When Wade Grant was eight years old, he went to visit his mom at work. She was one of the first woman chiefs of Musqueam Nation and Grant found her in the band office having a meeting. When he opened the door, he saw her speaking with the mayor of Vancouver at the time, Gordon Campbell, who later became premier of British Columbia.
“In my mind I was like, oh my God, it’s the first person I’ve ever seen on television, and my mom was talking to him,” he says over the phone from his home in Musqueam territory in Vancouver near the mouth of the Fraser River. That was the moment he first wanted to enter public service.
To witness his mom “break a glass ceiling” in her role as chief and see her meeting with “the most powerful person in Vancouver — it really got my political blood flowing at a young age,” he says. In April, he was elected member of parliament for Vancouver Quadra — another first for a member of the Musqueam Nation.
When he was older, Grant learned that First Nations people only gained the right to vote in 1960 — only 18 years before he was born. It makes him think of his grandfather, a Musqueam chief, who died in 1964.
“He got to vote in Canada for four years,” Grant said. “That just blows my mind.”
“And here I am now.”
Here he is — representing 115,000 people in parliament in a riding that includes his home Musqueam reserve as well as the University of British Columbia and some of Vancouver’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. It’s a riding that brings together students, affluent residents, families who have lived in the area for generations and the people who have stewarded the mouth of the Fraser River for millenia.
Grant served on Musqueam council for 10 years, getting to know how the power structures between different levels of government work. Now he’s focused on putting that experience to work on his priorities of climate change, housing and health. His years serving on council taught him accountability in a profound way.
“Nothing can be tougher or more scary than being a councillor for a First Nation, because the decisions you make are affecting your grandpa, your aunt, your uncle,” he says. “If they don’t like it, they’re just two doors down, and they can come knock on the door.”
Grant did a lot of door knocking during his campaign and says one of the top priorities he heard about was the environment. That contradicts a narrative that argued that while climate change was a serious concern in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, polling suggested it was a lower voter concern this year, with people distracted by cost of living and Canada-U.S. relations.
“Seeing salmon stocks dwindle on the Fraser River is a key component of this riding,” Grant says. “The rising temperatures over the last 25, 30 years is undeniable and is something that is very, very concerning.”
Justin Trudeau will be remembered as the prime minister that bought the Trans Mountain pipeline for a final price tag of $34 billion, leading to one of many intense standoffs over industrial projects. During his time in power, multiple United Nations rapporteurs and committees called on Canada to stop criminalizing Indigenous people peacefully defending their land and water.
But in some ways, Trudeau led the most environmentally conscious federal government in Canada’s history. It brought in carbon pricing and legislation that mandates the federal government to come up with national emissions reduction targets every five years, with the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
They also committed to protect 30 per cent of lands and oceans by 2030, and have earmarked over $1 billion for Indigenous-led conservation. Newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney says he remains committed to the goal, but the most recent data shows there’s a long way to go. In 2023, 13.7 per cent of land was protected and 14. 7 per cent of marine areas. The protected areas need to double in less than five years to meet their international commitments.
When asked how the Liberals will reach this goal in a short time frame, Grant points to the new Liberal government’s commitment to create at least 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas, along with 15 new urban parks. He wants the federal government to work with municipal, First Nations and provincial governments to establish new protected areas.
While campaigning, he spoke with many high school and university students who were voting for the first time, and who told them they were concerned about the environment. The number one priority that he heard from his constituents is cleaner energy — meaning a move away from fossil fuels.
“I think there’s a lot more we can do,” he says. “We’ve announced that we want to invest in greener technologies, but we’re in a state of transition. I know that we need to move forward at a pace so that our next generation can inherit something that’s more robust than it is today.”
The minerals required for electric cars and solar panels are now at the centre of heated debates as provinces and the feds have passed legislation to fast-track approval of industrial projects, including mines. The laws are purportedly to bolster Canadian sovereignty as U.S. relations are tense — but First Nations are raising the alarm that these bills could mean bypassing Indigenous rights and leading to costly legal challenges.
To Grant, pushing climate action forward means engaging with Indigenous Peoples. He pointed to how Musqueam Nation has worked with federal, provincial and local governments to successfully reintroduce salmon and restore habitat. Musqueam Creek is currently the only wild-salmon bearing creek in the City of Vancouver.
“First Nations across the province of British Columbia have been traditionally stewards of the land. They know how to protect it,” he says. “They want to ensure that they protect it for future generations, not just for their communities, but for all.”
For six years, Grant served on the First Nations Health Council in B.C., four of them as chair. Continuing to transfer health decision-making from the federal government to First Nations is central to the council’s 10-year strategy and Grant plans to push this forward in his role.
Grant knows that one of his challenges will be countering misinformation around Indigenous Rights: lately, residential school denialism has even been spread by the provincial MLA in his own riding. “It’s unfortunate that we still have people that approach First Nations in … such a negative light,” he says. “People have to understand that Indigenous Peoples in this country — First Nations, Inuit and Métis — have been fighting in the Canadian courts to prove their place in this country. Title has been proven by the Supreme Court of Canada.”
People can rely on unreliable sources, like opinions online — and “lash out,”he says. And some of the responses he’s gotten after engaging with anti-Indigenous posts on social media have been dark, racist and volatile.
“It’s disheartening that people are applauding such divisive comments that sets reconciliation back generations,” he says.
Grant says he doesn’t want to see people regressing to challenging the existence of Indigenous Rights and long court battles that cost millions.
“Having the opportunity to educate the public, but also my fellow colleagues, will be something I’ll take great pride in, for sure — to ensure that we have the most educated caucus ever when it comes to First Nations, Inuit and Métis Title and Rights.”
He chooses to focus his effort on young people, ensuring they are exposed to Indigenous histories and cultures in their communities. To Grant, it’s promising that “we’re in the first generation where First Nations, Inuit and Métis history is actually being taught in a more robust and accurate way in schools.”
He wants to include youth in policy conversations — especially when it comes to climate change. Grant is inspired by his two children, 16 and 14 years old, who he says told him “people always say the youth are our future, but actually the youth are the present.”
“Why do we always have to wait until the youth are 25, 30, 35 years old before we actually listen to them?” he says. “We need to have a more robust approach to how we are listening to the next generation before it’s too late.”
Grant’s bringing that collaborative approach to conversations about housing affordability, one of the Mark Carney government’s biggest challenges.
Grant guesses he’s probably the only one of six or seven people from his high school class that still live in the riding. The others didn’t stay — “not because they didn’t want to, but because they’ve been priced out.”
The re-elected Liberals have committed to doubling the pace of construction to build 500,000 new homes per year. The party campaigned on improving housing affordability when it was elected in 2015 — but by 2021 housing prices had increased 97 per cent. New builds have not kept up with demand, and Trudeau admitted to the CBC the government “should have, could have moved faster” to address housing prices.
Like climate change and Indigenous Rights, development is a divisive topic — one that requires balancing the need for housing with the environmental considerations of building, and servicing a growing population. But Grant wants to be one of the people that helps illustrate what people have in common and how they can learn from each other. He wants to be a “bridge-builder” that brings different groups together.
Grant has had to navigate difficult conversations as a Musqueam councillor, and while serving on the First Nations Health Council and the Vancouver Police Board. He draws on something his parents told him when he was a child: that while their ancestors may not always have come to consensus, they would try to agree on most things and find ways to move forward despite the small per cent of things they disagreed on.
“I always try to listen, ensure I’m listening first before I speak,” he says. “I’m usually the last person that will speak.” He tries to bring together varying opinions and point out to people that “We’re not actually that far apart. Let’s work on what’s bringing us together.”
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