Mayor Jeromy Farkas builds political support through daily Reddit engagement with 124,000 karma

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has emerged as one of Canada's most active municipal leaders on social media, building political support through daily participation on Reddit — the city's largest online community.

Under his custom username u/JeromyYYC, Farkas has created 410 posts and commented more than 2,100 times over a 10-year period. His Reddit "Karma" — a score reflecting how often other users upvote his contributions — sits above 124,000, placing his account in the upper percentile of users.

The r/Calgary subreddit boasts 319,000 weekly visitors and 12,000 weekly contributions, making it, most likely, the city's largest online community. In recent weeks, Farkas has used Reddit daily to defend the Stampede tent noise policy, denounce Alberta separatism, criticize the provincial education tax hike, and ask Calgarians not to venture onto the Bow or Elbow rivers during a boating advisory.

His regular engagement has won over several new admirers on the subreddit, including many users who said they did not vote for him in last October's municipal election. "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. Others have applauded his updates on the Bearspaw south feeder main replacement project and his willingness to reply to mundane questions from first-time visitors seeking Calgary recommendations.

Farkas, who recently turned 40, said Reddit is popular among his millennial generation and one of many tools he uses to engage with constituents. "Being a mayor of a major urban metropolitan city, there's no one single way to engage with and have a conversation with Calgarians," he said. "But certainly Reddit, in particular, is really important to me because it allows for two-way conversations. 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."

A political communications strategist said Farkas's Reddit savvy appears to be part of a broader communications strategy paying dividends. "We're seeing him on transit, at local restaurants and in community, interacting directly with Calgarians," said Shannon Larkins, founder of Black Coffee Studio, a political brand and reputation agency. "Through that, he's helping to build familiarity and people are getting a sense that they know who he is."

Farkas's growing online support may have contributed to his 70 percent approval rating, according to a poll last month by Leger.