A born-and-raised Calgarian from the southeast community of Dover, Jeromy’s family story is one of hard work and sacrifice. Jeromy’s father arrived in Canada in 1957 as a refugee from communist Hungary, and his mother traces her roots to settlers who emigrated from Eastern Europe to homestead and build a better life. Jeromy learned from a young age that anything is possible if you are willing to roll up your sleeves and work for it. His early years included delivering flyers at the age of 8 years old, bussing tables, laboring in an Ogden shingle factory and working his way through school. Jeromy and Bryon shared the same passion when it comes to endurance sports (Triathlon) and attempt to make the connection between 'racing' and the perseverance and discipline that is required to be a leader in Calgary. Connect with Jeromy here: Website: http://www.jeromy.ca Insta: farkas4yyc Email: info@jeromy.ca Connect with Bryon here: www.thehowardteam.net https://www.facebook.com/thehowardteamcalgary https://www.instagram.com/calgary_living/ Email: bryon@thehoeardteam.net Phone: 403-589-0004
Jeromy
[00:00:00] Cloud well, folks, welcome to another edition of living in Calgary. Today. I am honored to have our Merrill Merrill candidate, Jeremy, fuck Russ. Barkus on the, on the show. Welcome to the show. Well, thanks so much for the opportunity. I'm a long time listener. First time caller. That is hilarious. Yeah. And I'm, I, I, I'm so proud.
I don't know if I'm proud or humble, but so well I appreciate that. And so today as our impasse or 24 hours, as I was learning more about you, I want to call you you know, Jeremy, Jeremy, but you say, I want to call you Jerry. Jeremy Jeremy Farkas. And and as I was learning more about you, I found out that you're actually an, an avid athlete like myself, and you just did the Calgary 70.3 half Ironman on Sunday.
I'm an aspiring one. I think the politics and the day job makes it a little bit harder to go for those long runs. [00:01:00] But I just so enjoy Calgary as far as like I live in the Southwest so I can. Probably 35, 40 minutes out to program out and some of the trails and kind of ask us and can get those done actually early morning before the meetings and helps keep me safe.
Right? Exactly. Well, I said, we'll have to get up for a run sometime. And how long have you been doing triathlon as if in a long time or more recently? So I started back in 2014 and I've been doing it ever since I got the bug and it's been actually just really great. The community is awesome. And it's not a race like you would think of, like everybody's sort of up against themselves, their own mental willpower.
So they just think so super supportive community, excellent opportunities to get, to meet people really vibrant. I think local race scene, a lot of great clubs. And man, it's just been a fantastic opportunity to try to better myself and get more and more personal best times, but also to get the, to meet those folks and to really see the limits of what the human body can do.
It's awesome. [00:02:00] And so coming, like from 2014 started getting into triathlon. Have you always been an athlete? What was your high school sport? No, I wasn't, you know, I was pretty much a couch potato for a long time. Like I would do a little bit of a camping and stuff like that with Scouts. Never super active.
And I think there's a certain point where I was able to really just turn things around and I just met so incredibly supportive a woman, and she's really been a really super keen for me to keep in shape eat well, that sort of thing. And for the past eight years, I think she's just really been a great inspiration for me, just both personally and professionally, in terms of that relation.
Nice. So you see a triathlete as well? No, she's not. I sort of I think there's a bit of a pain threshold involved in doing triathlon. And I think after about six or seven hours on the course, it tires. So I think she's more of a scrambler mountaineering kind of. And for me, I really [00:03:00] do enjoy those a long bike rides, either in a group or by myself, like it's good opportunity to kind of get away from things.
And I do a lot of long distance trail running, which is why I've been able to listen to say podcasts like yours. And it's a good way to kind of just mentally reset and. It gives some perspective on some of the challenges I have either in my personal and professional life. That's pretty cool. So I assume that you're sort of like me in that you know, you just dive into everything, so whatever you're doing, you're full in.
And maybe that's why a little bit, I mean, a lot of triathletes I think are like type a personality where we you know, we, we just want to give, give, go, go, go, go, go, go. And long as good. And, but we kind of like the direction. Yeah. Like the start line versus you mentioned your partner, who's more in the mountaineering or trail running and it doesn't maybe need that.
Okay. On your mark. Get set. Go. Is there any, do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's a, it's an interesting, because it's nice to have that ground. Yeah. Something like triathlon or [00:04:00] any kind of endurance sport. Like it's, it's, it's a big time commitment to be able to stay fit, to train for stuff like that.
But I really, I operate well when I have something to look forward to, I have a sort of a north star to, to, to guide me and having stuff like the 70.3 and other races throughout the year. That's a good reminder for why. Of course there's inherent benefits to just staying healthy and being active and whatnot, but it is kind of nice just for my own personal or rather my own personality is it's relatively competitive.
So I do like to have those opportunities, but something like triathlon though, I think it's mostly, you're going up against herself and you're trying to Layouts or rather to outlast sort of the, your own pain threshold and mental willpower is really is really key in that. So I really enjoy the sport just in terms of the diversity and the fact that here living in Calgary, we have so many great great opportunities to be able, enjoy our backup drum you're.
