Jeromy Farkas

Jeromy Farkas is a Canadian politician who was elected to Calgary City Council in the 2017 municipal election, and a candidate for mayor in Calgary's 2021 municipal election. He represents Ward 11 on council, comprising the neighbourhoods of Acadia, Bayview, Bel-Aire, Braeside, Britannia, Cedarbrae, CFB Currie, CFB Lincoln Park PMQ, Chinook Park, Eagle Ridge, Elbow Park (part), Elboya, Haysboro, Kelvin Grove, Kingsland, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Mayfair, Meadowlark Park, Mission, North Glenmore Park, Oakridge, Palliser, Parkhill/Stanley Park, Pump Hill, Rideau Park, Roxboro, Rutland Park, Southwood, Willow Park and Windsor Park.
On September 16, 2020, Farkas announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2021 municipal election, which is scheduled for October 18, 2021.
Early life and education.
Farkas was born and raised in the southeast Calgarian neighbourhood of Dover. His parents had fled communist Hungary in 1956 and settled in Calgary in search of a better life.
After graduating from Calgary's Bishop Carroll High School, Farkas attended classes at the University of Calgary and received his bachelor of arts in political science and government. Prior to being elected, Jeromy served at the University of Calgary for eight years and ran the Israel Studies Program. Building on his experience as a Research Team Lead in Medicine, Jeromy developed his own successful small business focused on finance and data analysis.
Manning Foundation.
Prior to declaring his candidacy for Ward 11, Farkas worked as a senior fellow specializing in municipal governance at the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education from February 2013 to January 2016. He was the project lead for the Council Tracker project, and published a report in September 2013 called "Growing the Democratic Toolbox: City Council Vote Tracking" where he studied City of Calgary Council meetings from fall 2010 to April 2013, specifically examining 73 votes during that period to understand how council worked, look at voting blocs, time spent in-camera (deliberations that are not open to the public), among other issues. He continued the project and established the website Counciltracker.com to track Calgary council activities, which he maintained until he left the Manning Foundation to run for Ward 11.
Farkas is a former "Calgary Herald" columnist writing about local issues, particularly city council, and contributed to "Canadian Cycling" magazine from 2015 to 2016.
Provincial and federal politics.
Formerly president of the Wildrose Party's constituency association in Calgary-Elbow, Farkas identifies himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal. He describes his political views as being motivated by an attitude that "you should have the biggest say in how you live your life... chasing, again, the best solutions rather than the ones based in ideology," and has been active in issues such as wildlife conservation and human rights activism. He is openly bisexual, which made him Calgary's first openly LGBTQ male city councillor, and played a key role in pushing the Wildrose Party to adopt a more progressive position on LGBTQ issues.
Calgary city council.
On his first day serving as the councillor for Ward 11, Farkas declined the pension that the mayor and councillors receive. He also declined the transition allowance afforded to him. The Canadian Taxpayer's Federation estimates that if he serves three terms and lives to age eighty-five, these rejected entitlements will save Calgarian taxpayers more than $1.1 million. He also vowed to oppose the city's new southwest bus rapid transit line.
Throughout his term, Farkas has held monthly town hall events during which he answers questions from his constituents off the cuff. When the COVID-19 pandemic rendered such events unsafe, he compensated by hosting weekly Facebook Live sessions.
In December 2017, his proposal for the city to provide additional compensation to residents of the Midfield trailer park, which is being closed due to poor site design that makes it impossible for the city to repair the neighbourhood's failing water and sewer lines without tearing down the homes, failed to advance after Farkas was unable to find a councillor willing to second the motion.
In early 2018, he faced some criticism for being the sole councillor to vote against a motion directing city staff to draft a new parental leave policy for city councillors, on the grounds that taking time away from city council business would be a betrayal of the constituents.
In December of 2018, Farkas was kicked out of a council meeting for beaching code of conduct rules. He made a Facebook post regarding councillors salaries, which the basis of his post were deemed to be untrue. His actions were called "dishonest and irresponsible” by the mayor. Farkas was accused of grandstanding on the issue from numerous councillors because he was not addressing his concerns through council and proper channels, but rather posting to social media. 
In May 2020, Farkas was found guilty of breaching the code of conduct by the integrity commissioner for his Facebook posts in 2018.
On June 16, 2020, Farkas was the only city councillor to vote against the approval of the Calgary Green Line.
In March of 2021, a complaint with the integrity commission was lodged against Farkas for advertising in wards outside of his own. 
On April 26, 2021, Farkas was the only councillor to vote against the Downtown Revitalization Strategy, a plan that would have brought more mixed use activity to downtown Calgary.
