becoming a Chartered accountant, Sykes attended Sir George Williams University in Montreal, studying economics. 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. Sykes spent much of his time traveling between his home in Montreal and Calgary, where the CPR was considering move 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. 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. 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. When Hays quit municipal politics to run federally in 1963, he was replaced with Grant MacEwan for two years, whom Sykes had a challenging relationship with. While Hays had strongly supported the redevelopment, MacEwan believed the final decision should be sent to the residents of Calgary. Political career Sykes served as mayor of Calgary from 1969 to 1977. He was defender of the underdog and the importance of financial safety nets for the needy, attacked corruption among the rich and powerful, and left office after ensuring Calgary would begin on LRT construction. During his time as mayor, Calgary switched from the pro-rep (STV) system to plurality election in single-member wards. Sykes was leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party from 1980 to 1982. He quit as party leader in 1982, frustrated by the party's internal and financial problems. In 1984, he was nominated by Alan Clarke, Calgary East Federal Liberal Riding Association Vice President, to run for the Liberal Party for a seat in the House of Commons, in the riding of Calgary East. At the time this was the largest riding in Canada. Sykes was acclaimed at a nomination meeting with over six-hundred members in attendance. Despite being the only Liberal candidate endorsed by the Calgary Sun that year, he lost to Progressive Conservative Alex Kindy in the general election. Personal life He and his wife Gisèle (Deceased) have five children and fourteen