John Wilkinson (Canadian politician)

John Wilkinson is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, from 2003 to 2011 representing the predominantly rural ridings of Perth—Middlesex and Perth—Wellington for the Liberal Party. He served in cabinet as Minister of Research and Innovation, Revenue and Environment. He was defeated in the 2011 election by Conservative Randy Pettapiece.

John Wilkinson
Ontario MPP
In office 2007–2011
Preceded by	Riding established
Succeeded by	Randy Pettapiece
Constituency	Perth—Wellington
In office 2003–2007
Preceded by	Bert Johnson
Succeeded by	Riding abolished
Constituency	Perth—Middlesex
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Personal details
Political party	Liberal
Profession	financial planner

Background

Before entering public life, Wilkinson was a financial planner in Stratford. He is a certified financial planner and a founder of Wilkinson & Keller Financial Planning Ltd,[1] he is also a former chair of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.[1] He also worked as the finance chair of his church organization for seven years. In 2002, he was awarded the Julia Award from the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Association for his volunteer work.[1] He is a member of the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus Advisory Board.[2]

Politics

Wilkinson ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1999 election, losing to Progressive Conservative incumbent Bert Johnson by over 6000 votes.[3] In the 2003 election, he defeated Johnson by about 1500 votes in a rematch.[3]

The Liberals won the election,[4] and on May 21, 2004 Wilkinson was named parliamentary assistant to Leona Dombrowsky, the Minister of the Environment.

He was re-elected in the 2007 provincial election,[5] and was named to provincial cabinet as Minister of Research and Innovation.[6] In a cabinet shuffle on June 24, 2009, he became the province's Minister of Revenue[6] and on August 18, 2010 became Minister of Environment.[6]

In the 2011 election he was narrowly defeated by Conservative Randy Pettapiece by 210 votes.

Cabinet positions

Electoral record

2011 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%[7]
	Progressive Conservative	Randy Pettapiece	14,845	40.1	+8.1
	Liberal	John Wilkinson	14,635	39.5	-7.7
	New Democratic	Ellen Papenburg	5,836	15.8	+5.7
	Green	Chris Desjardins	918	2.5	-5.3
	Family Coalition	Irma DeVries	627	1.7	-0.3
	Freedom	Robby Smink	164	0.4	0.0
Total valid votes			37,025	100.0 [7]

2007 Ontario general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Wilkinson[5]	18,249	47.2%
	Progressive Conservative	John Rutherford	12,391	32.0%
	New Democratic	Donna Hansen	3,922	10.1%
	Green	Anita Payne	2,997	7.8%
	Family Coalition	Pat Bannon	760	2.0%
	Independent	Kevin Allman	216	0.6%
	Freedom	Robby Smink	143	0.4%

2003 Ontario general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Wilkinson[3]	17,017	42.71	+6.35
	Progressive Conservative	Bert Johnson	15,680	39.36	-12.64
	New Democratic	Jack Verhulst	4,703	11.8	+4.61
	Green	John Cowling	1,201	3.01
	Family Coalition	Pat Bannon	857	2.15	-1.08
	Freedom	Robert Smink	384	0.96

1999 Ontario general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Bert Johnson	22,065	52
	Liberal	John Wilkinson[3]	15,428	36.36
	New Democratic	Walter Edmund Vernon	3,053	7.19
	Family Coalition	Pat Bannon	1,369	3.23
	Freedom	Robert J.W. Smink	521	1.23

References

1. John Wilkinson | Biography Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Advisory Board profiles". University of Waterloo. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
3. Ontario votes | Results of 1999 and 2003 elections
4. Mapleleaf Web | 2003 Ontario General Election
5. Ontario elections | 2007 results
6. "Legislative Assembly of Ontario - John Wilkinson".
7. http://www.wemakevotingeasy.ca/media/EO_Site/unofficial_244/ED070-F0244.pdf%5B%5D

External links

• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history (archived)