they want this council going, right? Because when you look at the major, uh, things like the water
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main break, the inattention to our infrastructure, you look at the botched arena deal, you look at
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the climate emergency, Sharpe and Gondek were in lockstep on a lot of those issues that Calgarians
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are pinning rightfully on the mayor, right? So it's collective frustration.
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The mayor is kind of the personal face we put on the whole council and that is obviously not
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a particularly correct thing to do, but it tends to be how people view it.
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Well, it's not just the face that's Sharpe and others voting for things like the climate
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emergency voting for the arena deal, right? So it's a, this is about change versus more of the
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same, right? If you want more of the same, if you want things like the Sharpe Gondek arena deal,
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if you want the Sharpe Gondek climate emergency, if you want the Sharpe Gondek ban on paper bags,
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you got two great options in that. If you want to reward 12 years on city council and 20 years in
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city administration and still being unable to deliver, if you want to reward that, you have that.
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Well, within municipal control, obviously you have jurisdictional challenges with the federal
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government, but for me, I just want to focus on the running of the city, right?
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So in terms of municipal policies, straws and bags are going to be great.
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Look, I ran an environmental organization out at Colombo Ranch. I was CEO, right? I'm for the
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environment, but banning paper straws is not how you're going to save the turtles, right? Like we,
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there's a lot of, uh, there's a lot of work that we can do to actually make Calgary more efficient,
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save money for taxpayers and, and actually meaningfully help the environment, but I'm not
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for this. Like plastic bags for me and straws. I don't know why I'm just like, I'll change my vote
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for someone on that. Like I could be a single issue, straw and bag voter. It sets me off. If I was ever to
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be a terrorist. I think that disqualifies Sharpe and Gondax then for you. So.
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Sharpe is for keeping the bans. Well, I'm not here to talk about those people, but what I'm
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here to talk about is, is the record of this mayor and council, right? So a lot of these issues that
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people pin on the mayor, rightfully so, it's because folks like Sonia Sharpe, Sharpe and others
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have voted to support that agenda. So I just want to put it down. If you're mayor, you're coming out to
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give us our bags and straws back. Within municipal jurisdiction, I think there's an override at the
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federal level, right? Although that was, that was beaten in court. So we'd probably get it back.
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I'd have to get back to you on that, but I want my. But everything you can do to get it back,
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we get it back? Well, I think a lot of people. I'm a single issue voter on this. Absolutely.
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Absolutely. I think a lot of people can feel the woke leaving the body when you're trying
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to slurp of the paper straw. Yeah. Oh, my virtue is melting in my hand,
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melting in the cup in front of me. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So we're kind of back to
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the question about beating Gondax. But you know, I welcome the challenge. I welcome
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the scrutiny. And I think in 2021, Jody Gondax didn't get that scrutiny, right? So I know that
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conservatives, progressives, everybody in the city is asking these hard questions of candidates.
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And you know, I'm, I'm not a perfect candidate. I've, I've made mistakes in the past. I've learned
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from them, but I don't think looking at new evidence on an issue by issue basis makes me a
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flip-flopper. It just means that I have a working brain, but I'm always, I'm always happy to be
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accountable. Like when I was a counselor every single month for four years, 50 events in a row,
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I would report to my constituents and I would do what was described as the most dangerous thing.
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I would give my constituents the microphone and I would speak if spoken to, but otherwise I would
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be there to answer questions, right? So I'm happy to put myself out there. I'm happy to explain myself.
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I'm happy to justify myself. And I'm also focused on actually providing what both Sharp and Gondax
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haven't, which is genuinely listening to Galgarians in terms of what they want from their city.
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Okay. So let's talk about, you know, kind of who's best position to, you're ready for mayor,
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not for overall council. I know council needs change, but, uh, talk about the mayor's race.
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Um, I've been, you know, terribly confused about, you know, who, who can be Gondax because all the
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campaigns are putting out their own polls and well, you know. Well, Janet Brown has spoken and she's
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somewhat the, uh, the Oracle of Alberta. Yeah. And I was just like, okay, well,
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I have to worship the altar of Brown here. She's, she's good. I mean, she can be wrong,
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but if she's probably going to be the most correct. So that's kind of the gold standard
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I've gone by. Uh, cause all the campaigns are putting out their own stuff, but it's,
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you know, there's an agenda often to releasing your, you don't release a poll unless you have
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an agenda from your campaign, obviously. Uh, but Janet Brown's that's independent.
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And I think that's credible that showed you, uh, not an overwhelming, but pretty decisively.
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I think it was around 36 ish. Yeah. And for me, the biggest thing is I'm not asking for support
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based on polls. I'm, I'm asking for support based on my safety plan on repealing blanket,
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rezoning, controlling costs. Right. It's not enough to give people something to vote against.
