Western Standard - Is Farkas the one to beat Gondek？

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:00:15.560 Today I'm joined by Calgary mayoral candidate Jeremy Farkas. Many of you will recall that he

00:00:23.720 was the runner-up in the previous Calgary mayoral race with a strong second place finish but

00:00:30.400 didn't quite get over the top. He's back again and, according to some polls, the leading

00:00:36.080 candidate now to defeat incumbent mayor Jody Gondek. I've known Jeremy for a long time,

00:00:43.660 we go back a ways, but I'm pleased to welcome him to our studio today.

00:00:47.540 Yeah, thanks so much for having me. This is a great opportunity.

00:00:49.920 So, there's a couple different areas. There'll be policy to get into. But me, I'll start

00:00:58.740 with the few parts of this. So, the one big thing a big majority of Calgarians are agreed

00:01:07.600 on is they want Jody Gondek gone.

00:01:09.260 That's right.

00:01:10.200 I'm not a fan of how she's governed. It was largely a continuation, I think, many like myself

00:01:16.040 would see as from the Nenshi government, or sorry, administration, possibly going even

00:01:21.440 further in that direction. Most Calgarians want her gone. And she is, according to most 0.55

00:01:27.940 polls, on track to be the first incumbent since, I think, the early 1980s to actually

00:01:32.160 lose. Calgary mayor incumbents don't lose. They retire when they're going to lose, so they

00:01:35.720 don't actually lose. She looks, I mean, knock on wood, I'm going to spoil the whole thing 1.00

00:01:40.620 here. I'm going to exit. But she is on track to very possibly lose. So the question is, who

00:01:47.620 do we vote for, both to make sure she loses and to get the best possible city administration

00:01:53.620 in place. In the last mayoral election, you were, I think, correctly perceived as the most

00:02:01.900 conservative major candidate. And you didn't win, but you had consolidated most of the conservative

00:02:09.240 vote. Jeff Davison, I think, was viewed as a very moderate, kind of light conservative.

00:02:16.100 Now, so-called splitting of the vote would not have been enough. Jody Gondack would have

00:02:20.080 won even without that.

00:02:21.020 Yeah, even if you were to add Jeff and I together as one candidate, it still wouldn't have been

00:02:24.980 enough.

00:02:25.340 Yeah. And I say so-called vote splitting, because it's kind of a thing, but not as much as people

00:02:29.440 actually think. But it is a bit of a thing. But, you know, after the last election, you

00:02:37.000 went on, I call it your Forrest Gump run. You know, you-

00:02:40.860 Oh, I was here telling Corey all about it. Yeah.

00:02:42.960 Yeah. You know, and-

00:02:45.400 I think the bigger point is, despite the fact I lost, like, my phone just kept ringing.

00:02:49.100 Like, it was amazing. So many Calgarians from a broad cross-section of the city, even

00:02:53.620 political spectrum, reached out. And it's the perfect example of him to make a lemonade.

00:02:58.580 Yeah. But I know what it's like to lose an election. It sucks. It's hard. And you got-

00:03:02.700 But you learn who your friends are, right?

00:03:03.860 Exactly. You really do. You learn who we're just kind of a hangers-on, who want to maybe

00:03:09.300 be on the winning team and maybe get a piece of the pie when it's all done. You know, they

00:03:14.500 want to be in your staff or they're going to want contracts or whatever. You figure out

00:03:18.800 who those are when you're down. But, you know, after a loss, I didn't go on an actual big

00:03:26.860 Forrest Gump run, but I had my figurative walk in the desert too, where, you know, you're

00:03:31.700 reflecting. But you came out of that, I think it's fair to say, a guy with perhaps different

00:03:39.460 political, a different political persuasion. You're, I think, pretty broadly viewed as having

00:03:45.240 shifted away from being a more strident conservative that you were known as before to uncharitably

00:03:53.460 saying more left words, maybe being more charitable, you know, to the center, depending, you know,

00:03:57.660 however you want to phrase that, you know, less conservative. And I would push back a little

00:04:01.380 bit about that because I think you and I have been relatively consistent, like relatively

00:04:05.660 social libertarians, fiscally responsible, live and let live.

