Jeromy Farkas

Farkas graduated from Calgary's Bishop Carroll High School and 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.[2]

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.[3][4] 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.

Formerly president of the Wildrose Party's constituency association in Calgary-Elbow,[5] Farkas identifies himself as a fiscal conservative and social liberal.[6] 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.[6] He is out as bisexual, becoming Calgary's first openly LGBTQ male city councillor,[7] and played a key role in pushing the Wildrose Party to adopt a more progressive position on LGBTQ issues.[5]

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.[8] He also vowed to oppose the city's new southwest bus rapid transit line.[9]

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.[10]

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.[11]

On June 16, 2020, Farkas was the only city councillor to vote against the approval of the Calgary Green Line.[12]

On September 16, 2020, Farkas announced his candidacy for mayor in the 2021 municipal election, which is scheduled for October 18, 2021.[1] He was the first candidate to do so.

As of December 6, 2020, six other candidates have announced their candidacy: businessman Brad Field, Nigerian immigrant Chibunna Theodore (Teddy) Ogbonna, civil engineer and past mayoral candidate Emile Gabriel, musician James Desautels, perennial candidate Larry Heather and geologist Shaoli Wang.[13]