Also on April 26, 2021, Farkas was one of three councillors who voted against immediately reserving $200 million for the Downtown Revitalization Strategy.
On May 10, 2021, Farkas was on of two councillors who voted against a pilot program allowing alcohol consumption in public parks. The motion was passed. 
2021 Mayoral Campaign.
On September 16, 2020, Farkas announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2021 municipal election, which is scheduled for October 18, 2021. He was the first candidate to do so. He was also the first candidate to officially submit his nomination papers, which he did on January 4, 2021.
Since his announcement to run for mayor, a hashtag trend has been popular amongst the public on social media: #neverfarkas. 
As of April 7, 2021, nine other candidates' nominations have been accepted by Elections Calgary: Ian Chiang, Brad Field, Ward 3 Councillor Jyoti Gondek, perennial candidate Larry Heather, Kevin J. Johnston, Zane Novak, Teddy Ogbonna, Shaoli Wang and Grace Yan. Two other candidates—Emile Gabriel and James Desautels—have announced their candidacies but have not yet submitted their nomination papers to Elections Calgary, making for a total of twelve declared candidates.
Positions.
Green Line
On June 16, 2020, Farkas was the only city councillor to vote against the approval of the Calgary Green Line. He also requested that the Green Line be put to plebiscite, which was rejected 13-2. 
Council Compensation.
On October 31, 2020, Farkas announced his opposition to the Mayor's second pension, saying "Calgarians these days are lucky to receive one pension, let alone two". The Mayor of Calgary was the only Canadian mayor to receive two pensions. The second pension was later abolished on November 3, 2020 after Council approved a suite of recommendations to reform Councillor compensation from a citizen committee.
Police.
In November of 2020, Farkas announced his opposition to proposals to defund the Calgary Police Service, stating that "by courting the abolish and defund police movement, City Council is playing with fire and it's Calgarians who are getting burned". He proposed that money for social programs should come from areas of lower priority like bike lanes or public art.
On November 17, 2020, Farkas launched a petition against the proposed $20 million cut from Calgary's police budget. As of December 6, 2020, the petition has received 2,584 signatures. On November 27, 2020, Council backed down on its proposal to defund the police, voting 11–3 to instead fund additional social services with Calgary's fiscal stability reserve.
Property Taxes.
On October 17, 2020, Farkas called the prospect of a possible 25% tax hike on industrial landowners a "wake-up call" for Calgary to "get [its] budget under control". Farkas expressed concern that the proposed tax hikes targeted "major industries that we're trying to cultivate and attract to come to Calgary".
Farkas is in favour of "rein[ing] in the City's ever-increasing budget and giv[ing] Calgarians a break on taxes," particularly in light of "unprecedented times like the COVID-19 pandemic."
Speed Limits.
On September 27, 2020, in response to a report recommending that Calgary lower its unposted speed limit from 50km/h to 40km/h on collector roads and 30km/h on residential roads, Farkas said that "making the entire city a playground zone has to be the silliest idea [he has] ever heard". He expressed concern about the time and money it would take to implement such changes.
Street Parking.
On October 21, 2020, Farkas called a proposal to put an end to the practice of offering free residential parking permits "just more nickelling and diming", further saying that "people shouldn't have to pay to park in front of their home. Increasing these fees is the last thing we need right now, especially with this economy".
Transparency and Accountability.
Farkas believes that Calgarians should have easy access to voting records and documents to understand how their councillors are conducting council business and spending public money. Additionally, he has supported term limits and representative recall, which would allow Calgarians to petition for a councillor's removal before the end of their term.
Opinion Polling.
On January 26, 2021, lobby group Common Sense Calgary released a poll of 1,284 Calgarians conducted by an independent third-party polling firm between the 17th and 19th of January. The poll asked Calgarians who they would support in a number of hypothetical scenarios featuring different combinations of declared and rumoured mayoral candidates. When all declared and rumoured candidates were considered, a statistical tie (given a 2.5% margin of error) emerged between incumbent Mayor Naheed Nenshi—who later opted not to seek re-election—with 40.5% of the support and Farkas with 38.9%. In a straight head-to-head between Farkas and Ward 3 Councillor Jyoti Gondek, Farkas dominated with 60.6% of the support, while Gondek had 23.6%.
On February 1, 2021, the Western Standard released a poll of 1,603 adult Calgarians conducted on the 25th and 26th of January by Mainstreet Research. Incumbent Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who later opted not to seek re-election led with 44% of decided and leaning voters. Farkas trailed shortly behind with 39%, while Ward 3 Councillor Jyoti Gondek had 8%, Brad Field had 2% and other candidates collectively had 7%.