The 2021 Calgary municipal election was held on October 18, 2021, to elect a mayor and fourteen councillors to the Calgary City Council.

In conjunction with the elections for Calgary City Council, residents cast ballots for trustees of the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District, a municipal vote on the question of returning to fluoridation of the city's water supply, and three provincially mandated votes: a Senate nominee election, as well as referendums on provincial equalization and on the adoption of permanent daylight saving time.

Background Calgary City Council is the fifteen-member elected body that governs the City of Calgary under the council–manager government. Council is led by the Mayor elected at-large, which is the designated Chief Elected Official. Under the Municipal Government Act the Mayor is treated as an equal member of council, with the only significant power provided to the mayor is de facto membership on all council committees. The remaining members of Calgary City Council are fourteen councillors elected by residents of the fourteen wards dividing the city. The Calgary municipal election is held under the first-past-the-post method of voting, where the candidate with the most votes is elected to a four-year term.

The 2021 Calgary municipal election was the 103rd municipal election in the City of Calgary's history and the first to elect a woman as its mayor.

A number of incumbent councillors declined to contest the 2021 election including Druh Farrell (Ward 7), Shane Keating (Ward 12), Evan Woolley (Ward 8), and Ward Sutherland (Ward 1). On July 8, incumbent Ward 5 councillor George Chahal withdrew from the municipal election to accept the nomination for the Liberal Party of Canada in the Calgary Skyview district in the 2021 Canadian federal election. Chahal was subsequently elected to the House of Commons of Canada.

Long-time councillor Ray Jones (Ward 10), resigned effective October 19, 2020, due to heath issues, no by-election was required to fill the councillor position due to the proximity of Jones' resignation to the 2021 municipal election. Jones was first elected in the 1993 by-election, and served as a councillor for 27 years.

A union-backed Third Party Advertiser “Calgary’s Future” endorsed Jyoti Gondek and a list of 13 candidates for the 14 council positions, and 8 of the 13 were elected.

On April 6, 2021, incumbent three-term Mayor Naheed Nenshi announced on he would not seek a fourth term as mayor.

Former Liberal Member of Parliament and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta Kent Hehr announced he would run for Mayor on September 6, 2021, but subsequently withdrew prior to the nomination date on September 20.

Candidates X = incumbent. Candidates as listed have filed the necessary paperwork with the City of Calgary.

Mayor Candidate Vote % Jyoti Gondek 176,344 45.17 Jeromy Farkas 116,698 29.89 Jeff Davison 50,654 12.98 Brad Field 19,329 4.95 Jan Damery 8,935 2.29 Grace Yan 2,746 0.70 Zane Novak 1,991 0.51 Dean Hopkins 1,832 0.47 Kevin J. Johnston 1,565 0.40 Zaheed Ali Khan 1,247 0.32 Virginia Stone 1,172 0.30 Shaoli Wang 1,061 0.27 Ian Chiang 973 0.25 Teddy Ogbonna 862 0.22 Emile Gabriel 682 0.17 Zac Hartley 582 0.15 Sunny Singh 572 0.15 James Desautels 531 0.14 Mizanur Rahman 450 0.12 Larry Heather 429 0.11 Stan Waciak 423 0.11 Paul Michael Hallelujah 376 0.10 Adam Roberts 308 0.08 Will Vizor 204 0.05 Geoff Rainey 162 0.04 Randall Kaiser 137 0.04 Cory Lanterman 118 0.03 David Clark (Withdrawn) Kent Hehr (Withdrawn) Grant Prior (Withdrawn)

Ward 1 Candidate Vote % Sonya Sharp 14,038 44.74 Steve Webb 5,123 16.33 Chris Blatch 3,446 10.98 Larry Tweedale 2,502 7.97 Jacob McGregor 1,834 5.85 Tom Antonick 1,590 5.07 Shauna Sears 1,288 4.10 Gaz Qamar 1,204 3.84 John Flip 352 1.12

Ward 2 Candidate Vote % Jennifer Wyness 12,616 48.09 Kim (Dong) Tyers 6,865 26.17 Joe Magliocca (X) 2,701 10.30 Francis Aranha 1,792 6.83 Sareen Singh 1,133 4.32 Theo van Besouw 1,126 4.29 Total 26,233 100

Ward 3 Candidate Vote % Jasmine Mian 7,262 31.14 Brent Trenholm 4,970 21.31 Jun Lin 3,409 14.62 Ian McAnerin 2,590 11.10 Gurbir Singh Nijjar 2,118 9.08 Nate Pike 1,701 7.29 Kumar Sharma 1,033 4.43 Hamayun Akbar 241 1.03