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You got to give them something to vote for. Just yesterday, we released our full platform,
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which is on our website. Okay. Well, we'll talk about policies after this part. Um,
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it, so it showed you in first, um, so by the numbers in a position to defeat Gondek and then,
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uh, Gondek, uh, back a bit, uh, tied essentially with Sonya Sharp. And then Jeff Davison in a,
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not respectable, but well behind in fourth place. Um, so a lot of Calgarians, especially, you know,
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those who read and listen to the Western standard, um, you know, they're, they want Gondek gone,
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and then they want the most conservative possible replacement for that. Um, and I know,
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you know, conservative and liberal labels, except, uh, not are particularly difficult to apply to
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municipal. It's, you were talking about this before we got on the air. It's like, we want government,
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make government boring again, you know, plow the streets, pick up the dog shit. Um,
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make sure the water feeders don't burst, you know, pretty, it should, at least it should be
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that, you know, the basics. Um, so, you know, those kinds of ideological labels are partially
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applicable, but not entirely. Um, so, but it's weird. Like we, we mentioned, like I'm getting
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attacked by the one other campaign who describes himself as a conservative for turning down the city
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council, golden pension, right? You know, that was a Canadian taxpayers federation verified the,
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that that was almost a half a million dollar, uh, impact to my family. Yet those, the so-called
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fiscal conservatives are attacking me over that. Right. But it goes to show that they want to
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attack me more than they want to hold the mayor accountable. Right. And my focus is on holding
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this mayor and council accountable for their lack of, uh, attention to the economy, to spending,
00:21:08.360
uh, how they botched this whole blanket rezoning thing, uh, how they've been focused more on climate
00:21:13.480
emergencies than the actual nuts and bolts of running the city. And that's really what my
00:21:17.400
campaign is about. It's about not just being the only person who can defeat Jody Gondek in this race,
00:21:22.440
but also being, uh, financially responsible, focusing on the infrastructure, maintaining what we have,
00:21:28.200
no more corporate welfare schemes, billion dollar giveaways to the flames, right?
00:21:32.120
We can have these great things as a city, but we got to work within what we have. And we have to
00:21:37.640
build a better relationship with the provincial government. This is so essential.
00:21:40.600
So I know you take, you'll take, you take issue with this, but, um, for voters who feel you've
00:21:48.120
shifted, you know, kind of away from more conservative positions that you held four years ago,
00:21:53.240
people who at least perceive that. Yeah. Again, it really depends on the issue, right?
00:21:57.480
Yeah. But, uh, you know, and so they, they're voting for, or attending to vote for
00:22:01.960
Davison or Sharp or, or leaning in that way. You know, what would you say to them? You know,
00:22:08.840
because, you know, if, because those who view, say, Davison or Sharp as being more conservative
00:22:13.800
right now, what would your message be to them going into the auction day on Monday?
00:22:18.360
Make your vote count. Don't vote for a candidate who can't win. That's the central point. And vote
00:22:24.120
for a candidate who can deliver what you want and attention on public safety, on affordability,
00:22:28.920
on controlling taxes. I'm the only one in this race who's actually put skin in the game as far as keeping
00:22:33.880
their word, right? So when you look at the issues on blanket zoning, on safety, on taxes,
00:22:40.040
a lot of the candidates are sounding a lot the same. So then the question for you becomes who
00:22:44.280
actually has the credibility, who's actually followed through on the promises, who's actually
00:22:48.280
taken the necessary positions, even when they're unpopular. And that's me in this race. Like I'm many
00:22:53.960
others in this race made that same promise to turn down the generous golden pension. I'm the only one
00:23:00.440
in this race who actually kept that promise, right? So if you want to know who's actually in a position
00:23:05.640
to win, to deliver and actually follow through, I'm the one who, Mark, checks all of those boxes.
00:23:10.680
Okay. Let's talk about the pension, but in a bigger context. I know you and I have talked about this
00:23:16.440
before. You know, when I was in politics, I tried to make some of these kind of symbolic
00:23:21.320
self-sacrifices and it gets you nothing. Most voters, unfortunately, they don't actually really
00:23:26.840
recognize it. Some do, but they don't really do much on it. You don't get much in the way of credit
00:23:35.000
back. You take the hit yourself, but the voter doesn't always appreciate it. I mean, the voters
00:23:39.000
last time didn't appreciate it. You made that. For me, it's not about the voters. It's about
00:23:43.320
keeping my word as a candidate, as a person. Yeah. I mean, but the purpose of the promise.
00:23:47.560
So, you know, back when I was with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, I led the research project that
00:23:52.680
kind of really got into the nuts and bolts of boring actuaries of the member parliament pension
00:23:56.520
plan. And they didn't get rid of the pension plan, but they significantly reformed it so
00:24:00.440
that MPs were paying at least half of it. And the purpose of that wasn't to make MPs poorer.
