Copyright westernstandard
INNISFAIL — Premier Danielle Smith says she is eager to work with Calgary’s newly elected city council, following Mayor-elect Jeromy Farkas’ victory in the 2025 mayoral race.“I'm looking forward to it, there are a lot of new faces on the City of Calgary [council],” Smith told the Western Standard.“I'm waiting for them to get sworn in and find their footing, and there'll be a few things that we have to work on together. We've got a big project with the Green Line to get finished, and the Event Center and Arts Commons and the Deerfoot expansion.“There's so many projects that I was able to work on collaboratively with the previous mayor, and I'm sure we'll be able to do the same thing with the new mayor.”Smith’s comments reflect a willingness to work across political lines, as Calgary city politics undergo a massive shift.The Western Standard's Myke Thomas previously noted that the new council includes six councillors on the right [side of the political spectrum], six on the left, and two in the centre, with Farkas counted as a centrist. Ten of the elected 15 councillors are new faces..Only 584 votes separate Jeromy Farkas and Sonya Sharp for Calgary's mayor chair; Sharp calls for vote recount.In the past, Smith’s provincial government and former Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek had not always seen eye to eye as they butted heads on several occasions, such as with the Green Line LRT project, where Smith cited delays as the result of a lack of political oversight.At the time, Gondek countered, saying that the city had worked closely with federal and provincial authorities, criticizing the province for “flipping the script.”Smith noted that Farkas had previously demonstrated a strong commitment to ensuring “taxpayers got value for their dollars” during his time as a councillor.“We are concerned about that too,” she stated.“I'll see what his new priorities are, because he did have some time off, but we'll look forward to working with him.”
