Braid: Jeromy Farkas takes over city hall with action and a vow to fight antisemitism

Jeromy Farkas is off to the strongest start of any new Calgary mayor in decades.

Within days of taking office, Farkas established a no-nonsense council that speaks with moral clarity, especially against rampant antisemitism.

For starters, he wrought a true seasonal miracle — setting a property tax increase of 1.6 per cent, lower than the national inflation rate.

It was also below the 3.6 per cent city officials insisted was the absolute lowest necessary to avert civic catastrophe.

All through the Jyoti Gondek years, Calgarians were fed the mantra that tax hikes simply couldn’t be lower without cutting city services.

In 2023, the increase was 7.5 per cent.

This year, the new mayor and council simply shifted $50 million from the city’s investment account.

That account was worth $7 billion at the close of 2024. Taxpayers have been extorted by councils sitting on a pile of wealth.

Farkas also kept his key campaign pledge to reverse the blanket rezoning forced through by Gondek’s council despite massive public resistance.

They always claimed this had to happen to get $250 million in federal housing money.

“I don’t work for some bureaucrat in Ottawa,” Farkas said in a year-end interview.

“I don’t work for these developers. I work for Calgarians. Our council voted decisively to reject the one-size-fits-all approach in favour of a more community-informed strategy that will actually build the needed housing at a price Calgarians can afford.”

He also believes, based on conversations with the feds, that Calgary won’t lose federal cash.

By a 13-2 vote, council moved toward the policy reversal.

Farkas also promises much stricter enforcement against open drug use and the crime that surrounds it.

“We need to hold accountable the worst, most egregious offenders, and we know right now that it’s about 100 individuals who are responsible for the vast majority of repeat violent crime and offences,” he said.

“This may not be politically correct to say, but we need to crack down on these people. They need to be put in jail.

“There has to be zero tolerance for open drug use and crimes against property and people, but we also have to ensure that we’re attacking the root causes of crime.”

Finally, Farkas is taking powerful steps to restore tolerance in Calgary.

I mean genuine tolerance, not the weak-kneed favouritism that Gondek signalled when she refused to light Hanukkah menorah candles at the annual city hall ceremony in 2023.

Farkas was there for this year’s lighting on Dec. 15, right after the dreadful slaughter of Jews at Bondi Beach in Australia.

He was joined by Premier Danielle Smith, Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi and other dignitaries.

Farkas delivered the most forceful declaration against antisemitism to come from any Canadian leader, period. The speech has gone global.

It deeply moved Calgary Jews who have been subjected to growing, dangerous hatred, often fostered by the very public institutions taxpayers support.

“This violence did not come out of nowhere,” Farkas said.

“It has been emboldened by spineless leadership, moral cowardice and a failure to act decisively or stand unequivocally with the Jewish community.

“Calls to globalize the intifada were dismissed.

“Antisemitism was excused as anti-Zionism, and leaders did nothing.

“Silence, deflection, excuses — these are choices that have consequences.

“History shows us this pattern clearly.

“Lies masquerade as morality. Dehumanization is excused. And violence follows.”

To demonstrators, he said, “you have the right to protest but you do not have the right to intimidate.

“You do not have the right to target people because they are Jewish.

“If your protest makes Jewish families calculate their safety, if your slogans make them fear attending religious celebrations — like our menorah lighting tonight — if your cause demands silence from those under threat, then you’re not speaking truth to power, you are part of the problem.

“And I want to be clear — criticism of governments is not antisemitism.

“But harassment of Jewish people, anywhere and for any reason, is.

“And in Calgary, we will draw that line clearly.”

In the interview, I asked Farkas what he means by drawing the line.

He said he’ll ensure strict enforcement of existing law.

“Public safety is squarely the responsibility of the mayor and city council, and the fact that so many Jewish Calgarians do not feel safe, are not safe in the city, that squarely lands with me as mayor.

“I will be pushing very hard, challenging our Calgary Police Service and also working in collaboration with the police commission.

“This is not limited to the Jewish community, which is why I’m going to strike a new Mayor’s Interfaith Council to work together with other faith leaders, not just in the Jewish community, but also the Sikh and Hindu community, Muslim community, the Christian community — so that an attack on one is deemed an attack on us all.”

Finally, the mayor has a few words for the antisemitism that often spills out of public universities.

“It’s hatred and discrimination blanketed with the label of intellectualism — just useful idiocy.”

City hall will get rocky at some point. It’s the nature of the beast.

But, finally, Calgary has a mayor and council we can view with hope rather than disdain.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X and Bluesky: @DonBraid