Mayoral candidates’ ethics, spending called into question ahead of Oct. 20 municipal election

Mayor Jyoti Gondek (pictured) is being accused by another candidate of using public money to fund her re-election campaign, while an anonymous tipster suggested former councillor Jeff Davison is leveraging his connection to a cancer group to prop up his mayoral bid.

Next month’s municipal election campaign is not yet officially underway, but the mudslinging against mayoral candidates is.

The ethics and spending of two of Calgary’s top mayoral candidates are being questioned as the civic election campaign gets underway.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek is being accused by another candidate of using public money to fund her re-election campaign, while an anonymous tipster suggested former councillor Jeff Davison is leveraging his connection to a cancer group to prop up his mayoral bid.

Both high-profile candidates deny the allegations, but the tone of the municipal race is quickly turning negative.

“It’s a bit more negative than usual right out of the gate, and that’s quite unfortunate,” said Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University.

“Voters don’t like negativity. We also know that in close races, campaigns tend to go negative because that can be what gets attention.”

The Calgary Party wants a full public investigation into Gondek’s use of more than $100,000 in public funds for a communications branding initiative, alleging she used the money as a co-ordinated effort to benefit her campaign–something the mayor denies.

The party’s mayoral candidate, Brian Thiessen, said the money, which included a new website, blurred the lines between official mayoral duties and political campaigning.

“We think Calgarians deserve to know that $100,000 of their hard-earned taxpayer money is being spent to rebrand the mayor in an election year and give her, as the incumbent, an unfair advantage,” said Thiessen in an interview with CTV News.

The mayor’s office denies any of it took place during this election year, but rather in 2024 as part of a 10-month initiative to improve communications with city residents long before the mayor decided to run for re-election.

Through a Freedom of Information request, the Calgary Party said it was found the funds were paid to Blackcoffee Studio, a branding agency founded by Shannon Larkins.

Her husband is now a volunteer on Gondek’s campaign.

“They would need to look into Blackcoffee as well as the mayor’s office and the mayor herself to see what was done, whether it was compliant with provincial campaign finance laws and whether it violated any City of Calgary policies,” said Thiessen.

“It’s a pretty serious issue. We deserve to have trust in our democratic process and this undermines that trust. So, I think the province should investigate and get to the bottom of this.”

Thiessen questioned the relationships among the website mayorgondek.ca, calgary.ca/mayor and jyotigondek.ca.

“This appears to be a co-ordinated effort to connect the branding between the mayor’s office and Mayor Gondek’s campaign,” said Thiessen.

The mayor consulted with the city’s ethics adviser about the initial contract last year, communications and the website mayorgondek.ca at the time and again this week–and was told all proper steps were taken.

Gondek also responded to the claims on Wednesday.

“If you are hiring somebody to help you do your job, it is spending the public money properly and to communicate with the public is absolutely a role that the mayor must take on,” she said.

“Any expenditure that comes out of the mayor’s office is public. We are very transparent about that. We do disclosures on a regular basis. Every member of council, including the mayor, hires different people with different specialties, whether it’s policy or communications. There are folks that you leverage for social media. There are folks that work on things like remarks and preparation for council meetings, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Gondek pointed to last year’s lengthy public hearing on rezoning and the water main break as issues that needed to be communicated to Calgarians.

“I can’t do that alone. I do require support. And so some of my staff is from within the office, and some of that is contracted, and it’s all publicly accessible information,” said Gondek.

In a statement issued Thursday, Gondek reiterated her work as mayor “remains entirely separate from any campaign-related work.”

“These baseless accusations are an unfortunate example of the kind of negative, misleading politics that discourage good people from public service,” she said.

“I will continue to rise above the noise, focus on the work Calgarians elected me to do, and offer a vision for our city’s future rooted in integrity, transparency and service.”

Meanwhile, an anonymous tip to CTV News by someone claiming to be on the board of the Prostate Cancer Centre accused Davison of using Prostate Cancer Centre resources to support his election bid, including donor money.

“These are baseless, politically motivated lies,” read a statement from Davison’s campaign.

“Our campaign has nothing further to say about this matter.”

The Prostate Cancer Centre said it rejects the allegations, citing political motivation.

“The board has engaged with Jeff regularly and extensively since they were informed of his intentions to run for mayor and, many months ago, implemented processes to monitor and address any actual or perceived conflicts of interest,” read a statement from Stacey Smith, director of development and communication for the Prostate Cancer Centre, on Tuesday.

“Further, in consultation with Jeff and the PCC executive team, plans were put in place to ensure continuity and continued strength of leadership.”

On Wednesday, Smith said the Prostate Cancer Centre upholds the highest standards of governance and integrity.

“Any further baseless attempts to cause reputational harm to the PCC will not be tolerated and will result in immediate action,” Smith said.

The election is set for Oct. 20.