October 9, 2025
RED FM News Desk
It was a full house at Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall on Wednesday night, where the Calgary Chamber of Commerce hosted a spirited mayoral candidates’ debate featuring the city’s top five polling contenders: Jeff Davison, Jeromy Farkas, Jyoti Gondek, Sonya Sharp, and Brian Thiessen.
Moderated by Chamber president and CEO Deborah Yedlin, the 90-minute debate focused on four major themes — downtown safety, the city’s $3-billion arts and culture sector, small business support, and balancing housing and infrastructure needs with fiscal responsibility.
Public safety quickly emerged as a dominant topic. Sonya Sharp highlighted her slate’s recent endorsement from the Calgary Police Association, citing their commitment to hire 500 new officers and establish a 24-7 downtown police station.
“If you don’t have a safe city, you have nothing,” Sharp declared.
Jeff Davison called for greater cooperation between all levels of government, saying Calgary’s challenges require “the province for mental health and addiction, the feds for bail reform, and local agencies for policing and community response.”
Incumbent mayor Jyoti Gondek defended her administration’s progress, pointing to an “integrated response model” that she said has already improved downtown safety. “We started to see improvement,” Gondek noted, while acknowledging “there’s still work to be done.”
Jeromy Farkas framed the issue as a balance between empathy and accountability. “We’ve seen a bit of a competition of two different ideologies, pitting compassion versus enforcement,” he said. “My safety plan marries the two.”
As the campaign heads into its final stretch, the debate offered Calgarians a clearer picture of how each candidate hopes to lead the city through its next chapter — with safety, sustainability, and fiscal restraint all front and centre.
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