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Calgary civic elections: Oscillating poll fortunes of Jyoti Gondek
Having won the mayoralty with fanfare in 2021, Gondek came third this year.
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Prabhjot Paul Singh - Wed, 22, Oct 2025
- 00:35 EDT
- 22
Jyoti Gondek. / LinkedIn/Jyoti Gondek
In 2021, she became the first woman of Indian descent to become a Mayor of a Canadian city. And four years later, she added another first to her name. She has become the first incumbent who failed to retain her office since 1980, when Rodd Alger lost to an upstart politician, Ralph Klein. This is the story of Jyoti Gondek, who immigrated from England to become the first woman to be Mayor of Calgary.
After an eventful term, she (71,401 votes) finished in third place behind Jeremy Farkas (91,071 votes) and Sonya Sharp (90,487 votes).
The Calgary elections saw several contestants of Indian descent. But the only one to taste success has been Raj Dhaliwal, who retained his seat from Ward 5 by polling 6242 votes.
All other candidates of Indian descent, who mostly contested from Ward 3 were unsuccessful– Rajesh Angral (615 votes), Anil Chauhan (936 votes), Taran Dhillon (1073 votes), Jaspriya Johal (1375 votes), Siraaj Shah (811 votes); Ward 4 – Gurpreet Dhillon (1218 votes), Harneet (Reet) Mudhiana (2872 votes) Jigar Patel (225 votes), Harry Singh Purba (211 votes), Aryan Sadat (3719 votes); Ward 10 Tarlochan Singh Sidhu (1573 votes); Ward 12 Raj Kumar Khuttan (854 votes); and Ward 14 Sunjiv Raval (666 votes).
While former Ward 11 councillor Jeromy Farkas narrowly beat Communities First leader Sonya Sharp by less than a percentage point, Sonya Sharp announced that she would seek a recount.
The rules provide for that in case an election is decided by fewer than 600 votes between the two front-runners, a recount can be sought. Under provincial law, if the results are within half a percentage point of the total number of ballots cast for mayor, a recount may be requested. In this case, that difference is approximately 0.17 per cent of the total 348,626 ballots cast.
Once the numbers are cleared and Jeremy Farkas retains his number one position in the vote count, he will be Calgary's 38th mayor. In that case, he also becomes the first to unseat an incumbent mayor since 1980.
Farkas spoke to Jyoti Gondek to thank her for her service as mayor. "She's given so much to Calgary, and I look forward to building on that work. And at the end of the day, we all love this city, and that's what unites us," Farkas said.
Jeromy Farkas spoke to the media after unofficial results from the municipal election were made public. He promised to work with both progressive and conservative Calgarians and thanked his supporters over the last decade. Farkas served on the city council from 2017 to 2021 and unsuccessfully ran for mayor in the last election.
Farkas was the runner-up in the 2021 election, losing to Gondek. Though Farkas may come out on top this time around, fewer Calgarians supported him in this election than in 2021, when he received 116,698 votes to Gondek’s 176,344.
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