You're already a leader in our city. You're a counselor of which word. [00:05:00] So I I'm privileged to represent the BeltLine Calgary. So I'm trying to be a ward, 11 counselor, and I never thought that I would grow up and want to be a politician, but I think the seeds started over with my family experience.
My father, he came as a refugee from communist Hungary. Could have gone anywhere in the world, but they chose Canada. They chose Alberta, they chose Calgary and it was the best decision that they could have ever made. So I grew up in east Calgary had to work hard for everything that I had and worked practically full-time from a pretty young age.
So I knew that I wanted to give back and just growing up. Heard a lot about opportunity, heard a lot about the sacrifices that have been made to, to give me the chance that I was given and really instilled in me that drive to try to make things better offer the people who come after. Hm. And and, and you're so we're 11 is BeltLine and you've been in that position since I think [00:06:00] 2013 maybe or so I was first elected in 20 17, 20 17.
I'm to I'm one of the youngest city counselors right now. I think there's a couple who are younger than me, maybe by a year or two, but, you know, it was interesting starting my campaign and my when I was in my twenties then. And we, at the time we thought it was such a long time. I think most Calgarians, I would describe as sort of fiscally conservative, like financially responsible, but socially responsible as well, like socially live in that live or are progressive if you have, if, if that's if that makes sense, I'm not one for labels, but We found a lot of traction, especially in the inner city, people are looking for change and really that focus on financial responsibility and economic opportunity is what we're trying to bring forward in this mayoral campaign.
And with about 60 days to go, it's, it's really exciting. It's a different kind of race for sure. Definitely a marathon and not a sprint. I'm curious about that and relating it to sport. I started doing triathlon in [00:07:00] 2000, actually, maybe the nineties actually. And and I was, you know, I was kind of maybe genetically you know, sort of with just a little bit of focused effort.
I can often find myself like on the podium, not in the number one pots spot, but often on the podium. And that's actually what happened this past weekend as well? No, I saw you at number three, number third in the age group. Yeah. Very proud. Thank you. But I was just going for number one, but I beat it. I lost it by 11 minutes and it actually, it wasn't really a race because I'm just doing my best.
I'm not really racing. And certainly the run was like, you know, okay, let's just keep moving. Keep moving. The run is of course, after a 90 K bike ride and they, what was at 1.9 K swim. So the so I wanna, I kind of want to have your opinion on that. So. Way back in the early, late nineties, two thousands, it was 2003.
I did the Boston marathon and and after that marathon race, I thought that's it. I need to focus on my family. I need to focus on my my business [00:08:00] and no more of this crazy endurance stuff. Marathons are tough though. I never want to do another marathon. I hate the marathon distance. It's just like long, but I so.
My business was terrible. Like it sucked my family and relationships like went back, went bad. And then I was in the bad, like I just, it suffered because I wasn't doing that part of me in the sport world. And maybe I was still exercising a little bit, but maybe not. The amount that my body or that I need.
And and so then in 2006, I said, okay, I'm miserable. Let's let's do this again. I wasn't necessarily miserable. So then but since 2000, in 2006, I did another iron man and got back to my kind of love of endurance and endurance activities. And, and since then, I kind of have to have a race to keep the, the motivation to to, to do the workout or to stay fit, to do the mountaineering [00:09:00] expedition that I would like to do maybe.
But then the other thing I thought about in 2006 or seven, Actually, it was more like 2007 or eight. I've been successful in sport and just, okay. Even as a realtor in my business, she just stay, you know, a mediocre, normal realtor, like, you know, average realtor. Did you know what the average realtor in north America is?
Your own sells only four houses a year. Did you know that? Well, I was kinda like that. And maybe not that bad, but kind of like that realtor back in 2006, seven and not quite because we were booming here at the time in Calgary, but what I'm getting at is I was way better at racing in sport than I was in my own business.
Are you able to like your, your love of sport and endurance racing? Do you equate that to at all at this campaign, this race, this Miro campaign, like are you a better focused racer or are you better focused? Right, Tyler? [00:10:00] I don't know if you've ever been to a city council meeting, but most of you haven't.
Okay. And I actually it's occurred to me that I'd like to go. I like to go see. Mira Nim. She is like, particularly look there. There's a good overlap. And having a high pain tolerance is helpful for both activities. Oh, I bet I would say, but yeah, I would say there's a lot of. Similarities between the two, because your race, the day, the conditions, the say the weather, your own training, a lot of that stuff is outside of your control, but 90% I would estimate has already been there.
Before you even started the starting line, it's all your preparations. Some people might describe it as locked, but you kind of know how to pace yourself. You know how to heal yourself. You've done the training, you've done the intervals. Practically 90% of the work is done and you sort of have to leave it to fate and just give it your best.
Just give me your best. And then it depends who shows up in terms of [00:11:00] like, whether you're going to win or where you place, I suppose. But it's very similar in terms of campaigns, politics elections, that sort of thing. You can no plan survives. The battlefield was what Napoleon said. So you could have the best possible candidate.
