Rod Sykes, mayor of Calgary from 1969 to 1977, has died.
During his three consecutive terms in office, James Rodney Winter Sykes put in motion major projects that continue to benefit Alberta’s largest city, among them development of the iconic Calgary Tower, Calgary’s downtown convention centre, and the city’s sprawling light-rail transit system. He was 95.
A notice of Mr. Sykes’ death, which occurred on Jan. 3, was published by his family on Jan. 8.
Andrew Marshall, author of the only biography of Mr. Sykes and a member of the mayor’s staff for three years during a break from his long career as a Calgary Herald journalist, described Mr. Sykes, “despite his thin frame,” as “a larger than life character, who, in the first half of his life, was committed to supporting the regular citizen – young, old, working people, immigrants.”
“I marvelled at the fearlessness, the unvarnished outrageousness of this ectomorphic oddball; not to mention his iron will to complete worthwhile projects,” Mr. Marshall wrote in Thin Power: How Former Calgary Mayor Rod Sykes Stamped His Brand on the City … And Scorched Some Sacred Cows, which was published in 2016.
While Mr. Sykes became more conservative, even reactionary, in his later years, Mr. Marshall told me in a note yesterday about the former mayor’s passing, “during his years as mayor, he loved taking on sacred cows such as the Stampede Board, Chamber of Commerce, University of Calgary, and, of course, our dear Calgary Herald, then a loyal mouthpiece for the Calgary Establishment.”
“His anti-establishment stances may be the reason that, as far as I know, there is not a single official recognition of his role as three-term mayor,” Mr. Marshall said in his note. “Nothing so modest as a miserable cul-de-sac has been named after him.”
Mr. Marshall remembered how it was Mr. Sykes who had the vision of a light-rail system in Calgary, and worked hard to persuade the city to purchase the right of way and rolling stock required for it.
“Mayor Ross Alger, who followed him, tried to put the brakes on that project, but Alger’s successor, Ralph Klein, continued to push it,” Mr. Marshall wrote in 2016. As a result, Mr. Klein, mayor of Calgary from 1980 to 1989 and later premier of Alberta, often gets the credit that Mr. Sykes deserved.
Mr. Sykes described himself with more than a little justice as “God’s gift to cartoonists.” He was a gift to old-style journalists too, never afraid of a noisy public fight with anyone, including the most powerful members of Cowtown’s establishment – and that inevitably meant many of the people most municipal politicians are too terrified to cross.
Not Rod Sykes. The Chamber of Commerce, the almighty Stampede Board and the Herald, which in those long-gone days saw itself as the Newspaper of Record of Southern Alberta, all felt the sting of his wrath. He once publicly described yet another of my former fellow Herald colleagues as a “chicken-shit operator,” prompting a headline writers to solemnly declare, “Mayor uses fowl language on reporter.”
Despite his blunt language, Mr. Sykes was able to build what Mr. Marshall called “an amazingly broad coalition of support” that enabled him to overcome the opposition of his powerful and well-connected fellow citizens. For his part, Mr. Sykes once explained his aggressive debating style like this: “When you have someone down, don’t walk away with them still breathing.”
Born in Montreal on May 19, 1929, raised on Vancouver island, and an accountant by trade, Mr. Sykes’ “hawk-eyed accountancy skills,” said Mr. Marshall, enabled him to spot and root out the cozy financial relationships with government that thrived in those days in Calgary – and will again soon if the United Conservative Party Government gets its way in the next municipal election.
Mr. Sykes thought subsequent Calgary mayors, including Mr. Klein, squandered his legacy by neglecting city services and allowing the mayor’s authority to be diluted to the point that when Mr. Klein became premier, he could declaw mayors’ powers in that year’s revision of the Municipal Government Act.
Mr. Sykes also spent a short, unsuccessful period as the leader of Alberta’s Social Credit Party from 1980 to 1982. In that role, Mr. Marshall observed yesterday, he presents a cautionary tale for another three-term Calgary mayor, Naheed Nenshi, now leader of the Alberta NDP, about what can happen when mayors turn to provincial politics.
