Coun. Jeromy Farkas launches bid for mayor's seat in 2021 Calgary election

Coun. Jeromy Farkas has announced he will run to be Calgary's next mayor.

In a video released on Wednesday, the councillor for Ward 11 says his campaign will focus on making bold changes at city hall.

"Today, I'm asking you to think hard about our future and the choice we have ahead of us in thenext election. I'm asking you to think about what Calgary could be if we had new leadership, new ideas and new opportunity," he said.

"And I'm asking you to think about what is possible if only we had a council that would say yes yes to responsible spending, yes to transparency and yes to opportunity."

Farkaswas elected in 2017 and almost immediately announced he would not enrol in the council pension plan, nor would he accept a transition payment whenever he leaves office.

Earlier this year, Farkas was chastised by the city's integrity commissioner and then sanctioned by council over a Facebook post he made that was determined to be misleading and in breach of the city's code of conduct.

The post asserted that council had voted to reject a pay cut and that councillor pay would increase, when in fact no such vote had happened.

Farkas was asked to apologize but he did not.

The next municipal election will be held on Oct.18, 2021.