You could have the best possible platform and all of that. And, and you can still lose. So sometimes life is just not fair and that's how, that's how things happen. But I think. Any campaign though, you, you have to manage for things outside of your control. You need to have discipline. You have to have focus.
You have to be really disciplined in terms of the message that you bring forward. And I think you have to be in touch with what the voters, what the electorate's looking for. So I would say there's a lot of similarities between sports and politics, and there's definitely that competitive nature. Like for me, I'm all in on everything that I do, whether it's racing, whether it's politics.
And that's one of the downsides to our [00:12:00] system, is that me as a city counselor, I have to give up that job in order to run for mayor. So it's basic. The rules are basically loser leaves, town, and let, let like Calgarians decide, but I really wouldn't have had it. And, you know, Okay. Now I want to look at that a little bit.
I think so you had to give up that job. Do you have to give up your counselor job to run for mayor? Is that right? She's told me. Yeah. So I'm still, I'm still city counselor until the election, but I can't run for both of those positions. Oh, so you actually lose, you have no job unless you work, correct?
Yeah. But the one thing that I'm trying to change though, Somewhere along the lines of being a politician that became a bit of a career rather than a service. And I've done things to try to sort of break the mold. Like I'm the only city counselor who's ever turned down. Our golden pension. It's not well-known, but there's about a five to one pension, about $5 taxpayers have to put in for every $1 that the elected official does.
And that's just not fair. And a lot of what my campaign is about and the things that I'm pushing for us to. [00:13:00] Sort of reform our system and really try to get city hall working for the people. I noticed when you when I was reading a little bit about you yesterday that you actually turned down some money or like w in 2017, maybe you actually said no to, or maybe a decrease in pay.
Like, tell me about that. Yeah. So many people don't know this, but getting elected here in Calgary, at least as a city hall politician is basically like winning the lottery. And I kept thinking when I started my, as a counselor, I kept thinking back. So the conversation I had with one of my neighbors, she said, well, once you're downtown, or are you going to think about me or are you only going to think of yourself?
So for me turning down that pension, it was probably the most financially costly decision that I ever have ever made. But it's also the most politically costly because it really set me on, I would say a collision course was an out of touch establishment that in so many ways has put its own interests ahead of those of everyday Calgarians.
[00:14:00] And I think back to An exchange I had with another counselor, one of my first days on the job, they came by my office and they're sort of offering advice and I'm never the smartest person in the room. I always, well I'll listen to it and hear anybody out, but they they'd gone over my website and they're discussing all the promises that I've made.
And they said about a third of the promises I made were just completely impossible. And another third were going to be possible if I'm, if I was around for maybe 10 or 20 years and. Another third were doable. As long as I was able to work hard. And I, I, I asked, well, what, which of my promises are just outright impossible?
And they said, well, turning down the pension for one, that's just never been done. And it turns out it was possible, but then more tellingly lived. The second answer was my promise to hold a monthly town hall meeting. So I'm unique in that every single month I host a meeting where anybody and everybody can.
Speak with me and this other, a seasoned [00:15:00] politician. They said that this was incredibly dangerous, hosting a meeting, getting in front of an audience, but giving the audience, the microphone and having that ability to get completely off message. But I've hosted about 50 of these kinds of town hall meetings.
And it's something I want to continue if I was elected mayor and really it's been a really good. Experience and exercise to ground myself, to make sure that I'm constantly reminded that those are my bosses. These are the people who pay my salary and it's the voters who hired me. And it's the voters who will have the power to fire me.
So keeping grounded and focused on them as being the The F my, my duty to serve rather than being there just for another job. So I knew that given the situation that we're entering here with Calgary, the economy, everything else that I had to be all in. So I don't see a giving up my counselor job as a downside.
I see it as an option. Hm. Wow, very cool. I'm, I'm intrigued, I guess, as a, you know, as the old guy, now that I'm 55 or, [00:16:00] you know, it's not old, it's the old for someone young for something too, and that's great, but well you have 20 years on me and you're still beat my time at the 70.3. Oh, thank you. But the but getting to the pension, like as a realtor salesperson, I have no pension, of course.
And I chose that or, you know, with, I am a little bit surprised. Dig in a little bit about you saying no to that pension. And I think you're crazy, but that's, that's why I want, you know, as a leader in our city, I want you to be I, in, in this city, I w I want you to be financially rewarded, I suppose, for your work.
So I don't necessarily approve that you did that, but you did also mention that you it, it had some repercussions in terms of the other counselors in the room. Did I, did I hear that? Right? And I'm not actually that surprised being in a sales position that I'm in and once, you know, other salespeople find out what you're doing and they don't like it.
They might not, there might be pushback. Can you just talk a little bit more about that? Like, what was their pushback and [00:17:00] like, was it, was there a few years? The 2017 is actually a long time ago now, four years, I assume. Assuming you're still not getting the pension and. And I mean, it's, maybe it's gone away by now.
Like tell us a little more about that. Yeah. Competitive environment. And I think it puts some of them on the spot and there's some counselors to this day who just don't want to work with me or to even talk to me because of that decision. Oh, no, really? That's so unfortunate. You have to, you have to remember that.
