Bell: Riled up Farkas, Calgary city hall want Smith UCP to spank tax fighter councillor

Advertisement 1 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Breadcrumb Trail Links HomeNewsLocal NewsPoliticsOpinionColumnists Bell: Riled up Farkas, Calgary city hall want Smith UCP to spank tax fighter councillor Mayor Farkas vs Coun. Landon Johnston. The pull-no-punches councillor still believes Calgarians should know about a possible big tax hike right now Author of the article: By Rick Bell Published Sep 08, 2026 Last updated 1 hour ago 4 minute read Join the conversation Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston speaks to media outside council chambers at Calgary city hall on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. Dean Pilliing/Postmedia Article content They are not happy campers. Article content Mayor Jeromy Farkas is clearly hot under the collar and most of Calgary city council wants the UCP government to do something with one member of council who gave them an XXXL headache last week. Article content Article content Yes, Landon Johnston is city council’s bad boy Tuesday though the councillor isn’t begging for forgiveness. Article content He has no regrets. Johnston broke a city hall rule. He admits he broke the rules. He feels it would be against his moral code not to break the rules in this case. Article content Article content You see, behind closed doors city council hears city hall higher-ups say there would have to be a property tax hike of more than 20 per cent to cover all the handouts requested. Article content Noon News Roundup Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Article content The spend-happy majority of council (here we go again!) voted for city hall number crunchers to come back with what a budget having a 15.5 per cent property tax hike would look like. Article content Farkas was for the 15.5 per cent. Johnston was definitely not for it. He wants tax increases, if any, to be lower, much lower. Article content Johnston says behind closed doors he wanted these budget numbers to go public. He believed Calgarians had a right to know. Article content After all, Calgarians pay the bills. Calgarians needed to be informed of something this important. Article content Johnston says Farkas squashed the idea of making the budget math public and so the councillor went ahead and made the numbers public on his own. Article…