The Honourable John Wilkinson 

Minister of Research and Innovation

John Wilkinson was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003 as the MPP for Perth-Middlesex. He was re-elected in 2007 as the MPP for Perth-Wellington. Wilkinson previously served as the Parliamentary Assistant to Premier Dalton McGuinty in his capacity as Ontario’s first Minister of Research and Innovation. He has also served as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment and was appointed by the Minister of Finance to serve as the vice chair of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.

Wilkinson is the first Certified Financial Planner elected to the Ontario legislature. Before entering politics he founded Wilkinson & Keller Financial Planning Ltd. of Stratford, a successful small business.

Known for his lengthy record of service, Wilkinson has been very active in both his church and community. He was both the youngest president and senior member of the Kiwanis Club of Stratford and most recently chaired a $1.5 million fundraising campaign in support of the Discovery Centre, situated beside the Stratford Festival in the historic Stratford Normal School.

In 2002, the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation honoured Wilkinson with their highest national volunteer tribute, the Julia Award. In 2003, he was presented with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of a decade of outstanding work in helping to find a cure or control for cystic fibrosis, the leading genetic cause of death in Canadian children. In 2006, Wilkinson was named a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow for his humanitarian efforts.

A graduate of the Faculty of Music from the University of Western Ontario, Wilkinson and his wife have three teenagers.