00:24:06.280
It was to give them a moral license to reform public sector pension plans, defined benefit pension
00:24:12.760
plans. And, you know, I won't get into defined benefit contribution stuff. It'll bore people to death,
00:24:17.960
although it's really important stuff. But the purpose of it is to give the political leadership
00:24:24.040
of a government the moral license to make changes that are going to actually save money on a bigger
00:24:32.840
level, save with the public sector pensions. Similarly, when the Kennedy government came in,
00:24:37.960
they cut MP pay by, I think, 10% or something. But then they didn't cut the pay of the public service.
00:24:43.480
I mean, I was like, well, what was the point of that? The point was to say, fine, you know,
00:24:47.000
we all have to tighten our belts in the government. The government spending too much money.
00:24:50.200
Um, but if we're going to ask, you know, bureaucrats working in an office or a guy pick
00:24:54.280
up the garbage, uh, to take a hit, we're going to take it with you. So we're not, we're not above
00:24:59.480
this. We're all in it together kind of thing. Um, but then they didn't end up doing that.
00:25:03.880
So I didn't really see the point of cutting MP pay by 10%. It saved virtually no money in the grand
00:25:08.280
scheme of things, uh, and didn't lead to actual policy change. So you didn't take the pension,
00:25:14.120
uh, as a counselor. So my part, uh, question is two part. Uh, are you making the same commitment
00:25:20.760
again as mayor? And if so, is that to give you a moral license then to make reforms to the defined
00:25:29.160
benefit, um, pensions of city employees? So the, the second part is that's largely
00:25:35.960
governed at the provincial level. So that's not something I'm running on within municipal jurisdiction.
00:25:40.520
Uh, you don't have jurisdiction over. Well, there's, well, not to get too much into the
00:25:45.240
weasel, the local authorities elections plan, but essentially it's pooled amongst municipalities,
00:25:49.960
Alberta wide. So, uh, my platform doesn't speak to. You could pay each other on book and withdraw
00:25:55.800
from the pension. So I'm, I'm, I, my, my platform does not propose making changes to that, uh, on the, uh,
00:26:04.200
on the pension and compensation and perks for the counselors. Uh, uh, uh, in recent months, uh,
00:26:09.720
Sharpe and others have, uh, championed huge increases to spending accounts, increases to
00:26:14.120
the perks amount to money they can spend on hosting for lunches and whatnot. Uh, what I'm proposing is
00:26:19.320
having an independent, uh, citizen committee that's tasked with looking through the, the compensation,
00:26:24.920
the transition allowance, uh, pension, stuff like that. So that it's, it's arm's length. In my,
00:26:31.080
in my perfect world, we would never have a city council or mayor advocating for raises for
00:26:35.960
themselves or even pay reductions, uh, in order to grant stand. I want this completely separate.
00:26:41.720
I don't want it to have any of the politics involved in that. And ideally it would actually
00:26:46.120
be set in stone for the next four years. You know, we would, uh, have a rest set of
00:26:50.600
suite of recommendations that it would only take effect for the future council. And that's how I
00:26:55.080
would propose. So I'm, I'm happy to abide by the recommendations of this group. I want to move
00:27:00.440
on from kind of the symbolic bullshit. I want to really focus on the spending, the safety for the
00:27:05.800
city rather than getting so in the weeds over these constant fights over pension pay and whatnot.
00:27:11.000
For me though, the, the, the decision to, uh, follow through on my promise was very important.
00:27:15.320
Like when I lost the election, I had the ability to take a $20,000 payout as virtue of losing the
00:27:20.920
election, essentially having gotten fired by my constituents. I chose to keep my promise to turn that
00:27:27.320
down because I am a person who keeps my word and I'm the only one in this race who can defeat Jody
00:27:33.960
Gondek and has the proven track record of following through on my promises. Look, you can even look at
00:27:39.160
my record. Uh, people would get mad at me for things I may have said, or I may have done, but people never
00:27:44.440
get mad at me for doing the opposite of what I said I would do. I've always done exactly what I said I
00:27:49.720
would do. And you can see on my website today, my platform, what I'm setting out to do, which is
00:27:54.440
controlling spending at city council, uh, focusing on public safety, uh, repealing blanket rezoning
00:27:59.880
and, and focusing on a more targeted development approach. So all of these things are on our
00:28:04.360
website and that's all I ask Calgarians to do is judge me based on my ideas and the fact that I've
00:28:09.240
always proven my, my word on these things. Okay. Um, well, I, I brought a penchant because you were there,
00:28:18.520
but normally I, you know, I'd be, we're gonna get taxes and spending up at the very beginning of everything.
