Born in Timmins, Ont., and raised in the remote northern town of Moosonee — a First Nations community on the shores of Hudson Bay — Grant Cool described his upbringing as deeply formative.
The son of a nurse and a forest ranger-turned-entrepreneur and mayor, Cool said having been raised in an environment that demanded resourcefulness.
“Being in that kind of environment where you didn't have all the kinds of services we have here, you had to figure out and do things,” he said. “My dad taught us to fix things.”
Tinkerer from a young age, Cool said another seminal moment came when he met some of the Apollo astronauts who visited his father’s hunting camp.
“That was a very defining thing for me,” said Cool. “I'm a child of the space age, and from that point onward, I was always on a trajectory to become an aerospace engineer, and I was lucky to see that dream come true.”
After years toiling in university, Cool earned his PhD and quickly hit the ground running.
One of his first major projects was helping develop the Canadarm for the International Space Station. Following his work with NASA, he proceeded to map parts of the Arctic Ocean, and later co-founded a U.S.-based aircraft manufacturing company building low-greenhouse-gas-emissions aircraft.
Yet, over the past few years, the engineer and entrepreneur decided to take a step back.
After moving from Alberta to Vancouver Island in 2020, he passed the reins of the company to his business partner, which lightened his schedule.
With more time on his hands, the father of six began paying closer attention to the world around him and to the situation in Canada.
With friends running as Conservative candidates encouraging him to leap into politics, the final push came last summer when all his now-adult children gathered at his home.
After hearing them express doubts about their financial future and whether they’d ever be able to afford a home, Cool felt this generation had fewer opportunities than his own.
“That really started to get to me and I said, ‘OK, I have to do something, I just can't sit on the sidelines any longer,’” said Cool. “I've benefited so much from being a Canadian. Even though I've worked almost exclusively outside the country, I've never wanted to live anywhere else. We stayed here so our kids could grow up and be Canadians, and I just wanted… to see that legacy being passed on to them.”
With his background as a professional troubleshooter and problem-solver, Cool believes he’s well-suited to lead the riding.
“It may seem like things are very bad right now, but we're Canadians; we can get things done,” said Cool. “I learned as an engineer to work with a problem every day, get up and fix what's broken around you.”
After knocking on hundreds of doors, Cool heard concerns about the need for additional infrastructure, high taxes, and the rising cost of living. If elected, he said his first promise would be to listen to constituents to better represent them on Parliament Hill.
“We have to have proper representation here in the riding. Every business day, when somebody calls the phone, somebody has to answer.”
