Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas says Premier Danielle Smith is trying to tell him how to vote at city council.
"Danielle Smith is now ordering me how to vote at Calgary City Council, and if I refuse, I risk losing my job," Farkas said in a video.
The unusual part is that the province's order backs a decision Farkas supported.
His fight isn't really over Calgary's zoning rules. It's over who gets to decide them.
The order
On Thursday, Oct. 8, Smith's government ordered Edmonton to roll back its 2024 zoning changes, which made it easier to build multiplexes on residential streets, and bring back minimum parking requirements. Edmonton has three months to comply. Read our full story on the order here.
Calgary had already gone the other way. Council voted on April 8 to repeal its 2024 blanket rezoning, after a two-week public hearing with more than 400 speakers and nearly 3,300 written submissions. The repeal took effect Aug. 4. Farkas voted for it.
The province ordered Calgary to keep the repeal in place, and to create an overlay, a map marking the land that went back to low-density zoning.
'She doesn't get to dictate my vote'
Farkas says council decides after hearing from the public, not before.
"Just because the premier agrees with how I voted yesterday, does not mean that she gets to decide how I vote tomorrow," he told reporters outside council chambers on Friday.
In his video, he described what that could mean for a Calgary homeowner.
"Let's say you want to change your property, maybe build a home for your aging parents or help your kids afford to stay in Calgary," he said. "You fill out the paperwork, you come out to City Hall, you tell us your story, your neighbours come out and support you, and I'm supposed to look you in the eye and say sorry, the premier already decided my vote."
"What's the point of a public hearing if your voice doesn't count?"
He said he'd say the same if Naheed Nenshi, the Alberta NDP leader and a former Calgary mayor, became premier and tried to force blanket rezoning back.
"This isn't about left or right," he said. "She doesn't get to dictate my vote."
Why he says his job is on the line
Farkas tied the order to powers the province gave itself in 2024, including the ability to call a vote on whether a local elected official should be removed, if the province believes the official is unwilling or unable to do the job.
"You can't order me to vote a certain way at city council, and if I don't adhere to your order, are you actually going to fire me as the mayor of the city of Calgary?" he told reporters.
Smith hasn't said she plans to remove Farkas. His concern is about what those powers could be used for.
His video ended with a dare.
"If she wants me out, she can move to Calgary and try to vote me out, because I answer to you, not the UCP or the NDP," he said. "I'm not backing down."
He also said he still wants to work with Smith. "We won't always agree and that's fine, but respect has to go both ways."
What does this mean for Calgary homeowners?
For now, Calgary's zoning isn't being rolled back the way Edmonton's is.
Calgary council already repealed blanket rezoning, so the province's order largely locks in a decision the city has already made. The city must also identify the affected properties through a new zoning overlay.
The bigger question is what happens next time a homeowner asks council for a zoning change.
That's the scenario Farkas is focused on. A property owner could come to city hall seeking permission to add more housing — perhaps for family members or to redevelop a lot — and council could support the application after hearing from neighbours.
Farkas's argument is that provincial rules shouldn't predetermine how councillors vote on those applications.
That means the immediate impact for most Calgary homeowners may be limited. The longer-term impact is on how much freedom Calgary council has to change residential zoning in the future.
Smith: 'Something went wrong here'
Smith says she doesn't want to step into city decisions, but has heard from residents worried about parking, and about multiplexes going up on quiet streets.
"There's great places that you can put eight-plexes, but not in the middle of a single-family home street," she said Friday on the Real Talk with Ryan Jespersen podcast.
"There's just a basic sense that something went wrong here and we've got to get them back to where they were in 2024. Let's try a reset and find the right place for these kinds of developments."
Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams credited Calgary council for listening to residents when it repealed blanket rezoning.
'A bit melodramatic'
Smith's chief of staff, Rob Anderson, answered Farkas on social media, calling the mayor "a bit melodramatic."
Anderson said multi-unit rules lowered some homeowners' property values without compensating them.
"That is a breach of property rights," he wrote. "The (United Conservative Party) government will continue to stand up for regular homeowners and property rights."
Other mayors push back
Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack called the order rash and ill-considered on Thursday, and asked Smith to reverse it.
The president of Alberta Municipalities and the Opposition NDP have also criticized it, saying it chips away at local democracy.
Cities in Alberta operate under provincial law, so the province does have authority over them. The debate is over how far that authority should go.
Sources
Jeromy Farkas, video posted to social media, October 2026
Government of Alberta, news release, October 8, 2026
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