Calgary and Edmonton Choose Next Mayor as Alberta Holds Municipal Elections

A road sign in Airdrie, Alta., on Oct. 19, 2025, encourages people to vote Alberta municipal elections on Oct. 20. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Voters across Alberta are heading to the polls today for the first municipal elections since the province updated its policies to require hand-counting of every ballot.

The two biggest races in the province—Calgary and Edmonton—will see voters casting their ballots for mayor, councillors, and school board trustees.

Here’s a look at the races in Alberta’s two largest cities.

Calgary

The City of Calgary’s 2025 municipal election spans 14 wards and includes the race for the mayor’s seat, city councillors, and school board trustees.

Incumbent Mayor Jyoti Gondek is looking to secure a second term in office in the Oct. 20 vote while facing eight other candidates for the position. Other candidates considered front-runners according to the polls include former city councillors Sonya Sharp, Jeromy Farkas, Jeff Davison, and former chair of the Calgary Police Commission Brian Thiessen. These five candidates have drawn the most media attention and have had greater opportunities to debate their policies than fellow candidates Sarah Elder, Grant Prior, Larry Heather, and Jaegar Gustafson.

Polling conducted by Alberta-based firm Janet Brown Opinion Research indicates that Farkas possesses a narrow lead in the mayoral election, garnering 27 percent of voter intention, compared to Gondek and Sharp, who each have 23 percent. Davison enjoys 16 percent support, while Thiessen accounts for 8 percent.

The pollster noted that a significant number of the 1,000 voters canvassed were undecided at the time of the Oct. 1 to 8 survey, and were contemplating casting their votes for one or more of the candidates before finalizing their choice on election day.

The advance voting period from Oct. 6 to 11 saw a notable decrease in voter turnout compared to the last municipal election, with 96,549 individuals casting their votes this month, compared to 141,329 in 2021.

This year’s total is greater than the turnout figures from 2013 and 2017, however, which had final turnout counts of 22,410 and 74,965, respectively.

Citizens can cast their votes today between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. at one of the more than 260 locations in the city. Residents uncertain about their assigned voting location can find it here.

Edmonton

Just like in Calgary, the elections in Edmonton include a contest for mayor, city council, and school board trustees, but with a wider range of candidates.

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, a former cabinet minister under Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government who took a temporary leave of absence to make an unsuccessful run in the April federal election as a Liberal candidate, is not seeking re-election. Voters will instead choose a new city leader from a pool of 13 candidates.

Long-time city councillor Andrew Knack appears to be the frontrunner in the mayoral race, garnering 41 percent of the vote share in an Oct. 1 to 8 survey of 1,000 voters by Janet Brown Opinion Research.

He is running against current and former city councillors Tim Cartmell, Michael Walters, and Tony Caterina, as well as Rahim Jaffer, who was a Conservative MP for Edmonton-Strathcona from 1997 to 2008, and pediatric dental surgeon Omar Mohammed.

Cartmell took second place in the vote share poll with 21 percent, followed by Walters and Mohammed who are tied at 10 percent each, Jaffer at 7 percent, and Caterina at 6 percent.

Also running are Paul Bakhmut, Ronald Stewart Billingsley Jr., Abdul Malik Chukwudi, Vanessa Denman, Andrzej Gudanowski, Utha Nadauk, and Olney Tugwell.

There are also 81 candidates competing for 12 city council seats across Edmonton’s municipal wards.

The Oct. 7 to 11 advance voting period saw a marked reduction in voter turnout with 41,340 individuals casting their votes this month, compared to 63,834 in the 2021 election.

Voters can cast their ballots between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. at their designated voting station.

2025 Changes

A new feature of the 2025 elections is the introduction of municipal political parties in Calgary and Edmonton.

This change was implemented after the UCP government introduced legislation last year to enable mayoral and council candidates in the two cities to affiliate with a local political party.

Many mayoral and council candidates in both cities have chosen to stay independent, but political parties have surfaced in each city.

The Better Edmonton Party is led by Cartmell, the sole mayoral candidate in Alberta’s capital who is affiliated with a political party. The party is fielding candidates for council across all 12 wards of the city. The Principled Accountable Coalition of Edmonton party (PACE) is putting forward candidates for councillor in nine wards.

Both parties have released platforms promising to tackle similar issues. They include commitments to evaluate city spending, modify Edmonton’s zoning policy, and improve transit safety.

There are also three political parties in Calgary: Communities First, The Calgary Party, and A Better Calgary Party.

Communities First is headed by mayoral candidate Sharp, who has nine candidates competing for councillor positions while mayoral candidate Thiessen is leading The Calgary Party, which is fielding candidates for councillor in 13 of the 14 wards.

A Better Calgary Party doesn’t have a mayoral candidate but has seven members running for council. All three parties listed fiscal responsibility, community safety, and accountability as key issues.

This will also be the first election in which ballots will be counted by hand after the polls close tonight.

Edmonton Elections has said mayoral ballots will be counted first, followed by those for councillors, and then school trustee ballots. The outcome of the mayoral election will be made available online.

The preliminary vote count in Edmonton is to be completed by Oct. 21, and the official results of the election are required by noon on Oct. 24, according to the City of Edmonton’s website.

Calgary vote results for mayor, councillor, and public and separate school board trustees should be available by midnight from each election day voting station, while advance and mail-in ballot results for the mayoral race will be available by 1 a.m. on Oct. 21, Elections Calgary said.

Advance and mail-in ballot counting for councillors will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 21 and wrap up at roughly 2:30 p.m., with counting for trustees set to commence at 3 p.m. Results for trustees are expected by 8 p.m.

Elections Calgary will also post official election results at noon on Oct. 24.