Grant Neufeld’s Brief Biography

I was born and raised in Alberta, and moved to Calgary at a very young age.

A computer programmer by trade, I left the corporate work world to focus on community activism.

I spent a number of years working on Calgary Dollars and other projects at the Arusha Centre.

Community Activism

I have been involved in social justice and environmental activism for most of my life, having started my life-long dedication to volunteerism as a child. I continue to be very active in a wide range of issues and community projects, especially anti-poverty, environtment, peace, community development and pro-democracy work.

I created the activist.ca community network service which I ran for nearly five years as a volunteer before passing the project to other local volunteers. I am the founder and Calgary coordinator of the Revolutionary Knitting Circle, a group dedicated to building community independence and bringing diverse people together—using knitting and dialogue.

Politics

I worked with the Green Party in Calgary in the early 1990’s, but fell away from that for a long-time due to burn-out. I became active again in the Green Party of Alberta in 2003. At the 2004 provincial convention, I was elected President of the Party (not to be confused with the position of party “Leader”). I served in that capacity for a full two-year term.

In the fall of 2004, I ran as the Green Party candidate in the Alberta provincial election in the riding of Calgary Buffalo. While it was a positive experience for me in many ways, teaching me a lot of valuable things, running for public office is something I’m hoping to avoid doing again.