Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, known on Reddit as u/JeromyYYC, has become a daily fixture on the city's largest online community, r/Calgary, winning over users including some who did not vote for him in the October municipal election.
Farkas's Reddit Presence
Farkas has been a regular contributor to the Calgary subreddit for over a decade, creating 410 posts and commenting more than 2,100 times as of July 3. His Reddit Karma—a measure of how often other users up-vote his contributions—exceeds 124,000, placing him in the upper percentile of users.
The r/Calgary subreddit boasts 319,000 weekly visitors and 12,000 weekly contributions, making it likely the city's largest online community.
Engagement and Topics
In recent weeks, Farkas has used Reddit daily to defend the city's Stampede tent noise policy, denounce Alberta separatism, criticize the provincial education tax hike, and urge Calgarians to avoid the Bow and Elbow rivers during a boating advisory. His regular online presence has won over several new admirers.
“Didn’t vote for you. Wish I had,” wrote one user in response to a comment from Farkas advocating for Alberta to remain a Canadian province. “Thank you for your efforts Mayor. You’re doing a wonderful job.”
Community Feedback
Others have applauded Farkas for providing updates on the Bearspaw south feeder main replacement project and for replying to users' comments, even for mundane requests like recommendations for first-time visitors. “Low-key I like the way this guy mayors,” wrote another user.
Farkas on Reddit as a Tool
Farkas may be the first Calgary mayor to regularly use Reddit as a public engagement tool. Asked about his usage, Farkas, who recently turned 40, said Reddit is popular among his millennial generation but is one of many tools he uses.
“Being a mayor of a major urban metropolitan city, there’s no one single way to engage with and have a conversation with Calgarians. But certainly Reddit, in particular, is really important to me because it allows for two-way conversations,” he said. “You don’t see the level of bot activity, the foreign interference that have invaded some other platforms, and you’re able to actually engage in nuance beyond just the typical 300-character ones. So it’s one of the many ways that I engage, and I really appreciate the discussion, the dialogue, and the back and forth.”
