John Carpay was born in the Netherlands, and grew up in Williams Lake, B.C. He earned his B.A. in Political Science at Laval University in Quebec City, where he was the first non-francophone to serve on the Student Union Executive. He is fluent in English, French, and Dutch.

John has worked in Ottawa as Special Assistant to a federal cabinet minister, and as an Executive Assistant to an M.P. At the age of 26, he was the youngest Reform Party candidate in B.C. in the 1993 federal election.

John earned his law degree at the University of Calgary, where he received awards for mooting, debating, and oral advocacy. He served with Student Legal Assistance as a student volunteer, group leader, mentor, and summer employee, and since completing his law degree in 1998 has served the organization as a volunteer lawyer. John was called to the Alberta Bar in 1999, and practiced civil litigation in Calgary with Rooney Prentice LLP. John has served as a volunteer lawyer with Calgary Legal Guidance and with the Edmonton Centre for Equal Justice, assisting low-income clients who are unable to afford legal advice.

John joined the Canadian Taxpayers Federation as Alberta Director in 2001, and moved to Edmonton for 4½ years to advocate for lower taxes, less waste, and accountable government. As Alberta Director, John averaged 40 media interviews per month, in French and English, and his columns appeared regularly in newspapers across Alberta. Alberta Venture magazine named John as one of Alberta’s 50 most influential people, and the Edmonton Sun described him as the unofficial leader of the opposition in Alberta. While in Edmonton, John completed four Master’s courses in political philosophy at the University of Alberta towards an M.A.

In 2005, John moved back to Calgary to serve the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) as its first full-time Executive Director. Initially, John worked out of the basement of his Calgary home. In four short years, thanks to the generous support of hundreds of donors across Canada, the CCF grew into a national organization with full-time staff lawyers working in B.C., Alberta and Ontario to defend constitutional freedoms. From 2005 to 2009, the CCF was involved in over 15 court cases, two of them before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Globe and Mail, National Post, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, and newspapers across Canada have published John’s guest columns in support of constitutional freedoms, economic liberty, and equality before the law.

In 2010, John Carpay received the Pyramid Award for Ideas and Public Policy from the Manning Centre, in recognition of his work in building up the Canadian Constitution Foundation into a national organization.