Election 2025: Campaign Roundup - Day 23

Welcome to Day 23 of our Calgary 2025 Campaign Roundup!

With the 2025 municipal election underway, we'll be bringing you daily updates on all the policy proclamations, platform promises, and political point-scoring from the campaign trail.

As always, our work is entirely funded by donations from residents just like you, so if you appreciate the updates, please consider making a one-off donation or signing up as a supporter for just $10 a month - that's just 36 cents per email!

Campaign Roundup - Day 23:

• Polling shows that 64% of residents believe the city’s population is growing too fast, with 51% reporting a negative personal impact. Concerns are strongest among younger and lower-income residents facing affordability and housing challenges. Rapid growth has intensified demand for services and recreational facilities, highlighting infrastructure pressures. Population growth is a major issue in the election, with candidates emphasizing different ways for the City to manage expansion responsibly.
  
  
• Calgary’s downtown office-to-residential conversion program aims to turn vacant office space into 2,628 new residential units by 2031. A survey by LiveWire shows that Council candidates are divided: just over half who responded support continued use of City tax dollars for the program, while many others oppose or want stricter cost-benefit proof.
  
  
• Mayoral candidate Jeff Davison is calling for an end to the City’s pay-to-park residential program, arguing it unfairly targets inner-city residents who already pay high property taxes. Davison proposes maintaining a residential permit system to protect parking but eliminating the fees, saying City Hall should stop “nickel-and-diming” residents. Community associations have criticized the program as burdensome and ineffective, and Davison frames the change as a matter of fairness and basic rights for homeowners.
  
  
• The Calgary Party, and their Mayoral candidate Brian Thiessen, are campaigning on reducing provincial interference in City affairs, criticizing Premier Danielle Smith for exerting influence over municipal decisions. Thiessen points to provincial actions like taking over the Green Line, and ending photo radar as examples of overreach. He says that Council should answer only to residents and pledges to push back on provincial control if elected.

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