00:28:22.520
Yeah. Uh, I just kind of worked into the conversation this way, but, uh, you know,
00:28:27.560
crime and drugs. I mean, it wouldn't have probably been in my top five questions eight years ago.
00:28:33.960
It probably would have creeped into the lower end of the list four years ago, but it's, it's such
00:28:38.760
an issue now. Um, you know, all the candidates I've had through here, that touches everybody.
00:28:43.720
It touches every ward of the city. It's not just a downtown issue. Touches the far out suburbs,
00:28:49.000
which have been untouched until pretty recently. The alley right behind, uh, our office, uh,
00:28:53.640
at the newsroom here. Uh, I mean, there's always poor souls who are, are just, seem lost to the
00:29:01.320
world everywhere. Um, I'm not sure what to do. Uh, I know, you know, the old war on drugs way of
00:29:09.160
doing things and treating everyone like a gangster, that's not going to work. The coddling that's been
00:29:15.000
tried most extremely say in Vancouver, that's obviously not worked. Um, but then we've got,
00:29:21.640
you know, the, the province has talked about mandatory treatment. Um, you know, if, if done
00:29:26.120
rightfully, you know, rightly, you know, we're not going to round people up like a dog catcher or
00:29:29.960
something, but you know, people who clearly need treatment, we're going to do our best.
00:29:34.680
I don't know if that's going to work or not, but I'm kind of at the point where I'm willing to try
00:29:37.800
anything. Um, do you think, you know, are, are you behind mandatory treatment or, or where do you
00:29:45.240
see is the, you know, the best things we, I know you want to hire more police officers. You've said
00:29:49.400
that's a part of it. Um, at least all the candidates have said that they're in favor of
00:29:53.320
hiring more police officers. Okay, great. Um, but I'm looking for the, what might distinguish the
00:29:58.280
different candidates and where do you stand on things? Yeah. Yeah. So right now, both Sharp and
00:30:02.680
Gondek represent like two extremes, uh, and neither of them work, right? We, uh, in, in Sharp's case,
00:30:08.840
it's, it's 500 more police, but ignore the root causes. And in Gondek's case, it's, it's focused more
00:30:15.080
on the, the compassion side of things. And it's very clear that we need both. So my safety plan calls
00:30:20.760
for starting with increased investment in, in right-sizing our pop to cop ratio. It calls for taking
00:30:26.600
action in a way that, uh, both, uh, Sharp and Gondek have not over the last four years to reopening
00:30:32.280
our downtown police station. It calls for sentencing and bail reforms, which I think is one of the most
00:30:36.760
key part. Uh, we know that it's about 50 to a hundred individuals who are responsible for the
00:30:41.560
vast majority of, uh, repeat, uh, violent crimes, uh, offenses against people, property, those,
00:30:48.040
this is not popular to say, but those people need to be put in jail, right? That, that, that is such,
00:30:51.800
I think that is popular to say now. No, well, it, but, but again, it can't stop there. We also need to
00:30:57.400
fund, uh, getting, uh, youth out of gangs. We need to, uh, we need to address human trafficking.
00:31:02.760
We need to address drug trafficking, and we also need the supports around mental health,
00:31:06.680
recovery, treatment, housing first, trauma-informed care, but it can't be one versus the other. And
00:31:12.520
that's why I'm running on a new path forward is to kind of break that logjam, say that, yes,
00:31:16.840
we got to right-size our cop to pop ratio. Yes. We need to look at legislative reforms at the
00:31:21.720
provincial and federal government. And yes, we also need to, to fund the softer things like youth
00:31:26.360
mentorship, big brothers and big sisters and so on. Is mandatory treatment part of that mix?
00:31:31.240
Well, I know that the, the province is exploring it. Uh, I'm, I'm looking to the, uh, the recommendations
00:31:37.240
from our downtown safety leadership table. Uh, I believe that they were looking at exploring that.
00:31:41.640
I'm happy to look at all of the evidence on all of this stuff, turnstiles at train stations. There's
00:31:45.960
a lot of ideas that people say, if it's only this one thing, it's going to solve the problem.
00:31:50.600
It's never going to be just that one thing. So as mayor, my job is to convene everybody, you know,
00:31:56.120
the, the provincial government have their ideas, the federal government have theirs. Our local cops
00:32:01.160
have their ideas as well as the, the, the folks working with the social agency have their ideas.
00:32:05.880
So for me, I'm not at a point where I'm willing to take any of these ideas off the table.
00:32:10.360
Okay. I know there's not, you know, this one weird trick will solve, uh, the fentanyl crisis or
00:32:15.160
whatever that that's not obviously the case. Um, uh, but you know, I'm kind of at the end of my rope
00:32:20.840
with what's going to work. I'm willing to try damn near anything just to throw it at the wall.
