Coun. Sonya Sharp joins race to be Calgary's next mayor

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 01, 2025 11:50 AM EDT | Last Updated: 20 minutes ago

Coun. Sonya Sharp is joining the contention to beryllium Calgary's adjacent mayor.

Sharp, a fiscal conservative, has agelong been considering a mayoral run. She made her plans authoritative connected Monday evening, during an lawsuit hosted by the Communities First governmental enactment astatine downtown edifice The Rooftop.

"I person spent astir my full vocation present and I attraction astir Calgary. And past year, erstwhile I started to spot decisions being made by the majority — and including the mayor — that I was conscionable like, this is not OK anymore, and we request a leader. We request leaders to pb and listen," Sharp said Monday.

Sharp has been the Ward 1 councillor since 2021. She is the chair of the city's infrastructure and readying committee and council's lawsuit centre committee, the team dedicated to managing Calgary's arena deal.

She volition tally nether the Communities First enactment banner. The upcoming civic predetermination successful Calgary volition beryllium the archetypal to let governmental parties.

On council, Sharp has found herself astatine loggerheads with Mayor Jyoti Gondek at various times, including amid statement implicit the Green Line LRT revisions and during the city's contentious rezoning saga.

The Communities First party formed successful December. Alongside Sharp, the enactment besides includes existent councillors Andre Chabot, Dan McLean and Terry Wong.

Should a bulk of its candidates beryllium elected, it has promised an "expedited repeal of broad rezoning."

"It's a atrocious policy. It needs to go, and, if re-elected, I mean to present a question to repeal it astatine our archetypal regular gathering of council," Chabot said successful a release.

Sharp said if she is elected mayor, she'll absorption connected affordability, nationalist information and captious infrastructure.

"We person missed countless opportunities to program for the future," she said.

Sharp becomes the 5th idiosyncratic to articulation the contention for mayor. 

Gondek, erstwhile metropolis councillors Jeff Davison and Jeromy Farkas, and Brian Thiessen, erstwhile seat of the Calgary Police Commission, person each already launched bids. 

Election nominations are unfastened until Sept. 22, and Calgarians volition spell to the polls connected Oct. 20.