The countdown is on: What we know about Calgary’s 2025 civic election​on July 11, 2025 at 4:39 pm

Municipal political parties can spend up to $1 per person based on the average population for every ward in which the party is fielding a candidate.

Individuals and organizations are eligible to donate up to $5,000 to any municipal party per year. Candidates can contribute up to $10,000 of their own funds per campaign period. Parties must disclose their donations by March 1, 2026.

Third-party advertisers, or TPAs, are allowed to spend up to $0.50 per person based on the population of the municipality, but only during the election year advertising period. For this election, that period runs from May 1 to Oct. 20.

TPAs must publicly disclose their contributions online and to align those contributions with the maximum $5,000 allowed annually per municipality.

The new legislation also prohibits the use of electronic tabulators (automated vote-counting machines), which means results on election night will take longer to tally and may not be confirmed until the following day.

The Calgary Party recently released a downtown public safety tool kit, which included a proposal to provide supports for the city’s unhoused population to discourage rough sleeping on Stephen Avenue.

The party has already named candidates in all wards except 2, 3 and 5.

Communities First’s website includes seven policy priorities, which include being accountable to citizens, running an efficient city, getting city hall “back to basics,” and public safety. The party, whose candidates tend to skew right-of-centre in terms of their politics, has pledged to repeal last year’s approval of blanket rezoning and increase Calgary’s police budget.

Communities First has named nine council candidates, including for wards 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

ABC Party describes itself as a grassroots-led, conservative-leaning party. Rather than have a party platform, policies are determined by party candidates, and then each candidate is voted in by party members.

The incumbent faced an embattled first term as mayor, with low polling, a citizen-led petition attempt to recall her, the city’s longest- ever public hearing, several disputes with provincial officials — including one that nearly tanked the Green Line project — and the Bearspaw south feeder main crisis.

When announcing her candidacy for re-election last November, Gondek said she’s learned a lot this term and vowed, if she retains the post, to improve communication between city hall and Calgarians, support those who need it most, cut unnecessary red tape and empower the city’s business community.

Farkas, who was the Ward 11 councillor from 2017 to 2021, finished second to Gondek in the last election, with roughly 117,000 votes, or just under 30 per cent of ballots. After losing the 2021 election, he went on a five-month, 2,300-kilometre trek across the Pacific Crest Trail, during which he raised money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary.

If he becomes mayor, Thieseen said his focus will be to improve council unity and prioritize public safety, housing and transit.

“I am a big believer in being fiscally responsible and socially moderate, and so that’s why I say I’m an actual centrist,” he said last October.

Before being elected to the northwest Ward 1 in 2021, Sharp was a longtime employee with City of Calgary administration and also ran a family construction business.

She is often the antithesis to Gondek on the current council and seen as a ringleader of council’s conservative-leaning minority, including her three Communities First colleagues. Her motions often include attempts to cut spending in order to reduce property tax increases and she is critical when council wades into the jurisdiction of other orders of government.

Sharp is chair of council’s infrastructure and planning committee and was also chair of the recently dissolved event centre committee, which oversaw the development and approval of a deal for a new NHL arena in 2023.