00:04:09.220 Oh, no, I'm radicalized since I'm not a libertarian anymore.

00:04:11.680 Well, I'm totally radicalized.

00:04:13.920 I, I, I, I, I, but the reason I rock, the reason I say that is like, people can make a point

00:04:18.960 of me attending the pride parade this year. Well, I've, I've attended pride for the last 10 plus

00:04:22.420 years. You could run the tape and you could see photos of you and I wearing pride shirts

00:04:25.780 in the pride parade for the wild rose 10 plus years ago. Right. So for me, I've always been

00:04:30.760 about fighting for my constituents, for financial responsibility, for transparency. And I don't

00:04:35.460 know, like many Calgarians, I don't think it's really easy to put me in the box. Like I'd

00:04:39.900 describe myself as like an old school PC, like fiscally responsible, socially live and let live.

00:04:45.400 But you weren't PC. You were a wild rose. You were on the libertarian.

00:04:48.260 Yeah. I didn't like the corruption, right? I wanted the voice of the people represented in

00:04:52.120 the decisions that were being made. And that was always what I did as a city councilor,

00:04:55.300 like advocating for the people. And you know, it's hard, but you got to keep your promises.

00:04:58.960 Like I was the only city councilor who actually kept their promise to decline the city council

00:05:03.180 golden pension at great personal cost. And now we have other candidates in this race actually

00:05:07.460 attacking me for that decision. It's pretty crazy, right? So if there is an actual fiscal

00:05:13.660 conservative in this race, it's probably the person who left half a million dollars at city

00:05:17.080 hall for it by keeping their promise.

00:05:18.580 I do agree very much that some of the, some of the flack, I've never seen someone take

00:05:25.380 flack for not taking the pension. I've seen politicians try to downplay it because they

00:05:30.820 did take it. Okay. And I'm going to get into that with some of the other candidates here.

00:05:37.200 Uh, I I'm, I'm with you a hundred percent on that. Um, but you know, uh, I don't get too

00:05:45.620 deeply into that part. There's a difference between a social progressive and a social libertarian.

00:05:49.600 You know, I always saw myself as a libertarian when I was in the wild rose. I'm less libertarian

00:05:55.440 today. I still have some of those parts of my views there, but you know, I've, I've hardened

00:05:59.660 up in some areas. Um, uh, but that social progressive is someone who used the power of the state to

00:06:05.300 advance in a particular direction rather than just kind of a laissez faire social.

00:06:09.840 That's why I've described myself as socially live in that lip, right? You know, I, I want

00:06:13.500 to, which is why I would use the word social progressive. That's different than a social

00:06:16.180 libertarian, but I hate the labels. The, the, the short and large of it is the labels don't

00:06:20.380 really work at municipal politics. And that's part of the reason I'm running is to be able

00:06:23.740 to represent Calgarians and not some political party or some ideological bent. And it's really,

00:06:28.560 it's been the sharp and gondex of the world bringing in their ideology, right? Day one,

00:06:32.660 sharp and gondex declaring it's a climate emergency, right? Saying we're done with oil

00:06:37.000 and oil. Sharp wasn't for the climate emergency. She voted for it. You're sure about that?

00:06:42.040 Absolutely. You can run the tape, uh, day one support for the climate emergency. Okay.

00:06:46.460 It's a 13 to two. Okay. Uh, I know she's very much said she was against it, but, uh, let's

00:06:51.160 make a no production to, we'll, we'll fact check. Oh, she was for it before she was against

00:06:54.480 it. Okay. Well, let's, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll fact, we're going to fact check

00:06:58.080 that one. Western standard production fact, check the claim and confirmed that Sonia Sharp

00:07:03.500 did in fact supported the climate emergency declaration, but voted against adopting the

00:07:08.480 climate strategy due to concerns over its lack of detail on costs, funding sources and implementation.

00:07:14.560 But the bigger point though, is how do we build a city that's focused on being affordable and

00:07:18.080 around being safe? How do we take the ideological persuasions out of it and just focus on getting

00:07:23.340 the, the job at the city done. And that's really what my platform has been about. And

00:07:27.480 that's the through line of my career as a city councillor, keeping my promises, picking

00:07:31.180 up the phone when people called and doing the work of the people who elected me.

