A New Brunswick native from old St. Andrews & Charlotte County families (Williamson, Leighton & Collins), John Williamson has been active in federal politics throughout his life. From joining the Progressive Conservative Party during the 1988 election and volunteering locally for PC Member of Parliament Greg Thompson in the 1990s, to being a part of the team that helped lay the groundwork for the Conservative comeback in 2006, and serving on the national committee that planned and organized the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race that elected its leader Andrew Scheer.

John represented New Brunswick Southwest in the House of Commons in the 41st Parliament (2011-2015) and was an active Member of Parliament at home and in Ottawa. His parliamentary voting record demonstrates that he constantly put the interests of New Brunswick Southwest voters first.

During his time in office, John secured numerous local infrastructure projects for the riding (roads, wharves, federal buildings & upgrades), successfully led efforts to reform gold-plated pensions for Members of Parliament, introduced a Private Member's Bill to eliminate lifetime parliamentary pensions for federal politicians convicted of criminal malfeasance, and voted with Conservative colleagues to end the Liberal's wasteful and ineffective Long-Gun Registry.

In the 2015 federal election, John’s campaign had the highest Conservative vote — 38.6% — of all 32 ridings in Atlantic Canada. It wasn’t enough to get over the top and the Liberals won by a mere 2,031 votes, but it was a clear signal the local Conservative campaign in New Brunswick Southwest was strong.

Immediately after the 2015 election, John began writing a regular Telegraph Journal column and worked for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS). His columns were also printed in the Financial Post newspaper.

In 2016, John started an organization called Canadians for Affordable Energy with a mandate to highlight the importance of energy affordability for families, businesses, and our nation's economy.

Before entering politics, John joined the National Post as an editorial writer in 1998 and was a founding member of the newspaper’s editorial board. He joined the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in 2002 and was named National Director in 2004. In this role, he advocated on behalf of Canadian taxpayers across the country. 

John campaigned to lower income and gasoline taxes and expose wasteful government spending. He supported the Conservative Government’s two-point GST cut, a one-third cut to Canada's business tax rate and its monthly child care allowance paid to parents with young children.

His work has been featured in national publications such as the National Post, Maclean's magazine, Toronto’s Globe & Mail, Toronto Sun, CBC News, Vancouver Sun, C2C, and others.

John completed a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics in 2009. Later that year he was named Director of Communications in the Prime Minister’s Officer. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing government-wide communications.

John also earned a degree in economics & politics at McGill University after graduating from Fredericton High.

In 2012, John met the love of his life, Kelly. Kelly Williamson is a Commander in the Royal Canadian Navy who has served both at sea and ashore and also worked with the Canadian Army, Special Operations Forces Command, and Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team. In 2017, she was named one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network. In 2018, Kelly was invested into the Order of Military Merit.

John & Kelly have a sweet baby girl: Charlotte Tessa Abbigail Williamson. She was born on July 2, 2020. They live in St. Andrews with the family’s Cairn terrier Teddy. Teddy is from Harvey, New Brunswick.