John Palmer
Councillor 
Author. Father. Songwriter. Politician. Student. Techie. Lazy.
All but one of these are words that you could use to describe John. Originally from Southwestern Ontario, John has lived everywhere from Toronto to Montreal, and finally finds himself settled in Ottawa with wife Jill, and 6 year old twins Joshua and Juliana In his "spare time", he's found the time to complete a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from Waterloo, an MA in Organizational Leadership from Crown College, and can see the finish line for a BA in Information Systems from Athabasca.
An avid golfer, curler, camper, game designer and songwriter, June 2008 saw the release of his combination teen poetry/youth self-help book called "Like it or Not: A Collection of Poetry and Prose from a (Mostly) Well-Spent Youth" (ISBN: 0-595-50644-5), and every so often he writes a paragraph or two for his novel "Sovereign Rain".
John's has worked on IT help desks, performed front-line desktop support, server administration, IT Security, managed Wide Area Networks stretching from Colorado Springs to Kabul and Calgary to Khartoum, and currently manages the Enterprise Hosting Environment for the Department of National Defence, including mainframes, Linux and UNIX systems. He is also honoured to have been an occasional lecturer at the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics.
John brings energy, experience, and his ability to both provide and analyse a variety of viewpoints to his first term on the Athabasca University Student Union. A strong believer in the Distance Education model, and knowledgeable on of a wide range of student issues, he's well-equipped to apply his background to the unique needs of AU students.
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