Yeah. The city council and mayor are the highest paid in Canada. And some of the highest paid in north America, plus the expense accounts, plus the golden handshake in the event that you retire or you lose an election. All of that on top of the defined benefit, five to one pension, not to mention that the mayor also up until recently received two pensions.
So for me my focus is really around financial responsibility. I don't believe that as a leader. Any moral authority to say, Hey, we need to hold the line on wages and spending on salaries. If [00:18:00] I'm the first one in line to get that automatic pay raise and to get that just glorious golden pension. So for me, I knew I had to turn it down to have that moral authority and to lead by example, to be able to make an issue of reforming just generally compensation at the city and salaries, wages, benefits, and overtime.
They have been a huge driver for the various cost increases and tax increases that calendar ends have experienced. And given that it's been about a doubling in residential property taxes over the past 10 years, even a seven and a half percent increase in a single year on homeowners last year, I just know that we need to leave no stone unturned to be able to reduce costs and lead by example.
So for me turning down that pension, I think is reasonable because. Elected office. It's not supposed to be a career. It's not supposed to be something that you work at 30, 40 years. You put in your time and you collect your pension. The moment that you're elected, you have four years notice that the taxpayers might not hire you again.
I [00:19:00] believe that, especially given that we're the highest paid in Canada, we have, we should take that personal responsibility to plan for ourselves, especially with our personal and family financial situation. If you don't mind and if it's not a fair question, please say, delete. What is the pay of a counselor?
So pay us approximately $150,000, but there's all sorts of other top ops. So all sorts of other benefits that are afforded. And I think of course the patient be competitive to be able to. Attract talents, but the, the focus should be on results. And I think that Calgarians would be best served with the council.
That's focused on, I would say servant leadership rather than trying to find folks who are there to be motivated by. Hm. Interesting. And so I like to, maybe I want to, I feel like I could talk, take a lot of time here with you. I'm enjoying the conversation with our, with our shared interest, I suppose, in endurance sports, [00:20:00] but I'm a little bit, but Okay.
I want to get to as many as you some rapid fire questions, but before I go you were the young in 2017. I think you were in your twenties or probably 2016. When you started thinking about this role as a leader in the city, in our city. And again, I want to thank you for that. I think it's, it's a standup like that for your city is awesome.
And And you know, on that note alone, it's pleasure and privilege to speak with you. Tell me, how does that 20 year old or, I mean, 20, you know, late twenties, early thirties make this this leap and you know, into leadership and. And I mean, even, you know, you're still very young in your mid thirties going for this leadership role.
Can you tell us a little bit about, like, how has that happened to for drum? How did you, what were the steps that are bringing you to there? I guess you already touched on it a little bit about your own upbringing and your your, your immigrant parents or your immigrant father. Sure. So I have two reasons that I ran for council.
One is a big reason, and one is a, a little reason. So the big reason is [00:21:00] the way my father would describe it as my, my nog, my mom, my grandmother, she would every practically every week she would go down to our local city hall office. She had a garden, she would cut fresh flowers and provided for local older women.
And once she was asked why she did this, and she said that she did because. These are the people at city hall, who you go to, if you ever have a problem, if you ever are in trouble, these are the people who can help you. They can, they're the people that you can trust. And for me, as a naivety, as a young born and raised Calgarian as a young Canadian naively, I had sort of thought, well, of course, these are the people at the government that they're, they're supposed to help, but it's only what the benefit of some age in some way.
Distance that I have the perspective to realize that she had escaped an oppressive regime where the politicians were corrupt. The police were corrupt. The government quite literally was hostile to its people and had taken absolutely everything from them, the [00:22:00] property, their rights to freedom and all of the rest.
And it's only as an adult that I realized sort of the leap that she must have. To escape, to come to Canada and want to be Canadian to want to learn, to love and to trust again. And for me, I'd never, at that moment, I didn't think that I wanted to grow up and be a city counselor, but I kind of knew that I wanted to be somebody that you could go to.
If you ever had a problem, somebody that you could trust. Somebody who like my dog, mom, I looked up with with respect somebody. That was willing and eager to do the right things for the right reasons. So now that I say it would be the big reason, but the little reason was back in 2015. Every year there's, what's called the city of Calgary hackathon.
It's a competition of up and coming entrepreneurs, coders, software engineers, programmers, all the rest. And there's about 200 to 300 of them locked in a room for a weekend and they're given a certain problem to solve. And whoever comes up with the best business idea [00:23:00] or app that they've invented over the weekend is given a big cash prize.
And sort of given a blessing to go on, to save the world. So in 2015, I joined this competition and with a few, with a few folks that I've met through the course of it, we built a team and we developed an app completely from scratch. And by the end of the weekend, we actually were fortunate enough to win first place.
So somewhere in the, in the archives, there's a picture of me standing with this giant sized check. And they were given they gave us all the encouragement and the accolades, but the problem is that we live in Calgary and I want to be crystal clear on this point, that Calgary has the story that we tell ourselves about being open for business, about being entrepreneurial, about having a can-do attitude and to be clear, Calgary is all of those things and Calgarians in particular.
