John Walter Grant MacEwan OC AOE (August 12, 1902 – June 15, 2000) was a Canadian farmer, professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dean of Agriculture at the University of Manitoba, the 28th Mayor of Calgary and both a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Canada.

Because of problems with his father's fire-extinguisher business, the family moved to Melfort, Saskatchewan, to begin a life of farming.

He lived in College, and took part in a multitude of campus activities, including the football and basketball teams.

During this period, MacEwan traveled away from the university to many farms across Saskatchewan to lecture, judge animals and give meat-cutting lessons.

In 1932, MacEwan took a trip to Great Britain with a load of cattle, to observe ranching practices in the British Isles.

He visited Scotland and recorded in his journal that, "it is but little wonder that such a unique country has produced the best horses, the best cattle, and the best men in the world."

First, whereas traditionally the bride and groom remain out of public view until the ceremony calls for them to enter, Grant stood at the front entrance to greet guests as they arrived.

Second, when it came time for the new couple to leave, MacEwan could not be found until someone looked out at the parking lot, where Grant was fixing a flat tire.

Dinsdale on the other hand was local to Brandon and came from a prominent family in the district, thus appealing to the voters more than MacEwan.

His party won only one seat in the 1959 election, with MacEwan suffering personal defeat in a new single-member Calgary district, Calgary-North.

Alberta had switched to first past the post after the 1955 election, moving from its long-standing use of multi-winner single transferable vote in Calgary.

During the 1959 election, his reputation was his main asset in the campaign against his Social Credit Party opponent, but the strong anti-Liberal sentiment in the new district foiled his run for re-election.

I believe that the God of Nature must be without prejudice, with exactly the same concern for all of His children, and that the human invokes no more, no less of fatherly love than the beaver or the sparrow.

During this time, he was a staunch environmentalist, and voiced environmental concerns in a number of his publications, primarily in the 1966 book Entrusted to My Care.

[7][8][9] However, MacEwan primarily advocated for wildlife conservation[10] rather than focusing on the negative ecological impacts of oil sands development.

[11] To MacEwan, the greater concern with Alberta's oil industry at the time was that it provided a non-sustainable source of income for the province, which was at risk of disappearing.

He died a month later in Calgary, aged 97, and was given a state funeral, the first one in Alberta since 1963 (for Peter Dawson), at Robertson-Wesley United Church in Edmonton.