Ward 4 Candidate Vote % Sean Chu (X) 12,653 42.71 Daniel James (DJ) Kelly 12,553 42.38 Angela McIntyre 3,460 11.68 Shane Roberts 957 3.23

Ward 5 Candidate Vote % Raj Dhaliwal 4,654 28.01 Stan Sandhu 4,276 25.73 Aryan Sadat 3,887 23.39 Tariq Khan 1,882 11.33 Tudor Dinca 927 5.58 Tahir Merali 540 3.25 Anand James Chetty 450 2.71

Ward 6 Candidate Vote % Richard Pootmans 16,388 47.67 Lana Bentley 9,558 27.80 Sanjeev Kad 6,950 20.22 Duane Hall 1,484 4.32

Ward 7 Candidate Vote % Terry Wong 6,291 25.38 Erin Waite 5,638 22.74 Heather McRae 5,278 21.29 Marilyn North Peigan 3,784 15.26 Matt Lalonde 1,425 5.75 Derek Williams 778 3.14 Greg Amoruso 731 2.95 Benjamin Shepherd 581 2.34 Daria Bogdanov 285 1.15

Ward 8 Candidate Vote % Courtney Walcott 9,559 31.46 Gary Bobrovitz 6,914 22.75 Natalie Winkler 3,536 11.64 Paul Bergmann 3,435 11.30 Cornelia Wiebe 3,021 9.94 Monique Auffrey 2,168 7.13 Philip Mitchell 1,082 3.56 Yogi Henderson 418 1.38 Madina Kanayeva 253 0.83

Ward 9 Candidate Vote % Gian-Carlo Carra (X) 7,056 35.59 Naomi Withers 6,895 34.77 Kimberly Feser 1,855 9.36 Lori Masse 977 4.93 Daymond Khan 878 4.43 Derek Reimer 870 4.39 John-William Wade 861 4.34 Abdirizak Hadi 221 1.11 Syed Hasnain 119 0.60 Omar M'Keyo 96 0.48

Ward 10 Candidate Vote % Andre Chabot 6,414 32.71 Abed Harb 5,547 28.29 Tony Dinh 3,014 15.37 Bud Thurlow 1,130 5.76 Esther Sutherland 691 3.52 Carla Evers 630 3.21 Jasbir (Jesse) Minhas 618 3.15 Leslyn Joseph 429 2.19 Roshan Chumber 398 2.03 Issa Mosa 393 2.00 Mushtaq Kayani 345 1.76

Ward 11 Candidate Vote % Kourtney Branagan 10,889 28.36 Rob Ward 10,008 26.07 Lauren Herschel 4,690 12.22 Mike Jamieson 3,786 9.86 Geoffrey Vanderburg 3,348 8.72 Vance Bertram 2,658 6.92 Devin DeFraine 2,195 5.72 Dawid Pawlowski 816 2.13

Ward 12 Candidate Vote % Evan Spencer 9,822 38.90 Craig Chandler 5,188 20.55 Steven Phan 4,998 19.79 Teresa Hargreaves 2,183 8.65 Mike LaValley 1,734 6.87 Michael Streilein 558 2.21 John (Chubby Hubby) Duta 420 1.66 Dirk Fontaine 346 1.37

Ward 13 Candidate Vote % Dan McLean 12,802 46.48 Jay Unsworth 8,371 30.39 Diane Colley-Urquhart (X) 6,371 23.13

Ward 14 Candidate Vote % Peter Demong (X) 20,412 65.57 Andrea Hinton 5,342 17.16 Anton Ovtchinnikov 3,098 9.95 Stephen Dabbagh 2,277 7.31

Public school trustees +Calgary School District Candidate Votes % Ward 1/2 Adam Dossa 3,90510 Dana Downey 24,50965 Allan To 3,2919 Melanie Wen 5,79515 Ward 3/4 Althea Adams (X) 10,05529 Najeeb Butt 2,8108 Claudia Fuentes 4,937 14 Laura Hack 16,23247 Oun Saegh 2781 Ward 5/10 Malik Ashraf 4,174 16 Jay Chowdhury 1,152 4 Marilyn Dennis (X) 7,72529 Hasreet Dhami 3,124 12 Humaira Falak 3,771 14 Christa Harris 2,337 9 Stephen John 1,3115 Michael Siapno Juarez 1,155 4 Baldev Kaur Tamber 1,200 4 Vikas Verma 790 3 Ward 6/7 Olga Barcelo 3,6409 Patricia Bolger 19,96352 Barbara La Pointe 6,98818 Cheryl Munson 4,40611 Carter Thomson 3,71410 Ward 8/9 David Barrett 10,24129 Slobodab Mladenov 7302 Stacey Selley 7,32221 Monica Truong 6,011 17 Susan Vukadinovic 10,68031 Ward 11/13 Shirley Anderson 13,88832 Nancy Close 22,678 52 Hilary Sellen 7,30217 Ward 12/14 Jim Govenlock 2,8448 Shawn Hubbard 5,78517 Maxx Lapthorne 6,58019 Charlene May 16,02946 Dar Zuch 3,64810

