Daughter’s Message

This is a photo of me and my father, Marc Grant. We’re standing on a bridge at Memorial Park, which is a park he has been working to get built since I was barely able to crawl or speak.

Now, we often go on walk-and-talks here to catch up. My father has been a councillor for Ward 5 in Oakville since I was two years old, and I have had the pleasure of witnessing him at work since then. Some of my earliest and fondest memories are at Town Hall, watching a council meeting and seeing him work to make our community better. I got the sense, even as a young person, that he cared not just about making Oakville the diverse, family friendly, safe space that he wanted to live in but also the space that I would want to live, and potentially raise my future family in. To this day, I still get great joy out of watching council meetings (they stream online now!) and accompanying my father to various events.

Now that I’m a bit more grown-up I can see, and have a better appreciation for the impact he continues to make for young families like we were once. Not only young families, but anyone who needs assistance.

Countless times I have gone on detours with him when he wants to swing by a constituents house to take a look at that branch that hangs a bit too far over the sidewalk for someone with a stroller or accessibility issues to safely pass on their walk, or to knock on someone’s door and have a chat about the safety of children when some members of the community decide to drive at the speed of Nascar drivers.

He has shown me, and continues to show me, that what makes our community so special is its people. When everyone is heard – not just heard, but listened to – we become a community that is unbreakable. One where we work together to get to the bottom of issues we face on the daily.

While he does embarrass me on occasion (or I go out of my way to embarrass him) I have never met someone who cares more about their community than him. Around the clock, every phone call, email, text message is received, given proper attention, and responded to.

While I admit I have some bias, being able to see him in his element on a frequent basis, I truly believe there is no better candidate running to be Ward 5’s local councillor than my father, Marc Grant. He cares about just that, local issues big or small.