For the first time in the history of Calgary, political parties could have a big impact on the outcome of a municipal election.
That’s because the provincial government passed legislation last year allowing candidates in Calgary and Edmonton to run under a party banner.
While many of the candidates have been trying to stake their claim to one side of the political spectrum or another, the sea of colourful candidate signs that have popped up across the city, some of them running for a party and some not, have only added to the confusion of who is allied with who and what they stand for.
While Communities First — with mayoral candidate Sonya Sharp — claims to not be closely allied with any provincial or federal political party, instead portraying themselves as “like minded individuals committed to independently representing their constituents,” most of them do fall on the right side of the political spectrum.
“Calgarians, Edmontonians, have already said, ‘We don’t agree with the municipal party, particularly block voting.’ We don’t do that either, right?” said Terry Wong, an incumbent councillor running for reelection in Ward 7.
“What they also don’t like is if parties start to work deals in the back room, colluding with each other. We don’t want that either.”
However, Wong admits those running under the Communities First banner all have “common values and principles.”
“We want to be to get to that eight if not nine vote majority and having, you know, people thinking, acting, and most importantly, considering your constituents and communities first.”
Many of the signs chosen by the candidates in this year’s municipal election, share a similar colour scheme, whether they are are independent, or running for a political party.
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A Better Calgary, on the other hand, makes no attempt to hide its political leanings, using, “Your Conservative Choice” as its party slogan.
While he’s not officially running as a member of the party, preferring instead to call himself an independent, A Better Calgary has thrown its support behind Jeff Davison.
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“A Better Calgary party is the Conservative party out of the three parties that were created,” said Mike Jamieson, who is running for the party in Ward 12.
“What I think the party system does is gives it more informed and easier for the voter. So if you are a conservative then you know you can go to the more conservative party or liberal or whatever and what I just think it saves time,” said Jamieson.
The third political party, The Calgary Party, is more left-leaning than the other two, with Brian Thiessen as its mayoral candidate.
“We are a centrist party. So we have card-carrying UCP and we have card-carrying NDP members, federal Liberals, federal Conservatives,” said Thiessen.
While incumbent mayoral candidate Jyoti Gondek’s signs use a pink and black colour scheme, similar to Brian Thiessen of The Calgary Party, she is running as an independent, and says she has “no regrets.”
“When the idea came out from the provincial government to use Edmonton and Calgary as the guinea pigs for parties I was very clear — this will be the kiss of death for local representation,” said Gondek.
Former city councillor Jeromy Farkas, who finished second to Gondek in the 2021 mayoral election, is also running as an independent and he, too, has no love for party politics at the municipal level.
“We have to keep city council independent of these political parties. I’ve chosen to run as an independent so I can answer to Calgarians, to be practical to be pragmatic to rebuild our relationship with the provincial and federal government and bring together the mayor and council as a team,” said Farkas.
More information on all the candidates is available on the Elections Calgary website.
For those voters who have already made up their minds who they’re going to cast a ballot for, advance voting for a new mayor, council and public and separate school board trustees is already underway, with polls open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day until Oct. 11.
Election day in Calgary is on Oct. 20.
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