00:32:25.960
Uh, I mean, I, it's maybe a dangerous thing to do when you're talking things is important,
00:32:28.920
but we've got to do something. And you know, you're a guy, you know, you've been,
00:32:34.120
I, I, I used to tease you for being so fascinated with the minutia of boring city government,
00:32:41.480
you know, pick up the dog shit, plow the streets, collect the garbage, fix the water.
00:32:46.680
It matters to people. Like what happened with the water main crisis, right? I had to drive
00:32:50.680
through there all summer taking twice as long to work. It drove me absolutely crazy. Uh,
00:32:55.320
and we're all stinky. So, but how do we have a billion dollars for the flames for a new arena,
00:32:59.320
but we don't have a billion dollars to fix it. I agree. Right. So there's enough money
00:33:03.160
in a city like Calgary to be able to address those, that, those fundamental needs.
00:33:06.760
But you know, I've seldom, if ever seen someone who has studied these issues in as much detail
00:33:13.800
as you. Um, and so I'm not looking for a process answer that you're not going to take anything off
00:33:18.920
the table. You're going to listen. I mean, you must've thought about this. So like,
00:33:22.280
I kind of come press you again on say mandatory treatment. Again, I don't know if it'll work.
00:33:27.560
Um, but I'm looking for more than just a kind of a process answer that, you know, you'll,
00:33:32.760
you're open, you're listening, you know, you're not gonna take anything off the table, but like,
00:33:36.760
I don't know, I'm asking maybe a bit more substance on the answer around mandatory treatment,
00:33:42.520
you know, like how, how on the table is it? Well, the, the province wants to make the case
00:33:47.640
and I'm willing to look at the evidence and I'll leave it at that. Okay. Okay. Um, taxes.
00:33:54.760
Now I, I need to be more specific in my questions with some of the candidates. I, uh, you know,
00:34:02.040
tax freeze and tax cuts actually means very different things to different people because
00:34:06.120
there's scheduled increases or scheduled freezes, et cetera. Um, or you could just reduce the big
00:34:11.800
increase that you started with and, and be, uh, about it as a hero for, for doing the reduction
00:34:16.520
on. So you have a, just a giant increase instead of, you'll have to forgive me. Some of the earlier
00:34:20.360
interviews I did, I may have actually been a bit too easy on them. And I kind of realized that as I'm
00:34:24.280
going through them that like, I should have dug a bit more in. So you have the misfortune of me having
00:34:29.000
interviewed a bunch of the others. We've known each other a long time too. So I take no offense
00:34:34.040
at this. This is your job to hold politicians account. But you're probably getting the harder
00:34:38.360
interview because I've interviewed the others first and now I'm, so now I'm more, more adept at
00:34:43.320
these questions with them. Well, you're, you're probably not ready to be mayor if you can't survive
00:34:46.280
Derek Goldingham. Oh, I put that on a hat. Okay. Um, taxes. Uh, I, I, I just left the city,
00:34:54.840
uh, out and into the county. God, I mean, technically I'm paying more, but it's, it's a
00:35:00.600
bigger property. It's different, but like my, my rate is like wildly lower. Yes, there's less
00:35:05.800
services, but I actually prefer the private services. Um, so, uh, but man, taxes in Calgary
00:35:12.200
are, are just wild. Uh, I got sick of these wild increases every year and it's not like the services
00:35:18.920
are getting better. Services are getting worse. Crime's getting worse. Cause you know,
00:35:24.120
quality of life is getting worse, but my taxes just keep going up every year.
00:35:28.360
What happens to taxes under a marriage army? Well, that's largely going to be up to the
00:35:32.360
provincial government. So when we think about, when we think about making commitments to control
00:35:37.000
spending and taxes within municipal control, you're making a promise for 60% of the bill.
00:35:42.360
The other 40% is within the provincial jurisdiction and, uh, the, yeah, take that, take that off the table. That's,
00:35:48.920
at the end of the day though, people see a tax bill and if the tax bill is bigger than what they
00:35:52.520
paid last year, they get pissed off at city hall. Even, even if the mayor, uh, and council as we
00:35:58.440
should, I think delivers, uh, holding the line within our scope. Right. So I think that there's
00:36:03.000
a transparency piece. Like, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to go to war with the, the provincial
00:36:07.320
government on this. Uh, uh, but I think that there's a transparency element where I think it should
00:36:11.480
actually be two envelopes. Like I think you should get the provincial portion and you should get the
00:36:15.240
municipal portion. And if you can see the municipal portion is the same as you
00:36:18.760
paid last year, you can know that your mayor and council are responsible with the money.