00:07:35.260 Okay. But you're very widely perceived as, okay. Last election, you were very widely perceived

00:07:43.220 as the, the more solidly conservative candidate. I remember, you know, you voted against, uh,

00:07:48.080 the mask mandate. Nenshi had brought forward a vote. I think it was very much engineered

00:07:52.820 for election timing because majority of Calgarians were just kind of going along with what was

00:07:57.800 going on at the time. Yeah, sure. Okay. Council wants a mask mandate. They would support it.

00:08:02.680 It would harm you electorally, but you voted against it nonetheless. Um, you know, uh, how

00:08:10.860 would you, if I mean, we have a lot of hindsight now, but would you change how you voted? Cause

00:08:15.040 that, that, that was a kind of a pivotal moment perhaps in the mayoral campaign when you voted

00:08:19.080 against the maximum, uh, mask mandate on the minority side of council. How would you vote

00:08:23.900 again today? Well, I, I've been clear to Calgarians. I've grown in the past 10 years.

00:08:29.100 The city's grown in the past 10 years. I don't regret fighting for my constituents, right?

00:08:32.680 I can walk you through the evidence, the details on a vote by vote basis, but I find it's very

00:08:37.800 interesting how the candidates in this race would rather attack me in the positions I took

00:08:42.180 10 years ago than talk about their own failed record. Right. So when I'm asking about how you voted

00:08:46.680 four years ago and how you voted was something I very much supported how you voted, but would

00:08:51.240 you change how you voted in hindsight? Cause you've evolved in four years. Has your, have

00:08:56.920 your views changed about how you would have voted four years ago, say on the mask on that

00:09:00.280 issue? No, my, my concern was just the jurisdiction of the municipality, right? Uh, for me, it was

00:09:04.520 a open choice for whether Calgarians should be, uh, masking and I, I maintain that position

00:09:09.800 today. You know, it's, it's not up for me to decide, but again, uh, how much time the

00:09:14.740 other candidates are spending attacking me and the positions I took versus talking about

00:09:19.000 what they've done. The fact is that it was sharp and gone back cutting our police budget,

00:09:23.120 cutting our mental health funding locally here. That's caused the, the great surgeon, uh,

00:09:28.240 Calgarians feeling unsafe in the downtown. They had seven years, uh, or rather 12 years collectively

00:09:33.500 as members of council, 20 plus years working in city administration to be able to do all this

00:09:38.040 stuff that they say all of a sudden that they coulda, shoulda, woulda done. So again, I'm

00:09:42.520 happy to debate my record when they were declaring the climate emergency. I was walking, crawling,

00:09:46.840 bleeding for 172 days across North America. When they were ignoring our water pipes, I was

00:09:51.800 working with our provincial government to build a new flood mitigation project on the Bow River

00:09:56.040 to protect Calgary from another slide. I'm happy to talk about the record, but they can't keep

00:10:00.920 attacking positions I took 10 years ago in order to defend themselves from their record from last week.

00:10:06.840 Sure. Um, well, let's see where I'm coming from. And I, I think, you know, most blessed set of readers,

00:10:12.040 viewers would say is they really liked your positions 10 years ago. They liked that Jeremy

00:10:17.320 Farkas and a lot have concerns that you have shifted. And I know you, I don't think that's

00:10:24.520 political opportunism. If you have changed, I think it's, it's a genuine change of heart that you come

00:10:29.160 by it honestly. But yeah, the concern of a lot of kind of conservative leaning Calgarians is that

00:10:35.000 you're, you know, that you're perceived by many to not be that guy we really liked.

00:10:41.400 Oh, voted for him.

00:10:42.280 Do you remember how the media went at me the last time in 2021? I was this, I was way too

00:10:47.400 right wing. And now the same kind of smear campaign is happening that I'm way too left wing,

00:10:52.120 but in this race, I'm the only one who's actually kept his promises. You know, I,

00:10:55.640 I followed through on the decision to turn down the pension. I've done, uh, the work of representing

00:11:00.440 my constituents. And there's a lot of people out there who might be mad at me for positions I've

00:11:04.440 taken or things that I've done, but never have I actually broken my promises. And that's the

00:11:09.000 challenge that I, I give to these folks is don't compare me to the almighty comparing me to the

00:11:13.720 alternative. I'm the only one in this race who can defeat Jody Gonda can do what hasn't been done

00:11:18.440 in 45 years to unseat a sitting mayor. So again, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the

00:11:24.040 alternative.