Are definitely those things, but our city hall is not. And because the city hall regulations and red tape largely around the open data catalog, we couldn't actually get off the ground [00:24:00] with this app idea that we had. And. It was heartbreaking, but we sort of accepted it. And by the end of 2015, I reached out to some of the, the team members and I asked them what they were up to.
And many of them had left for Toronto, for Ottawa, for Vancouver, other places where. These ideas and sorts and such like that weren't given the lip service, but they were actually given the support that they needed to get off the ground. And that was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back at that point, I decided, you know, I was going to run, I was going to try to change things and it was going to be a long shot being a complete unknown, no name recognition.
None of the big big. Businesses behind me, but I decided to knock on doors through very grassroots campaign. We were able to get a campaign together and got off the ground and actually defeated a former PC MLA with deep connections and a huge war chest, and sort of put me in the awkward position or that first day on councils actually try to be [00:25:00] following through on all the promises that I made.
I think over the. For years, I've been able to actually really raise some important issues on behalf of my constituents advocating for, for financial responsibility, for transparency, giving Calgarians a voice through the Olympics debates fighting against some of the secrecy. Advocating for say, against the defendant defund and abolish the police movement.
So there's been a number of issues that I've been really blessed to be involved with and things that I've pushed for on behalf of my constituents. But I would say if anything, the, the age has given me a bit of a, I would say a perspective on some of these challenges and opportunities that many of the other counselors who have been in there for say 10, 20 years or more just didn't.
Of course any effective team is going to have I would say a varied diversity of views around the table. And I'm not saying that younger is necessarily better, but I think for a city hall establishment that has been locked in for so long, having that fresh set of eyes is [00:26:00] something that I believe has resonated with my constituents.
And my hope is that through this mayoral campaign that's most Calgarians will agree that we need to. Hmm. Interesting. Thank you. The on that kind of note, like looking into that a little deeper you know, again, like, I totally see why you have run for counselor and now you're running for mayor and I, you know, again, thank you for it.
I, you know, before having this conversation, I was like much more skeptical on sort of the wishes. Or the thoughts of why, why anyone would do this job, but I've had a lot of fun. So I mentioned I'm not that political, right. I'm really not political at all. I wasn't high school in high school. I served on our, you know, on our student council, but really nothing since, and I don't pay attention in my perspective.
As a now Calgarian I feel, well, I don't have any strong opinion. Whether our city council is doing good or bad, I feel. I like because every, what he represents or what I know about him, I'm having particularly paid attention. [00:27:00] When was he elected? Was that about 2013 or was it 2017? When was, it was 2010 when he always do that, is that a long time ago.
And so he used social media, I think the net for the first time ever, like a mayor uses social media and wins the election, a guy of you know like us visible minority, I suppose. And And and now how, and, and since this, this we're in entering a new election now, and in this year of 20, 21 October, where the rules have changed on how you can, how much money you can raise, and maybe even what you can do.
Social media, is that true? And. And has Marin M she'd done a good job. What is he like as a leaders or a city? It is that it can, is that a fair question? Certainly I consider I hadn't done shit to be a close friend, but we were together in so many of these meetings for hundreds, if not thousands of hours.
And it's hard not to actually like the people that you work with. And I think there's a certain media. [00:28:00] We're always butting heads. It could be because I'm not a big fan of these tax increases. And some of these new taxes that are potentially impact people in a big way, but on many of the issues, he and I have been able to work closely together.
Like a good, good example is us partnering closely to restore the city of Calgary summer student hiring program. So this was a program that was called. To try to save money, but it ended up costing more money instead of the students doing the work, but actually full-time union folks. So it's something that we were able to work to restore to be able to give a better fair deal for taxpayers, but also to be able to help, especially our young people, to get their foot in the door for a new opportunities and Various technical trades and salon.
So I would say , he, he was very effective and using social media and I think his original pitch, which was financial responsibility, it was transparency. And even the Congressman of the day had endorsed him. And I quote as the real [00:29:00] fiscal conservative. I think the issue though is that was just, I had no idea.
That was, that was his original campaign fiscal responsibility. And I was. I think I'm just, I have no clue really. Cause I don't pay attention. I would think that like, that's, he hasn't been fiscal responsible at all. Is that correct? Well, that sort of leads into my next comment. Okay. How he, what he's done in his role, he's done a lot of great things, but I think in terms of the two things that he promised most, which was financial responsibility and transparency, I don't think that he's done a good job of following through on that.
We see through things like the Olympic debate. Hundreds of hours of secret meetings. City council here in Calgary has more secret meetings than say Ottawa, Vancouver, Hamilton, Toronto, combined, and especially with these very big tax increases in recent years. I think that you can criticize sort of the record, but I think as an individual, as a man, He loves our city probably more than anybody else that I know.
And [00:30:00] I respect, and I appreciate him at least on a personal level, but I do think that given the, the challenges that we're facing as a city, how neurons are looking for something different, they're looking for a new approach. And they're also looking for somebody who. As the, the proven record to actually do the things that they say they'll do.