00:36:23.240
I follow this stuff pretty damn closely. And even I don't discern. So if even I'm not doing that,
00:36:28.120
I really don't. But the reason that I can't promise a specific number is because people will
00:36:32.040
see the number that they get because the two total. Okay. And if the provincial government
00:36:35.880
is forcing a five, 6% increase year over year on their portion, then people are only going to get
00:36:41.000
this off at the mayor and council. Sure. Okay. But between us girls, uh, just the municipal portion,
00:36:47.000
we just take the province out. So not, not everything they're going to see, because they're
00:36:50.120
going to see the provincial portion to take that out, just the municipal side, what happens.
00:36:55.240
And I, and I know you have to negotiate with a council, uh, but you know, your platform, assume,
00:37:01.800
you know, say you, you could, you get council on side, because there's a bunch of people running
00:37:05.000
under the different slates who are probably going to be fairly aligned with you. And so maybe you get a,
00:37:09.720
you get a council that you can work with and your plan gets through. What, what do taxes look
00:37:13.480
like under your plan for four years? Yeah. I was just sitting down with, uh,
00:37:17.720
Common Sense Calgary and Peter McCaffrey, and he had a very specific question around exactly. And I,
00:37:23.720
in that survey, I responded that at most within the inflation and, uh, population growth, like less
00:37:30.280
than that. But I think that there's certain areas where we can actually reduce the budget overall.
00:37:34.440
Like right now, because of the, uh, the lack of attention from Sharpen Gondek on our water main
00:37:39.800
infrastructure, we lose 25% of the water that we produce within our water utility.
00:37:46.600
So 25% of the water that's produced in the water treatment plant is just lost due to leakage,
00:37:51.080
due to the wooden pipes, lead pipes, asbestos pipes. So if we actually invested and fixed those pipes,
00:37:56.920
we could reduce the rates that Calgarians pay by 25% or more. But look, I've, I've run a local
00:38:01.800
nonprofit. I've had to make every single penny counts. Uh, people can actually look back to how I
00:38:07.080
conducted myself and my budget in my local ward 11 office when I was a city counselor. And I very
00:38:12.120
strongly believe in financial responsibility. We have enough money, but it's going to require
00:38:16.600
negotiating good deals on behalf of the city taxpayers. We can't allow for something to happen
00:38:21.320
again, like, uh, how Sharpen Gondek can negotiate us into the Flames deal. Right? So 85% of the upfront
00:38:29.080
cost of this facility is being borne by the taxpayer with about a hundred percent of the proceeds,
00:38:33.800
naming rights, revenue, going to the private ownership, right? So we cannot allow for things
00:38:38.440
like that. And, and that would be my strategy on my website. I've gone through a bunch of different
00:38:43.480
strategies, how we can implement zero-based reviews, how we can still continue to invest in the increase
00:38:48.600
that we know we're going to need in police officers, and also the accountability and transparency
00:38:53.480
piece. When I left city council as vice chair of the city of Calgary audit committee, we were rated
00:38:58.440
an A-minus in financial, uh, uh, transparency by the CD Howe Institute. Today, we are at a D-plus. So
00:39:04.600
there's a lot of measures that we have to implement from a process standpoint, so that not just that
00:39:09.400
we're spending money wisely, but that Calgarians know how the money's being spent.
00:39:13.560
All right. So you said, uh, inflation plus population or less. Now, is that from a baseline of zero or from
00:39:20.440
already scheduled increases, minus the price? The bigger question for me is how can we drive the,
00:39:27.240
the tax base? So there's a lot of city owned land right now that is not generating any property
00:39:32.040
taxes. Think, uh, the location, 30, 50 million dollar property output, Westbrook LRT station,
00:39:38.120
like an empty parking lot. If that was actually developed into housing as part of a transit
00:39:42.280
oriented development strategy, we could actually bring a new taxpayer paying taxes on maybe 500
00:39:47.800
million dollars to be able to reduce the burden that everybody else pays. But I'm thinking a lot about
00:39:52.600
existing, you know, I get, yeah, you got to build the tax base. I get that. Although
00:39:58.440
the crime at that LRT station, no one's going to want to live there until we get that cleaned up.
00:40:02.920
And then part of the, part of the issue is that how dodgy the finances and the reporting have been
00:40:08.840
left by Sharpe and Gondek make it very difficult for any candidate in this race to actually review
00:40:13.160
some of those budget assumptions. So I'm going to do everything that I can to bring to city council
00:40:17.720
a proposal to be able to address some of the growth demands as well. Like we had 300,000 brand new
00:40:22.600
Calgarians come to the city in the last four years. Many of them, just like my dad who came as a refugee.
00:40:28.760
My dad brought a lot of things, dreams, talents, strengths, but he didn't bring a swimming pool.
00:40:33.000
He didn't bring a fire truck. He didn't believe bring a police officer. He didn't bring water pipes.
00:40:37.320
So there's stuff that we have to invest in, in order for us to be able to actually make this work.