00:11:24.600 I, I, I will get into, uh, you know, the cut of the strategic voting and who could

00:11:29.800 beat, uh, Gondek that, uh, cause it's, it's a very important part here. Um, but, uh, you know,

00:11:36.760 yeah, Gondek is certainly coming at you from, you know, how you voted when you were on council,

00:11:41.560 um, before the last election here. Um, but the concern for more conservatives is, you know,

00:11:48.280 concern that you have, that your, your own views have shifted over the last four years.

00:11:52.360 I think the question is on what, right? Be specific. If you go to my website today,

00:11:56.680 let's put it to you in general. Like, do you think you are say more of a centrist now

00:12:03.640 than you were four years ago?

00:12:04.680 I'm not using those labels. Like I'm focused on financial responsibility. I'm focused on

00:12:09.640 controlling the city budget. I'm control. I'm focused on, uh, cracking down on Calgary's repeat

00:12:14.760 violent offenders. I'm focused on reopening a downtown police station, right? I do not care what

00:12:19.160 labels people give to me. I've been called everything under the sun. I just want to do the

00:12:22.920 work of building this team, bringing this council together, working together with our premier to get

00:12:27.880 things done. Uh, I'm sick and tired of the labels. And I know like a lot of Calgarians,

00:12:32.120 I don't fit comfortably in a box, right? So judge me based on my ideas. I've always followed through

00:12:37.000 on my promises and that's what I'm committed to do as Calgary's next mayor.

00:12:40.200 But you, in the last election, you fit relatively comfortably into a

00:12:45.080 broadly speaking conservative box. I mean, I know you, you've got nuances in position. You don't agree

00:12:50.200 with say party lines on everything. I never have as well. Those labels are imprecise and imperfect,

00:12:56.440 but in the broad strokes, they mean something. Yeah. Um, I think it'd be fair to say last time you

00:13:02.120 fit into the broadly speaking conservative box, just the Jeremy Farkas brand of conservatism. Um,

00:13:11.160 do you think you still fit within the broader, you know, would you still say you are broadly in a very

00:13:16.200 broad, broadly speaking a conservative still? I would describe myself as fiscally responsible,

00:13:22.760 socially living that lip, right? Like I, I would say I'm happy to spend money on the things that

00:13:27.400 we actually see the value for. I'm not happy with blowing a billion dollars for the flames like, uh,

00:13:33.320 Sharpe and Gondek did. That's not particularly fiscally responsible, but again, I'm, I'm asking

00:13:38.440 Calgarians to judge my platform as a whole, right? If you look at my website today at Jeremy.ca,

00:13:43.080 number one is fiscal responsibility. Number two is public safety. Number three is repealing blanket

00:13:48.520 rezoning, right? So on an issue by issue basis, that's the challenge that, uh, I'm posing to

00:13:53.560 Calgarians is this, the, the question of Calgary's next mayor is not who is the best conservative.

00:13:58.920 The question is who can beat Jody Gondek, who can defeat a sitting mayor and do what hasn't been done

00:14:04.200 in 45 years. Other candidates have tried, but at best in the polling, they've been able to match

00:14:09.400 Jody Gondek's support. So my pitch to Calgarians again is I'm the only one in this race who can,

00:14:15.160 uh, stop a political party takeover of city council, change the direction of city hall

00:14:19.560 and actually deliver safety and affordability for Calgarians.

00:14:22.840 Okay. So let's talk about that. Um, kind of broadly speaking, strategic voting, however we want to put

00:14:28.840 that. Um, Calgarians broadly speaking, Juan Jody Gondek gone. Um, I'd say broadly speaking,

00:14:37.000 they want this council going, right? Because when you look at the major, uh, things like the water

00:14:41.560 main break, the inattention to our infrastructure, you look at the botched arena deal, you look at

00:14:45.560 the climate emergency, Sharpe and Gondek were in lockstep on a lot of those issues that Calgarians

00:14:51.240 are pinning rightfully on the mayor, right? So it's collective frustration.

