Editing Rod Sykes (section)

== Canadian Pacific Railway and Calgary ==
Sykes joined [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] as the Supervisor of Economic Projects in 1959 at the invitation of [[Ian David Sinclair]]. His role was to better utilize the CPR's non-transportation assets such as oil, gas, forestry, real estate, chemicals and metal holdings.{{sfn|Marshall|2016|p=21}} Sykes spent much of his time travelling between his home in Montreal and Calgary, where the CPR was considering moving tracks out of the city's downtown and use the land for real estate development. Sykes moved to Calgary in 1962 as the CPR's Project Manager for the Calgary land use study.{{sfn|Marshall|2016|p=22}}

In Calgary, Sykes established and ran the CPR's real estate arm Marathon Realty, which Sykes named after the short story ''[[The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner]]''.{{sfn|Marshall|2016|p=24}} The planned relocation of the CPR tracks was a joint project between the city and the railway, and early on Sykes had a strong relationship with Mayor [[Harry Hays]].{{sfn|Marshall|2016|p=24}} When Hays quit municipal politics to run federally in 1963, he was replaced with [[Grant MacEwan]] for two years, with whom Sykes had a challenging relationship.{{sfn|Marshall|2016|p=24}} While Hays had strongly supported the redevelopment, MacEwan believed the final decision should be sent to the residents of Calgary.{{sfn|Marshall|2016|p=25}}