So as compared to the other candidates running, I think I have one thing that they don't, which is credibility, not just talking a good game during the election, but actually taking the heat over the past four years, advocating for my constituents, making the tough decisions, like turning down the pension and salon.
And I think, again, I offer something that Can some, something that most people can actually believe in and take to the bank and the issue is, are really important. So even if you don't think that you're interested in politics some of the ramifications of what's being discussed today are huge potential on our city.
So it may interest you to know that say for maybe some of your real estate listeners the city is actively exploring and pushing for a, say a land transfer tax. [00:31:00] What could potentially be the impact of that on your industry? Other things like through this guidebook potentially phasing out single family zoning.
So for many people purchasing a home is one of the largest investments that a family will ever make. And as a fare for the city of Calgary to be perhaps changing the deal, and you don't want to be changing the zoning for some of these folks that could potentially have a huge impact. Other things like it was just about a week and a half ago.
Big debates on starting to sell off regional parks. So a portion of Richmond green park, which is a regional park, was starting to be sold off for commercial and residential development. So for many folks, you may not think that you're interested in politics, but when you think about it, oh, I'm interested in all of those things, as well as defund the police are those politics.
Most people wouldn't think of it, about it as politics, it's gonna have a huge impact on the other people's everyday lives. So I think part of that is the challenge for candidates like me to get [00:32:00] people like you and perhaps some of your listeners interested, engaged, and to actually be speaking to the issues rather than just be, say, attacking each other and mudslinging.
So I would say the mudslinging tunes people out, but if I talk about the issues, I think that that is how we can actually get. Interesting. I'm then ask the question and I actually don't think that you need to answer, but how do you reach someone like me? I don't think there's any point in answering, I mean, in terms of spreading the message or how does someone like me or like, or even the average Calgarian how do they decide who they're going to choose?
Like, how do you sort through these 24 candidates and decide? I mean, I would have chosen mayor Nancy. Just because of his smile or, you know, he looks nice. Like if I hadn't voted in 2010, I may have voted. I may not have, I don't remember. But you know, like I know I saw a video of him and his sister and his family, like on YouTube or something like that, you know, one of those two minute videos that he was doing.
Yes. He touched my purse. So [00:33:00] but the, I don't think we need to answer Richmond perk green. D is it too late? Is it sold? W like what can people do. So the zoning has been changed. A part of my platform is actually a ban on city selling city parks. I believe. Well, I believe that it's foundational for the city council to be good stewards of the property that we have and selling off these green spaces that might.
Say help with some of the financial challenges in the short term, but I believe that it's a very short-sighted approach for this council. I think that we should lead by example through say controlling costs, doing more of the same just as every household or business owner has had to over the last five years.
It's sort of like a burning the furniture to try to heat your house. You know, it might work for an hour or two, but the lasting damage I think is, is incredible. So something I'm advocating strongly for is protections and to, to this group, to the green spaces like that, but also to try to conserve and expand our park system, because if anything.
[00:34:00] COVID has shown us is I think Calgarians enjoy the recreational opportunities. They enjoy going outside. And I think having more green spaces, especially in our inner city, that's a value add that helps with our property values. And it's something that really encourages people to want to live in Calgary.
And the first. Hmm. Right. Well, that's awesome. So can it be saved Richmond green? You say there's openings already changed? Like, is it a done deal? So the zoning has changed depending on the timelines for when and how it's sold. It could potentially be undone by this next, the city council. So depending on what happens in the next month or two, I would definitely be pushing too.
Are you encouraging, you know, is the word constitutes like myself? Is, did I say that word correctly? Are you considering encouraging constituents like myself who actually would not want that to happen to do something like what could I do at this point? I w for Richmond green, that's in ward eight. [00:35:00] So for ward eight candidates for city counselor, I'd be pressing them hard to, to make sure that who you vote for is somebody who's interested in say having a reasonable policies around planning developments, rezoning, but also.
Who is willing to stand up in defense of our parks. I'm generally pro business pro industry, but I don't see our parks as being red tape. And I know that some, some of the development community are very influential, especially in election time. But for me, even if it loses me votes, even if it loses me donations, I need to stick to my guns and say, my, my voters have told me that they value our park spaces and they want more.
Hmm. Okay, good. I, I I'm really enjoying the conversation. I'm doing what I'm learning. I want to I'm already looking at my watch and I'm thinking, oh no, this is getting long. No, one's going to want to listen to this long. So I want to do some rapid fire questions if you don't mind. And let's try to be really quick on them.
And these rapid fire questions come from [00:36:00] my friends on social media. For the most part I asked, Hey, what would you want to know about your mirror? And so Michelle wrote where do you stand on bike lanes and urban sprawl? Generally for a. People to have the choice to as far as how they want to get around.
I think that the, some of the current approach from the city on bike lanes has been a bit too ideological, the ramming through the bike lanes in certain areas where there's not the community support. There's not the support from businesses. And I think that it hasn't actually driven the results as far as more people riding their bike.
