WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.780 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.780 --> 00:00:05.520 align:middle line:84% Now as I said, I'm very much currently, 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:09.420 align:middle line:84% as they say quote "hung up" on the Rocky Mountains 00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:15.240 align:middle line:84% and on the History of the people around the Rocky Mountains. 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.570 align:middle line:84% Calgary was originally a railroad town. 00:00:18.570 --> 00:00:19.590 align:middle line:90% It's now an oil town. 00:00:19.590 --> 00:00:22.290 align:middle line:84% It's not an hour and a half from the Rockies 00:00:22.290 --> 00:00:30.400 align:middle line:84% and it was a place first discovered by the church 00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:34.650 align:middle line:84% and by the police and then later by people 00:00:34.650 --> 00:00:38.130 align:middle line:84% who decided to settle there in coal country, oil and so on. 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:40.290 align:middle line:84% The most important thing probably though 00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:42.480 align:middle line:84% was that it was one of the points through which 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:47.700 align:middle line:84% the Canadian Pacific Railway went on its trip across country 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:50.580 align:middle line:84% and eventually through the Rockies. 00:00:50.580 --> 00:00:54.420 align:middle line:84% In order to make the Canadian Pacific Railroad pay, 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:57.690 align:middle line:84% it had to be built with almost slave 00:00:57.690 --> 00:01:07.710 align:middle line:84% labor for which many Chinese people had their importation 00:01:07.710 --> 00:01:11.490 align:middle line:84% status problems waived for the time 00:01:11.490 --> 00:01:13.950 align:middle line:84% so that they could be paid practically nothing for pushing 00:01:13.950 --> 00:01:15.810 align:middle line:90% the railroad to the Rockies. 00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:18.690 align:middle line:90% 00:01:18.690 --> 00:01:21.030 align:middle line:84% This poem then is called "East to West" 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:23.350 align:middle line:84% and it deals something with this problem. 00:01:23.350 --> 00:01:25.020 align:middle line:84% One of the descendants of these Chinese 00:01:25.020 --> 00:01:29.670 align:middle line:84% is now an Alderman in Calgary and has just been re-elected. 00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:32.790 align:middle line:84% I wrote this poem two days before the city elections 00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:34.890 align:middle line:84% because I knew he was going to get in, 00:01:34.890 --> 00:01:40.540 align:middle line:84% but I dated it a day after the elections. 00:01:40.540 --> 00:01:41.790 align:middle line:90% It's called "East to West". 00:01:41.790 --> 00:01:44.910 align:middle line:90% 00:01:44.910 --> 00:01:49.410 align:middle line:84% "Hold them again Alderman in Calgary. 00:01:49.410 --> 00:01:52.380 align:middle line:84% Smiling celestial of ward action, 00:01:52.380 --> 00:01:59.970 align:middle line:84% a good deal fatter than holing 1883 then legged pioneer. 00:01:59.970 --> 00:02:05.550 align:middle line:84% Young say muscles bent in slave labor to the master steel. 00:02:05.550 --> 00:02:11.070 align:middle line:84% CPR grinding East to West slab after slab 00:02:11.070 --> 00:02:13.770 align:middle line:84% laid down through Rocky Mountains. 00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:19.470 align:middle line:84% Steel bent by will and bending till Vancouver. 00:02:19.470 --> 00:02:25.380 align:middle line:84% And steel pushers left along the track holding in Calgary 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:32.430 align:middle line:84% houseboy, kitchen help instant adaptability of Cooley brain. 00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:35.640 align:middle line:84% Saving Canadian nickels, buying pioneer 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:40.230 align:middle line:84% shack later dusty Calgary's first laundry. 00:02:40.230 --> 00:02:44.460 align:middle line:84% Beside Chang, Canadian restaurant, specialty bacon 00:02:44.460 --> 00:02:49.110 align:middle line:84% and eggs served by 15 Chinese waiters. 00:02:49.110 --> 00:02:52.320 align:middle line:84% One of which died old Chang leaving savings 00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:57.960 align:middle line:84% $100 to Presbyterian Hospital with no beds for old Chinaman. 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:05.730 align:middle line:84% Ho chin, 1931 removed long queue entered Presbyterian Church. 00:03:05.730 --> 00:03:09.270 align:middle line:84% Wheeled Christian punctual vegetable wagon 00:03:09.270 --> 00:03:12.510 align:middle line:90% behind aged Indian horse. 00:03:12.510 --> 00:03:15.240 align:middle line:84% Exploded venerable imported fireworks 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:19.410 align:middle line:84% along Bow River on his father's new year entered. 00:03:19.410 --> 00:03:24.300 align:middle line:84% Chinese Masonic lodge Chinese nationalist league weekend 00:03:24.300 --> 00:03:26.310 align:middle line:90% ski club. 00:03:26.310 --> 00:03:31.365 align:middle line:84% Ho Lim 1963 pronounces Calgary with no trouble where 00:03:31.365 --> 00:03:36.660 align:middle line:84% as white 10 gallon hat and $100 suit of political advantage 00:03:36.660 --> 00:03:41.898 align:middle line:84% votes for relocation of city railroad tracks." 00:03:41.898 --> 00:03:47.240 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] And that's true. 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:48.000 align:middle line:90%