00:40:42.120
But the difference between simply just spending money and investing is investing has to have that
00:40:47.080
return on investment in that business case. And that's where I'm going to be relentless
00:40:51.080
and driving the, there's a lot of folks who talk about spending money as if it was always investing.
00:40:55.880
No, the difference between spending money and investing is investing actually has that return.
00:41:00.840
For example, X amount of dollars to fix the pipes. So then in year two, we lose 10%. And in year three,
00:41:06.680
we lose 5%. People can get their heads around that. So people are not mad about paying taxes per se,
00:41:12.920
but they're bad, mad about not seeing the value. And that is the problem under the Sharpe and Gondek
00:41:21.720
Um, you, so you want to keep it at inflation plus population or less, but again, is that from
00:41:27.080
a baseline of zero or is that from a baseline of already scheduled increases?
00:41:36.520
Well, it's a big difference. And that's why I apologize because like some earlier people,
00:41:41.160
I didn't, yeah, they're like tax freeze. And then I didn't, I didn't ask the follow-up question.
00:41:46.920
That's kind of on me. Yeah. So there's, there's one candidate. So there's, there's one candidate
00:41:50.840
who's advocating for a freeze, but it's a freeze on the 5% increase that was scheduled next year.
00:41:55.960
Right. So yeah, that's not a, is that, that's really, that's just, but it goes to show the fact that we
00:42:01.000
need more transparency. We need more accountability. And now the money is being spent period.
00:42:04.520
Yeah. And so this is why you're getting the harder interview stuff.
00:42:06.760
Yeah. I'm happy to answer the stuff. You, you know, I was there with the counselor tracker
00:42:10.920
and all the rest going through the weeds in the minutes. Yeah. Uh, blanket rezoning. I mean, this,
00:42:15.560
uh, it's another reason I decided to move out of the city into the county. It was like, well,
00:42:21.160
I bought this house and this is single family homes in this area. And I saw that as a property,
00:42:26.920
right? Cause that's, that was the law of this area for which I bought
00:42:30.840
that was changed after I bought. I saw that as not respecting my, my property rights in this area,
00:42:36.040
but I do get communities have to change in over time to an extent. Um, you know, we're bringing
00:42:41.880
in people like crazy. Uh, that's, you know, we're in a attractive place to live. And then Ottawa,
00:42:46.840
I decided more or less to just open up the border entirely. And so that's brought a lot of people in
00:42:53.080
really quick. We need more housing. We've got to build. That's a big part of it. Um, but how you do it,
00:42:59.480
right. Uh, the way it was before, I'm not, I'm not really defend the way it was before,
00:43:04.520
but blanket rezoning was a, was a blanket policy. Uh, what happens with the blanket rezoning policy
00:43:12.360
if you're a mayor? So I'm, I'm fully committed to repealing it and repealing it, repealing it.
00:43:17.080
I know that, uh, um, Sonya Sharp tells a different thing to Livewire Calgary as she'll tell to Western
00:43:22.920
Standard to tell to CBC. My plan is to repeal it, to bring it back to the way it was before that,
00:43:28.680
uh, day in May and to move forward with the local area plan strategy. So my replacement, uh, strategy
00:43:34.280
talks about how we can continue to build, but in a more community informed way. Uh, I've earned the
00:43:40.120
endorsement for, from Calgarians for thoughtful growth, who vetted my plan and essentially calls
00:43:44.920
for focusing the development app and closer, closest to LRT stations, close to activity centers,
00:43:49.640
education, employment, or the services and infrastructure in a place, uh, to be able to support it. So the bigger
00:43:56.360
issue though, is the lack of listening, right? How many Calgarians participated through the process,
00:44:01.080
bringing their ideas, their expertise to the table and a council that was unwilling or unable to listen
00:44:06.200
to them. So there's two issues there. There's just the, the fact that the blanket rezoning hasn't
00:44:11.240
delivered the housing that's affordable or attainable to Calgarians. And I'm in Glamorgan
00:44:16.040
in Southwest Calgary, and it's kind of ground zero. What you'll see is a $600,000 bungalow being torn down,
00:44:21.640
replaced with four $750,000 luxury condos. So what's being built under this policy isn't even
00:44:27.720
attainable or affordable to the folks that this policy is supposed to have, right? So, and another
00:44:33.240
thing is I'm the only candidate in this race who's provided a proactive, weekly updated, uh, list of
00:44:38.760
donors, right? So when you think about how certain elements in the industry would like certain rules
00:44:44.600
to favor them or favor things like blanket rezoning, uh, unlike Sharp or Gondek, I've from day one
00:44:50.840
released a list of all of my donors so that every single Calgarian can know that I'm serious
00:44:55.320
about implementing this policy. Both of those other two candidates have released a partial list,
00:44:59.880
only current until July, and it doesn't actually capture who's supporting their campaigns.
