Citizens' Assembly Member Profile

JOHN CHAPMAN was shot three times in 1956 by Hungarian and Russian Communists as he fled Hungary to England. Later that year he came to B.C. as a refugee. That experience has made him very keen about democracy. "People have died for the right to vote freely," says John, who lives in Nanaimo with his wife of 40 years. Yet in B.C., he says, 800,000 people failed to register to vote. "They're mainly the young and immigrants. Maybe we can pull them back into the system (through the work of the Assembly)." Born in Budapest, John says he changed his name in 1974 from a Hungarian one to "a more friendly-sounding English name." He speaks Italian, German, French, Spanish, Hungarian "and a little bit of English." Now retired, John was a financial officer for the B.C. Ministry of Social Services. He was also a steward with the B.C. Government Employees Union. Currently he is a member of the Hungarian Association of B.C. John enjoys chess and gardening and, until recently, liked to go hunting and fishing. He has three grown children and three grandchildren