Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has delivered a defiant message to citizens and critics alike with two simple words: Just watch me.
The Fighter Returns to City Hall
In his first weeks since the November 2025 election, Mayor Jeromy Farkas is making good on campaign promises with a focus on fiscal discipline and public safety. The newly-elected mayor wasted no time outlining his priorities, emphasizing a return to normalcy, responsible spending, and addressing core municipal services.
Farkas, known for his combative style during Naheed Nenshi's mayoralty, insists he hasn't changed his approach. "I'm still the fighter I was 10 years ago," Farkas stated, though he noted a significant evolution in his motivation. "This time I'm fighting for someone and for something rather than just against something."
Confronting the Budget Battle
The first major test of Farkas's leadership comes with the city hall budget debate beginning Monday, November 20, 2025. The current proposal includes a 5.8 percent property tax hike for Calgary homeowners, a figure the mayor aims to reduce dramatically.
Farkas has committed to cutting the tax increase by at least half, which would bring it down to approximately 2.9 percent or lower. "And that's in the two or three weeks we've been here," he noted, suggesting even more significant changes are coming during the next full budget cycle.
Public Safety as Priority Spending
While pushing for lower taxes overall, Farkas outlined his strategy for redirecting savings toward law and order initiatives. His approach involves bringing the tax increase to zero first, then adding specific funding for public safety measures.
"My thought process is to bring it down to zero and then from that zero look at what we have to spend to increase the cops, increase the transit officers and everything above zero is specifically about public safety," Farkas explained.
The mayor's public safety agenda includes:
- Increased police presence throughout Calgary
- Additional transit security officers
- Security infrastructure investments
- Potential installation of turnstiles at LRT stations
Farkas pointed to early actions as evidence of his commitment, including advocating for downtown public safety and working with council to start repealing blanket rezoning.
Addressing critics who question whether he'll maintain his tough stance, Farkas remained characteristically direct: "Judge me by my actions not by the s--t talking the other campaigns did during the election."
With the budget debate looming and his political philosophy clearly stated, Calgary's new mayor appears ready to deliver on his campaign promises through concrete action rather than rhetoric.