But for me, I'm personally an avid cyclist. I see a huge benefit in our pathway system and I'd want, I'd be. Open to continuing to invest in things like our pathway system, as long as it's being done with proper consultation with the community. And then in terms of development on for a choice in housing and for affordability in housing.
And I think that as long as those individuals who are say purchasing the suburbs are the ones who are paying full freight for that [00:37:00] decision, they should have the choice. Not everyone wants to live and say, A high rise condo in the downtown. Maybe you do if you're a younger, urban professional, but some younger families, especially just starting out, they want the room to grow.
They want the space for their kids and maybe their, their dogs or other animals. And. I don't think that city hall telling people how they should live their lives as the, is of any benefit to anybody. So I would, I just very much in favor of the market, deciding these as long as it's not taxpayer sort of subsidizing the decision that Otherwise she'll be left to an individual in their family.
Okay, cool. Friend, not instant by the name of diesel or user handle diesel hippie in more of a rant than a question. So nowhere it leads any plans to see to the, he said stupid international art projects and frivolous, frivolous spending they're off. He says we absolutely have more than enough talent, local artists, many of whom have not received enough support to run their businesses or their lives.
[00:38:00] And he thought that some of that Was a, you know, a bit of a slap in the face to Calgarians in terms of the international art project. And what just thoughts on that maybe quickly on, on our art projects personally, I love the art in the city public art that we have in the city. And I think it looks nice.
And for the most part, I don't have any little complaints. Yeah. I think the comments I think is spot on. That your friend gave you there. I've had huge issues though with the Calgary taxpayers basically prioritizing these large art projects from these international firms where it's not local Calgarians who are benefiting from that.
There's been huge issues in terms of where. Projects are located. I think that they need to be more publicly accessible. It makes no sense to have a giant blue ring or a tall rusty things on the side of a highway. If it's going to be art, that needs to be somewhere where people can appreciate it.
Same thing with a lot of the money being spent really behind closed doors or within a city facility behind a chain link fence at some wastewater treatment [00:39:00] facility. So there's a lot of stuff that's just not publicly accessible. So I think for something to be public. It needs to be publicly accessible and it should be countering taxpayers who are the ones who are benefiting from it.
I believe that the recent increases like doubling the budgets over the last two or three years. It's just not warranted with the economy the way it is. And I think that if we are going to be spending money on this we should be having a policy which actually better enables local artists as well as our indigenous communities to be able to participate and to better tell Congress.
Nice. It's your first you've been, the people have said, yes, we want you as our mirror. It's your first day on the job. Who are you calling?
Who are the first meetings with? I would say that it's probably . So the transition I think that regardless of who wins this next election it's big shoes to fill, I think for better or for worse, he has been our mayor for the next 11 years. So there's a lot of things that are on the go that he needs to [00:40:00] be able to hand over.
But I think that. Biggest opportunity is going to be coming together as an effective team, working together with a newly elected city council. You're looking at maybe nine, 10 or 11 new faces out of 15. And that's just completely unheard of. Not really. The biggest change over we've had in history is six.
So we had at least nine or 10 this time. Yeah, it was a cold paid. Everyone changed their priorities moving. Yeah. Well, there's there's some of them have been there for a long time. Is that right? Some of the, some of the decisions that council has been making, like selling off parks, huge tax increases, defunding the police might not leave in a very popular amongst the public.
So if I were to speculate, maybe some are just not running because they think it might be an uphill battle or they might lose. But otherwise I can't really speculate. And I think that it's, it's good to have that. It's good to have that changeover. And if there's anything I offer, I think it's having knowledge of the system knowing how city hall works with [00:41:00] while also having proven that I'm not a slave to the system, but I'm not a slave to the bureaucracy.
So I think hitting the ground running, we're going to have to work together as a, as an effective team, as a council. And beyond that, it's going to have to be getting our budget under. I'm going to be pushing hard for a four year tax freeze giving our local businesses and residents the certainty that they need to be able to ride out the, the remainder of this pandemic and really just to work relentlessly for economic development.
I think that we got to get Calgarians back to work and job. Number one for this council has to be jobs for Carter. Okay. So here's a question. That is a little bit embarrassing for me because I had to ask you to use Google, to find out what they meant by the question and the question read where, oh, where's my GD in caps field house already question mark.
And so then I was like, GD, like what does that stand for field house? Well, you know, it turns out it's probably goddamn and ill health. So then I [00:42:00] actually. Google field health, Calgary. And it's something that I should be well aware of, but they've been pushing for a field house in Calgary since about 2007, eight.
There was a website that was created you know, compared to other major cities, not only in Alberta, but Canada, like apparently lots of cities with a hundred thousand people like Leftbridge have a field house. So, could you answer that question? Why do we, as a city of over one point, what is it, 3 million now, why don't we have a field house and where is it already?
Apparently there's two sites proposed. Maybe I buy in by now. Neither have been approved. Yeah. So the, the city has been exploring this for a long time. And I think that it's, it's really, it's a really important facility to have, and it's something I'm personally supportive of, but council basically decided to leap, frog and given the 300 million plus that's required for the new arena that is being the priority at this point.
And it's a whole other debates on whether or not that money should have gone to something where you have to pay tickets to get into versus a field house, which would just be [00:43:00] accessible to anybody and everybody, but that's maybe a different conference. That's a different conversation. So I went into the field house, Calgary, Facebook webpage, because the link led me there.
And the last update was in 2019. So maybe it's just not coming. There's a lot of proposals. There's a lot of exciting vision for a project like that. But when it comes to taxpayers at this point, we're pretty much topped out. It's been a commitment that we've made on the green line, on the arena and other things, and it sort of comes back to better setting priorities that reflect the will of God.
Okay. Do you think that there should be a fee, a transit fees for students from kindergarten universal? So I believe that the city works together with the local school boards and districts, to be able to provide discounted passes. In my role, I've supported our low income transit pass that's based on your income level.
And it's something that I've supported as subsidies for lower wage-earners or seniors and salon, but specific to the, the student piece. I [00:44:00] think that's more of a question for our local schools. Will you manage your own social media or hire someone to do it or quit altogether? I have a team of volunteers who helped me with the social media.
I have a lot of input in terms of what gets posted, but I'd say it's a mix between the two. Do you believe there is value in having a mirror travel outside of our city province? Absolutely. I think something previous mayors have done is just burn a lot of shoe leather on economic development. Some may hear through the grapevine that a say a certain business is thinking of Calgary.
It's not good enough to say, well, if you're in town, I'll meet with you. I think you have to go on the hunt. You need to be in their boardroom. You have to be on their home turf and you need to be making the case for why, why Calgarian should be there. The destination of choice for investment. So I think absolutely my vision for the Mary's share and that role is really economic development.
So if elected, I would see myself committing to be working long hours and hard [00:45:00] on the hunt to be able to attract those firms and those businesses to locate to, to Calgary. Hmm. Nice. One part of it is also standing up for Calgary. There's a lot of decisions that are being made about Calgary around say energy, oil and gas pipelines, stuff like that.
That if we, if we don't if we don't make the case more broadly to the rest of Canada, I fear those decisions being made without us. So I would certainly want to see this next mayor of Calgary to be taking a very, let's say respectful, but aggressive approach to advancing and protecting our industry, our interests and our industry.
What languages do you speak? I speak English as my first language and a little bit of Hungarian, a little bit of German and stuff. Oh, nice. Okay. The last question named three communities in each quadrant of the city, as fast as you can Brock a you Martindale seats. Four quadrants, four quadrants.
Okay. [00:46:00] We we really appreciate your time here today. Last minutes is there anything that you would want your, the listeners today to take from this or you haven't asked from our audience and finally what's the best way for people to reach out to you. And, and do you have an ask for the audience, if somebody wanted to support or help you, like, can I get a yard.
How does that hell absolutely. This, this election it's. It needs to be decided by everyday calendar ans rather than say the big shots on the golf course or the union bosses at some backroom at city hall, there's been some allegations of say some campaigns using third parties to funnel money, to launder corporate donations.
For our campaign. We're very committed to doing everything the right way, completely above board transparently, but also means that we do lose out some of the support from let's say that establishment. So it's everyday people who are gonna make it or break it for us and we need your support. So I would encourage you to visit [00:47:00] www.
J E R O M y.ca. And one thing I just want to leave off on is, you know, I'm never the smartest person in the room and I've been very, very fortunate to be able to, to listen, learn to meet so many people through my, my time as a counselor and also on the campaign trail. And if any of you have any idea, Spot suggestions that would be, have helped us.
Please let me know. I want to do a good job for you, and I'm committed to doing everything that it takes to be able to get a calorie back on track and. I would just close off on just, just the spirit of optimism and hope like this sounds kind of silly coming from a politician, but I get to meet so many people through the course of my day that it's, I can't say this anymore, but I will say it's a bit infectious, just as far as the the optimism, the hope for our future.
We have so much great going for us as a community, as a city or a local industries business. And that I know that. We've been sort of knocked off our feet, [00:48:00] but I think that people will look back to the decisions that we're making now, the decisions that we're making in this coming election. And they will be able to point to this moment and say that Calgary's comeback started right here and right now, and that cannot happen without you.
So despite the fact that some of you may not think that you're interested in politics, I hope that based on some of the issues that we touched on today, that you reconsider because. If you don't get involved, these decisions will be made without you. So whether or not you're going to vote for me that I don't really care.
I would just say vote period. Get interested, get engaged and participate because this is our future that we're talking. Well, Jeremy, you really, I, I, my heart is touched. I really am touched by how you speak and your passion and interest and conviction. And I don't love of this city love of this country.
It really sounds like it to me. So I want to thank you. And you know, I'm going to keep, we're going to continue to keep in touch. Yeah, you'll have to ask me again. Well, I could even do a full 30 [00:49:00] minutes talking to local trails and stuff like that. I mean, I'd love to try to, as, as we're approaching the closer days when you're really, really busy in October, maybe love the opportunity to do it again.
Then if if that will work, is that let's keep in touch and thank you so much for being a guest on the show. Thanks for the opportunity. I'll just hit end.