First elected to the Vancouver Park Board with COPE in 2018, Commissioner Irwin serves as the liaison to Kerrisdale Community Centre Society, Kitsilano War Memorial Community Association, Mount Pleasant Community Association, Dunbar Community Association, the Vancouver City Planning Commission and the City of Vancouver’s Transportation Advisory Committee.
John Irwin is a father of three school-aged kids. He holds a PhD specializing in sustainable urban development and works as a lecturer at SFU and UBC. He also worked as a policy analyst for the Tenant’s Rights Action Coalition (now the Tenant Resource Advisory Centre) and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC office. He worked in fair trade retail from 1996 to 2006.
John’s history of community involvement includes serving on boards of community-based organizations: the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC); the Friends of False Creek (now the False Creek Watershed Society); and the West End Residents Association. John was chair of the Henry Hudson Out-of-School Society from 2011 to 2016, and is an advocate for affordable child care.
John and his family live in the Fairview neighbourhood.