Separate school trustees +Calgary Catholic School District Candidate Votes % Ward 1/2/Cochrane Myra D'Souza (X) Blair Pedron Daniels Brian O'Neill Edney Saldanha Edward Tse Ward 3/5/Airdrie Oscar "Jun" Buera Addie Corah Pina Lamb Linda Wellman (X) Ward 4/7 Joe DeGagne Dan Penna Pamela Rath (X) Ward 6/8 Lory Iovinelli (X) Acclaimed Ward 9/10/Chestermere Shannon Cook John D. Ramsay Oksana Shevchenko Ward 11/12 Cathie Williams (X) Acclaimed Ward 13/14 Mary Martin (X) Acclaimed

Plebiscite Calgary's 2021 municipal election included one plebiscite question regarding whether to reintroduce fluoridation to the water supply.

+ "Are you in favour of reintroducing fluoridation of the municipal water supply?" Side Votes % Yes 204,457 61.59 No 127,483 38.41

Mayoral opinion polling

Polling firm Date(s)administered JanDamery JeffDavison JeromyFarkas BradField JyotiGondek Other Samplesize Pollingmethod Actual results October 18, 2021 2% 13% 30% 5% 45% 5% 390,383 N/ALeger4%11%24%6% 27%Undecided 20% Other 8%502OnlineNorthwest Research Groups3%12% 31%8%30%Undecided 12% Other 5%4636Phone - Interactive Voice ResponseSpadina Strategies4%7%30.4%8.8% 31.3%Undecided 18.4%668Phone - Interactive Voice ResponseLeger3%12%24%5% 26%Undecided 29%Other 2%Zane Novak 1%500OnlineJanet Brown Opinion Research2.6%7.4%21.1%2.5% 26.8%Other 6.1% Don't know / None of the above 33.5%1000Online, Recruited unique panelThinkHQ2%6% 30%3%25%Undecided 28%Other 2%Wouldn't vote 1% Kent Hehr 3%1,109OnlineMainstreet–6% 23%3% 23%Undecided 34%Other 12%808TelephoneLeger2%5% 20%2%12%Undecided 46%Other 12%464OnlineLeger1%7% 19%3%14%Undecided 55%Other 11%500Online Mainstreet Research – – 30% 2% 6% Naheed Nenshi 34% Undecided 22% Other 5% 1,603 Online Common Sense Calgary – 8.2% 54.5% 3.8% 19.8% Other 4.3% 1,284 Telephone

Issues Fluoride plebiscite On February 1, 2021, Calgary City Council approved a vote on a question on whether Calgarians support reintroducing fluoride to the city's water supply. The plebiscite was the seventh time Calgarians have been asked whether fluoride should be added to the municipal water system, with the plebiscites failing to gain support in the first four instances in 1957, 1961 1966, and 1971, and finally succeeding in 1989 and reaffirmed by voters again in 1998. Calgary City Council previously voted to remove fluoride from the water supply in February 2011, the program at the time cost $750,000 annually, and faced upcoming $6-million upgrade to water treatment plants to continue the program.

The Alberta Dental Association and College estimates that there is somewhere between 0.1 and 0.4 parts per million of fluoride naturally occurring in drinking water. City of Calgary administration planned that if reintroduced, the city's drinking water supply would be regulated at 0.7 parts per million of fluoride, at a cost of $30 million over 20 years.

Equalization referendum

Following the release of the Fair Deal Panel's recommendations in June 2020, Premier Jason Kenney announced a provincial referendum on a measure to remove equalization payments from the Constitution of Canada would be held in conjunction with the 2021 Alberta municipal elections. The announcement was criticized by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi arguing it was a distraction for voters who should be focused on local issues. Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt noted the inclusion of a generally conservative ballot issue would likely have the effect of increasing conservative participation and therefore conservative leaning candidate success in the otherwise non-partisan election.

The referendum question proposed by the Fair Deal Panel was "Do you support the removal of Section 36, which deals with the principle of equalization, from the Constitution Act, 1982?" The final wording of the question was changed slightly prior to approval by the Legislature to "Should Section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 — Parliament and the Government of Canada’s commitment to the principle of making equalization payments — be removed from the Constitution?"

In response to the provincial question, Calgary City Council began preparing a vote on a question asking if city had a fair fiscal relationship with the provincial government, however ultimately City Council decided not to include the question as a plebiscite during the election.

Daylight saving time referendum