Gondek loses re-election bid, race for Calgary mayor still too close to call

Now-former mayor Jyoti Gondek has lost her bid for re-election in Calgary’s 2025 mayoral race.

Source: Facebook

Now-former mayor Jyoti Gondek has lost her bid for re-election in Calgary’s 2025 mayoral race.

Her loss marks the first time that an incumbent mayor of Calgary was defeated in a re-election bid since 1980, when Ross Alger lost to Ralph Klein.

With 2 of 380 polls reporting as of late Monday night, it appears to be a two-horse race between councillor Sonya Sharp and former councillor Jeromy Farkas, who are currently separated by a narrow margin.

During the campaign, Farkas pushed woke policies like “hate-tracking programs,” opposing Alberta’s efforts to enforce its ban on child gender transitions, and celebrated being pro-immigration.

Sharp pledged to hire 500 new police officers and open a 24/7 downtown police station — a proposal that received an endorsement from the Calgary Police Association.

While Farkas and Sharp had around 64,000 votes at the time of this article’s publication, Gondek is trailing behind significantly at around 48,000.

Calgarians rejected Gondek’s re-election bid after a tenure that saw consistently low approval ratings.

During the city’s water crisis, she reached an all-time low approval rating of 26 per cent, even below that of former prime minister Justin Trudeau at the time.

She also faced declining favourability for the Green Line LRT’s ballooning cost and voting against freezing pay increases for councillors.

During her campaign, Gondek defended her record on crime and homelessness, citing the city’s integrated response model and a bylaw banning open drug use.

“We will not make open drug use something that is normalized,” said Gondek during a mayoral debate. “We are banning it.” She said offenders would be referred to community court so they can access support for homelessness, mental health struggles, or addictions.

This municipal election was Calgary’s first under Alberta’s new rules allowing political parties to appear on municipal ballots. However, the political parties were required to have zero affiliation with provincial or federal political parties.

Gondek ran as an independent, while three other parties participated in Calgary’s election. The Calgary Party was led by Brian Thiessen, who was in fifth place at the time of this article’s publication. A Better Calgary Party was led by Gordon Elliot, but did not run a mayoral candidate. Sharp led the Communities First Party.

At the time of writing, it is not apparent who will be elected Calgary’s next mayor given the narrow margin, Gondek’s third-place ranking means she has lost her bid for a second term as mayor.