“Under Sykes’ leadership in the early 1980s, the once-mighty Alberta Social Credit Party collapsed into oblivion.” Mr. Marshall said. “He was not a good team player. As a mayor, used to making decisions on his own, he lacked the ability or desire to share responsibilities.”
NOTE: This story has been updated with the date of Mr. Sykes’ death to reflect the publication of a notice in The Calgary Herald by his family on Jan. 8. The notice states that in accordance with the wishes of their father, a private Catholic funeral mass for family will be held at a later date. DJC
Hello DJC,
Thanks for the summary of Mr. Sykes’ terms as mayor of Calgary. I didn’t know about him as I didn’t live in Calgary then.
Great article.
There is an errant semi-colon in one of the sentences:
“…and will again soon if the United Conservative Party Government gets its way in the next municipal; election”
Thanks for the heads up. Phogiston. It’s been hunted down and fixed. DJC
It looks like those LRT enemies played the long game. They were around in the days of Mayor Rod Sykes and are no spring chickens themselves. Soon they’ll join Rod Sykes in the great beyond where I’m sure he’ll give them an earful. Nobody has the spine to take on the Calgary establishment and its sacred cows these days. The afterlife is the great equalizer.
I remember the caricatures, especially one on a certain children’s TV show. Those were the days!
It was before my time, but Sykes was known for delivering on time and on budget. Perhaps contemporary Calgary politicians would have credibility on proposing large infrastructure projects if they had the same track record.
While this goes counter to the cautionary tale narrative, there was another former Calgary Mayor (Ralph Klein) who had significantly more success in provincial politics than Rod Sykes.
I am old enough to remember Mr. Sykes becoming Leader of the Opposition after being a fairly popular and successful Mayor of Calgary and how it did not go well for him or his party. Of course, I also remember another popular Mayor of Calgary over a decade later jumping into provincial politics and being quite successful.
So its 50/50 at this point for Calgary Mayors who have jumped into provincial politics in the time I can remember. I suppose the big question is about the future and whether Mr. Nenshi will succeed or not. I feel he has elements of both past examples. Nenshi was not known for being the best team player and developed a list of establishment players who did not like him, but he is a very good communicator and I feel can be charming enough when needed to manage divisions and smooth ruffled feathers.
I suppose there could be an argument about whether Sykes or Klein did more to build the city, and there is merit to the point that the successes of Klein as Mayor were partly based on the work of his predecessors. I feel Nenshi did more to deal with and manage a changing city than build it, but I feel that should be considered a worthwhile achievement too.
Sorry to be niggling two days in a row: Sykes was not responsible for “development of the iconic Calgary Tower” but rather just presided over its renaming Nov. 1, 1971. Originally known as the Husky Tower, its construction began February 19, 1967 and was completed in June 1968 at a total cost of $3.5 million dollars. This was well before Sykes’ election in October 1969. See https://www.calgarytower.com/tower-history
Robert: Niggling is OK. I believe Mr. Sykes role in the Calgary Tower was before he was mayor, when he worked with Marathon Realty – which I should have mentioned, but which ran against my daily struggle nnt to let my posts get too long. I defer to Mr. Marshall on that point, though, and I know he reads this blog, so perhaps he will respond. DJC
I see that Sykes worked in economic development for the CPR in the 1960s and established its Calgary realty arm, Marathon, which co-sponsored the tower with Husky Oil as a centennial project. So he did play a role in the tower’s creation, but as a business project rather than a political achievement. His profile from that undoubtedly assisted his subsequent political career.
Robert: Correct. I should have made that clear. But, you know, pressure of deadlines. DJC
My uncle worked at City Hall and he would have agreed with Andrew Marshall in terms of intelligence and competence. I wonder what he thought he could have accomplished with the Social Credit Party given their weird history.
Rod was my uncle and we never met, yet I have many photos of him as a child. Any of Rod’s children interested in them? Let me know.