00:14:54.920 The mayor is kind of the personal face we put on the whole council and that is obviously not

00:14:58.360 a particularly correct thing to do, but it tends to be how people view it.

00:15:01.480 Well, it's not just the face that's Sharpe and others voting for things like the climate

00:15:05.080 emergency voting for the arena deal, right? So it's a, this is about change versus more of the

00:15:11.240 same, right? If you want more of the same, if you want things like the Sharpe Gondek arena deal,

00:15:15.320 if you want the Sharpe Gondek climate emergency, if you want the Sharpe Gondek ban on paper bags,

00:15:20.280 you got two great options in that. If you want to reward 12 years on city council and 20 years in

00:15:26.120 city administration and still being unable to deliver, if you want to reward that, you have that.

00:15:30.360 Are you giving us plastic bags back?

00:15:31.480 What? Yes.

00:15:32.520 You can make plastic bags.

00:15:34.120 Well, within municipal control, obviously you have jurisdictional challenges with the federal

00:15:37.960 government, but for me, I just want to focus on the running of the city, right?

00:15:41.080 So in terms of municipal policies, straws and bags are going to be great.

00:15:46.360 Look, I ran an environmental organization out at Colombo Ranch. I was CEO, right? I'm for the

00:15:51.240 environment, but banning paper straws is not how you're going to save the turtles, right? Like we,

00:15:56.200 there's a lot of, uh, there's a lot of work that we can do to actually make Calgary more efficient,

00:16:01.240 save money for taxpayers and, and actually meaningfully help the environment, but I'm not

00:16:06.200 for this. Like plastic bags for me and straws. I don't know why I'm just like, I'll change my vote

00:16:13.320 for someone on that. Like I could be a single issue, straw and bag voter. It sets me off. If I was ever to

00:16:19.080 be a terrorist. I think that disqualifies Sharpe and Gondax then for you. So.

00:16:23.800 Sharpe is for keeping the bans. Well, I'm not here to talk about those people, but what I'm

00:16:28.200 here to talk about is, is the record of this mayor and council, right? So a lot of these issues that

00:16:33.800 people pin on the mayor, rightfully so, it's because folks like Sonia Sharpe, Sharpe and others

00:16:39.080 have voted to support that agenda. So I just want to put it down. If you're mayor, you're coming out to

00:16:43.960 give us our bags and straws back. Within municipal jurisdiction, I think there's an override at the

00:16:48.200 federal level, right? Although that was, that was beaten in court. So we'd probably get it back.

00:16:52.040 I'd have to get back to you on that, but I want my. But everything you can do to get it back,

00:16:55.160 we get it back? Well, I think a lot of people. I'm a single issue voter on this. Absolutely.

00:16:58.920 Absolutely. I think a lot of people can feel the woke leaving the body when you're trying

00:17:02.840 to slurp of the paper straw. Yeah. Oh, my virtue is melting in my hand,

00:17:07.720 melting in the cup in front of me. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So we're kind of back to

00:17:12.520 the question about beating Gondax. But you know, I welcome the challenge. I welcome

00:17:16.440 the scrutiny. And I think in 2021, Jody Gondax didn't get that scrutiny, right? So I know that

00:17:22.520 conservatives, progressives, everybody in the city is asking these hard questions of candidates.

00:17:26.840 And you know, I'm, I'm not a perfect candidate. I've, I've made mistakes in the past. I've learned

00:17:31.160 from them, but I don't think looking at new evidence on an issue by issue basis makes me a

00:17:35.720 flip-flopper. It just means that I have a working brain, but I'm always, I'm always happy to be

00:17:40.280 accountable. Like when I was a counselor every single month for four years, 50 events in a row,

00:17:46.120 I would report to my constituents and I would do what was described as the most dangerous thing.

00:17:50.680 I would give my constituents the microphone and I would speak if spoken to, but otherwise I would

00:17:55.560 be there to answer questions, right? So I'm happy to put myself out there. I'm happy to explain myself.

00:18:01.400 I'm happy to justify myself. And I'm also focused on actually providing what both Sharp and Gondax

00:18:07.080 haven't, which is genuinely listening to Galgarians in terms of what they want from their city.

00:18:11.320 Okay. So let's talk about, you know, kind of who's best position to, you're ready for mayor,

00:18:16.920 not for overall council. I know council needs change, but, uh, talk about the mayor's race. 0.92

00:18:23.160 Um, I've been, you know, terribly confused about, you know, who, who can be Gondax because all the

00:18:31.560 campaigns are putting out their own polls and well, you know. Well, Janet Brown has spoken and she's

00:18:37.320 somewhat the, uh, the Oracle of Alberta. Yeah. And I was just like, okay, well,

00:18:41.720 I have to worship the altar of Brown here. She's, she's good. I mean, she can be wrong, 0.93

00:18:46.920 but if she's probably going to be the most correct. So that's kind of the gold standard

00:18:50.600 I've gone by. Uh, cause all the campaigns are putting out their own stuff, but it's,

00:18:54.360 you know, there's an agenda often to releasing your, you don't release a poll unless you have

00:18:57.560 an agenda from your campaign, obviously. Uh, but Janet Brown's that's independent. 0.99

00:19:02.360 And I think that's credible that showed you, uh, not an overwhelming, but pretty decisively.

00:19:07.640 I think it was around 36 ish. Yeah. And for me, the biggest thing is I'm not asking for support

00:19:13.000 based on polls. I'm, I'm asking for support based on my safety plan on repealing blanket,

00:19:17.240 rezoning, controlling costs. Right. It's not enough to give people something to vote against.

00:19:21.400 You got to give them something to vote for. Just yesterday, we released our full platform,

00:19:25.240 which is on our website. Okay. Well, we'll talk about policies after this part. Um,

00:19:29.880 it, so it showed you in first, um, so by the numbers in a position to defeat Gondek and then,

00:19:38.040 uh, Gondek, uh, back a bit, uh, tied essentially with Sonya Sharp. And then Jeff Davison in a,

00:19:44.360 not respectable, but well behind in fourth place. Um, so a lot of Calgarians, especially, you know, 0.98

00:19:51.080 those who read and listen to the Western standard, um, you know, they're, they want Gondek gone,

00:19:56.520 and then they want the most conservative possible replacement for that. Um, and I know,

00:20:01.480 you know, conservative and liberal labels, except, uh, not are particularly difficult to apply to

00:20:06.760 municipal. It's, you were talking about this before we got on the air. It's like, we want government,

00:20:11.640 make government boring again, you know, plow the streets, pick up the dog shit. Um, 1.00

00:20:16.760 make sure the water feeders don't burst, you know, pretty, it should, at least it should be

00:20:23.400 that, you know, the basics. Um, so, you know, those kinds of ideological labels are partially

00:20:29.000 applicable, but not entirely. Um, so, but it's weird. Like we, we mentioned, like I'm getting

00:20:35.080 attacked by the one other campaign who describes himself as a conservative for turning down the city

00:20:40.520 council, golden pension, right? You know, that was a Canadian taxpayers federation verified the,

00:20:46.600 that that was almost a half a million dollar, uh, impact to my family. Yet those, the so-called

00:20:52.200 fiscal conservatives are attacking me over that. Right. But it goes to show that they want to

00:20:58.200 attack me more than they want to hold the mayor accountable. Right. And my focus is on holding

00:21:02.360 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 0.61

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 0.96

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, 0.98

00:32:41.480 you know, pick up the dog shit, plow the streets, collect the garbage, fix the water. 0.99

00:32:46.680 It matters to people. Like what happened with the water main crisis, right? I had to drive 0.99

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 1.00

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. 0.87

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

00:41:17.880 led councils. We haven't had that value.

00:41:19.640 I want to come back to taxes here.

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?

00:41:31.560 Uh, of zero. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

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

00:47:12.840 consider that to be a symbolic act of war.

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

00:49:24.280 today. God bless.

Western Standard - October 17, 2025

Is Farkas the one to beat Gondek？

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