Cameron Grant feels a responsibility to give back to the city that has offered him so much when he was growing up.
Grant is a member of Centre Culturel La Ronde. He is also one of the three candidates for the Bonhomme Carnaval mascot this year. The annual event runs until Feb. 19.
The other two candidates are Jonathan St-Pierre and Rick Lemieux.
“I’m very lucky to be standing beside these two guys. They may have deeper roots for the French community,” Grant says. “I’m so lucky to be a part of the initiative for the Bonhomme Carnaval 2022.”
Grant grew up in a family with a bilingual mother and an anglophone father. He attended French immersion schools and continued French immersion studies at the University of Ottawa.
He recalls growing up surrounded by French culture, music and cuisine. Grant and his sister also studied violin and piano.
“Noting how much violin or fiddle was very important to French culture especially when it came to the dancing really allowed me to see a connection there. Not only through the French culture component but through the music component as well,” he says.
For Grant, the city has given him a lot when he was a child, so he feels a responsibility to give back to the community and ensure it stays viable for future generations.
“I think that’s intrinsic to any northerner. They feel a sense of duty to really assist the community in any way they can,” he says. "It’s really something unique to somebody from the north to recognize they need to work very hard to preserve that culture, that access and the nature we all get to enjoy. I feel very much obligated to do that. It feels great to be able to do it.”
As a big fan of language, he also has some knowledge of Icelandic which he learned from his time living and working for a few months in Iceland.
Having grown up in a family where music and sports played a role, Grant continues to fulfil his passion for music and outdoor winter activities to this day.
Grant sits on the boards for the Timmins Symphony Orchestra and Mount Jamieson Resort. He also used to coach Timmins Ski Racers, having recently passed the reins to his sister Audrey.
He also works as a senior policy analyst at the Timmins Chamber of Commerce. It’s the best job in the world where he gets a chance to meet many people from different backgrounds, he says.
Grant says he’s lucky to work and be surrounded by people who are generous and giving in their guidance and expertise. He believes Timmins has the capacity and the right tools to be the city that will figure out solutions to social or economic issues.
“We’re uniquely situated geographically. We’ve got a growing population of diversity and internationalism. And we’re the hub and the getaway for the far north,” he says.
Grant says he values good friendship and many selfless people in the community who give it their all to make the community great.
Looking back, he wishes he would’ve spent more time at home. After living in Ottawa for 10 years and in Iceland, Grant says he always knew he would return to Northern Ontario.
“I moved away, and I lived in a very expensive, 400-square-foot condo in the middle of a concrete skyscraper jungle,” he says chuckling.
“After all that money that I’ve spent in all of the time I spent in the larger cities, I wish I would’ve recognized earlier on in my life I could come back and build a very viable, happy life in Timmins,” he says. “I hope more of my colleagues, younger colleagues, recognize it sooner than I did.”
