He graduated from the University of Victoria in 1989 with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and a minor in environmental studies. He swam competitively for 16 years in his college and completed 14 marathon swims between 1990 and 2000, including across Pitt Lake, Okanagan Lake, Williams Lake, Quesnel Lake, and down the Raush River. He swam across the Strait of Georgia four times, like in 1991 when he swam from Sechelt to Nanaimo in a benefit swim for the Georgia Strait Alliance. In 1994 he swam the Strait of Juan de Fuca, from Port Angeles to Victoria. In 1995, and again in 2000, Donnelly swam the length of the 1,325 km Fraser River, from Mount Robson Provincial Park to Vancouver, ending in False Creek. Many of his marathon swims were used to raise awareness of local issues affecting the rivers and lakes and their watersheds and raise funds for non-profit groups concerned with the protection or restoration of those rivers and watersheds. Donnelly founded the non-profit organization Rivershed Society of British Columbia in 1996 and worked as its executive director. In 2002, at the age of 36, Donnelly decided to seek election to the Coquitlam City Council. His high profile swims and campaign focused on sustainable development made him a likely candidate to upset one of the incumbents. Donnelly and Barrie Lynch were both successful in gaining a seat on council, upsetting two of the incumbents, though Donnelly's campaign manager unexpectedly died Cameron Lipp two weeks before the election. In his first term on council, Donnelly put forth a successful motion that the city send a letter to its sister city, Laizhou in China, expressing concern over the persecution of Falun Gong. In the 2005 council election, the four councillors that stood for re-election won, including Donnelly who received the most votes over all other candidates. In the 2008 council election, Donnelly again obtained the most votes in the council election.
Federal politics
The 43 year-old Donnelly entered federal politics after his local member of parliament Dawn Black vacated her seat in April 2009. In a June NDP constituency meeting Donnelly won the NDP nomination on the first ballot against fellow Coquitlam city councillor Barrie Lynch and New Westminster councillor Lorrie Williams. Port Moody councillor Diana Dilworth won the Conservative Party nomination, civil and environmental engineerKen Beck Lee won the Liberal Party nomination, and Rebecca Helps was acclaimed as the Green Party nominee. The by-election was called for November 9 and Donnelly, who was supported by campaign visits by party leader Jack Layton, and Dilworth were considered the front-runners. With only a 30% voter turnout, Donnelly won the by-election with 50% of the vote. Since being elected in 2009, Donnelly has been active on a number of different issues of concern to British Columbians, particularly those focused on society, the environment, and the economy.
40th Parliament
Donnelly entered the 40th Canadian Parliament during its third session, which lasted one year, during which time he served as the party's national fisheries critic. During that year he sponsored six private member bills, none of which advanced far enough to be voted upon. He sponsored two amendments to the Criminal Code, both of which Dawn Black had previously introduced in the previous parliament: would have added the offence of luring a child to those offenses prosecutable in Canada even if committed outside Canada and would have expanded the offence of luring a child to include all means of communication rather than solely through a computer. In March 2010, he introduced that would prohibit oil tankers in the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. In May 2010, he introduced which proposed to amend the Fisheries Act to require commercial finfish aquaculture only take place in closed containment facilities. He also proposed that would have expanded Employment Insurance coverage received as a result of illness, injury or quarantine from 15 to 52 weeks.
41st Parliament
For the 2011 election, Donnelly was acclaimed as the NDP candidate and again challenged by Dilworth, Lee, and Helps, as well as Roland Verrier for the Marxist–Leninist Party. This time with 60% voter turnout, Donnelly won the riding with 46% of the vote and his party formed the official opposition to a Conservative Party majority government. In the ensuing 41st Canadian Parliament, Donnelly re-introduced, all in 2011, the six of the private member bills he introduced in the previous parliament. While, again, none of the bills advanced far enough to be voted upon, the two proposed amendments to the Criminal Code regarding luring a child were adopted in the Safe Streets and Communities Act. In December 2011, Donnelly sponsored a new private member bill, the Ban on Shark Fin Importation Act , but it was defeated at second reading in March 2013 with the Conservative Party majority voting against it. In the NDP shadow cabinet Jack Layton re-appointed him as critic on Fisheries and Oceans. In the 2012 leadership election, following Layton's death, Donnelly endorsed Nathan Cullen. Tom Mulcair won the election to become leader of the party and he moved Donnelly to critic of Western Economic Diversification. A year and a half later, Mulcair re-assigned Donnelly to be the deputy critic to both Fisheries and Oceans and Infrastructure and Communities for the remainder of the parliament.
Alan Kurdi
On September 3, 2015, after the death of Alan Kurdi, Donnelly stated that he had handed a letter from Alan Kurdi's aunt, one of his constituents, to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander requesting that he look into the case of the Alan Kurdi's refugee application, which, according to Donnelly, was later rejected. On the same day, it was reported that the Alan Kurdi's family had not in fact applied for refugee status in Canada, and that the letter primarily concerned the family of Alan Kurdi's uncle, for whom an application had been submitted but been rejected for being incomplete. Donnelly subsequently faced criticism for his role in the spread of the false information regarding Alan Kurdi's family's nonexistent refugee application. Mulcair later defended Donnelly, saying that no apology was warranted because the letter had mentioned both families, and stated that he "couldn’t be prouder to have someone of the strength, integrity and hard work as Fin Donnelly" in caucus. On September 10 the Ottawa Citizen reported that: "Abdullah Kurdi’s brother Mohammad and his family were named in a G5 refugee resettlement application, while simultaneously, Abdullah and his now-dead wife and children were included and named along with Mohammad’s family in a lengthy set of correspondence, over a period of months, to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and senior CIC officials."
42nd Parliament
New electoral districts in the Greater Vancouver area, added for the 2015 election, resulted in Donnelly moving to the re-created Port Moody—Coquitlam riding, which effectively would shift his representative area northwards by removing New Westminster and adding the entirety of Port Moody. In the election, Donnelly was challenged by City of Vancouver's chief digital officer Jessie Adcock for the Liberal Party, Canadian Forces veteran Tim Laidler for the Conservative Party, and Green Party member Marcus Madsen, as well as Roland Verrier of the Marxist–Leninist again. Though Donnelly won his riding with 36% of the vote, the Liberal Party won the general election and formed a majority government with the Conservative Party taking over the official opposition status and the NDP as the third party. With a reduced number of MPs, party leader Tom Mulcair appointed Donnelly to be the NDP critic for Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, again, a post he previously held in 2009-2012 and since acted as deputy to. In the 42nd Canadian Parliament he, again, sponsored the private member bill which proposed to amend the Fisheries Act to require commercial finfish aquaculture only take place in closed containment facilities and this time it was voted on, in December 2016, but defeated with a majority of the Liberal Party MPs and the Conservative Party voting against the bill, though all NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green Party MPs voted in favour. In March 2016 Donnelly re-introduced the Ban on Shark Fin Importation Act It only received a first reading but was introduced into the senate by Conservative senator Michael L. MacDonald in April 2017. Donnelly did not re-introduce his previous bill to prohibit oil tankers off B.C.'s north coast, though the government house bill Oil Tanker Moratorium Act was introduced that would accomplish much the same except it would still allow small general purpose tankers.