00:45:06.040
Anything else you want to add before we wrap up?
00:45:07.640
Oh, you know, I would say I'm just so grateful. Like I, I started as a kid from Dover with a stack
00:45:14.680
of homemade flyers. I earned election as one of Calgary's youngest city councilors. I, in Ward 11,
00:45:20.680
where I was running, I defeated a, uh, a recent, uh, uh, PCM LA who was running, but it really goes to
00:45:26.520
show like Calgary, they judge you based on who you are, right? Not where you came from, not who your
00:45:31.320
parents were. They judged you at the doorstep based on what you were going to do for the city. And
00:45:36.040
I've been really grateful. Like I, uh, was one of Calgary's youngest city councilors, a police
00:45:40.280
commissioner, uh, following my loss in the last election, was able to, to continue to grow and
00:45:45.240
to build high-performing teams, survive things like 172 days in the wilderness because I could build
00:45:51.640
and lead high-performing teams. I've been a not-for-profit CEO. I've worked closely with the
00:45:56.120
provincial government to be able to save, uh, Calgary in the event of another flood. Uh, we saved
00:46:00.760
Glenville Ranch from destruction and I'm asking for Calgary and support to, to do the thing that
00:46:06.440
nobody else in this race can, which is firstly, uh, stop a political party takeover of city council,
00:46:11.800
change the direction of city hall and deliver on the promise of Calgary to make us safer and more
00:46:16.600
affordable for every single Calgarian who lives here. You know what I'm gonna, what you were saying
00:46:22.040
just kind of spurred me to one last question, but I think it's a very symbolic question.
00:46:27.160
Fort Calgary. It's now the Confluence. I guess the, the society that runs it, but I think it's
00:46:35.080
under some kind of, some degree of municipal control. They changed the name to the Confluence
00:46:39.960
or something like that from Fort Calgary because that I guess was, uh, racist or colonialist or
00:46:45.640
something like that. Would restoring the name Fort Calgary be something you'd do again?
00:46:52.040
So Sharp and Gondek ultimately voted for that name change. I've spent a lot of time listening to,
00:46:57.720
uh, board members at, uh, the Confluence. I've spoken to folks who've been involved in the,
00:47:02.440
in the organization for a long time. I've also, uh, sat down with some of the, uh, local elders and
00:47:08.360
chiefs with, uh, the Treaty of Seven Nations. What they've told me is that, that they would largely
00:47:15.000
Of war. And then for me. To change it back to. Well, it would, it would be a great insult based
00:47:21.240
on the, the reasons that, that the name change was brought in the first place. For me, I'd want
00:47:25.560
to sit down with everybody first to be able to get a sense of how we can better reflect and showcase
00:47:31.480
the story of Fort Calgary within that larger space. For me, I'm very much about how can we lower the
00:47:36.520
temperature? How can we work together as a team and how can we focus on more meaningful, uh, tangible
00:47:41.800
actions to be able to advance reconciliation rather than these symbolic things to, uh, so for me, I,
00:47:48.120
I'm still listening on this one. I want to hear from Calgarians about how we can both recognize the
00:47:52.680
importance that it is for first nations and the fact that it is a significant part of Calgary's
00:47:58.200
history. I think both can happen at the same time in that space. So I think Fort Calgary's history can
00:48:03.720
absolutely be celebrated within the larger context. So for me, again, I want to focus on tangible actions
00:48:09.640
that we can move forward together as a community rather than relitigate, rehash all of these things
00:48:14.520
like climate emergency, uh, name changes. I want to get to, to work on day one as Calgary's next mayor
00:48:20.840
to control our spending, to make Calgary safer, reopen our downtown police station, hire the cops we need,
00:48:25.640
get to the root causes, repeal blanket rezoning. I want to focus on my a hundred days on tangible
00:48:30.360
actions that make life better for people rather than stir up needless arguments.
00:48:34.200
Wow. An act of war. That's maybe what we call this interview. I like it. Jeremy, thank you very
00:48:41.000
much for joining us today. Thank you so much. Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity. All right.
00:48:44.840
Well, that's, uh, Calgary mayoral candidate, Jeremy Farkas, uh, in with us today. Election day is Monday.
00:48:51.400
Uh, just Google it, figure out where to vote. If you haven't already voted in the advanced polls,
00:48:56.120
uh, this is a big one and possibly the first time since 1981. Is it 81?
00:49:02.200
Yeah. Roddy. Yeah. I think 45 years, 40, 45 years longer than either of us have been alive
00:49:07.800
since a incumbent mayor may very well actually go down to, uh, to defeat. So if Jeremy wins,
00:49:13.960
enjoy your job for life. Cause they never lose except for now. I'm not in there for life. I just
00:49:18.280
want to get some stuff. Mayor for life. Uh, Jeremy Farkas. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining us