John Grant
Profile: CTV Montreal News Reporter - Quebec City Bureau Chief. Retired September 2010
Birthplace: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Education: University of Saskatchewan
Free time: Likes to ski, read biographies and fiction. When he wins the lottery he will learn to play the guitar and fly helicopters.
Little known fact: Host for two years of "The Western Express," a country music show heard on Canadian and British Forces radio.
John's first media job was on campus radio CJUS at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He then spent a year at CFMO-FM in Ottawa, then four years at the Canadian Forces Network when it was located in Lahr, Germany. He went on to be an announcer, host journalist and morning man for CBC Radio and Television in Montreal, Quebec City and Edmonton. In 1996 he joined CFCF 12 as bureau chief in Quebec City.
John finds politics in Quebec are always interesting, sometimes exciting, and always challenging-- especially living and working in his second language and translating for an English-speaking audience. One event that stands out in John's career on the political beat is when Denis Lortie, a former army corporal, went on a rampage in the National Assembly in May of 1984. Three people were killed and 13 were injured. For John, this incident and the long legal fight to air the tape of the event are remembered as difficult moments.
Also on his list of memorable times is the ongoing up-and-down tide of nationalism that has provided so many interesting and tense moments. He says he genuinely likes the politicians and politicos he covers, and considers almost all of them hard-working people who care very much about their constituents and Quebec. John firmly believes their hourly salary is not what gets them into the game.
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