He was born in Singapore, where his father was serving as a Captain with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Malayan Emergency and his mother was a Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps. Gormley's parents emigrated to Saskatchewan in 1960, settling in Battleford, northwest of Saskatoon. He completed high school at St. Thomas College and was introduced to broadcasting as a teenager, spending a year working at radio station CJNB North Battleford. He later enrolled at the University of Saskatchewan and studied English. In 1977, Gormley began working at CKOM Saskatoon as a reporter and newsreader. He began hosting a talk show and later moved his show to CFQC Saskatoon. His top rated talk show was later hosted by Roy Norris. Gormley was elected in the 1984 Canadian election to the House of Commons as Progressive ConservativeMP for the electoral district of The Battlefords—Meadow Lake. In his last year as a Member of Parliament, he served as chairman of the Commons Standing Committee on Communications and Culture. Defeated in the 1988 election, Gormley studied law at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. In 1991, he was a member of the team which won the world championship round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, known as the Jessup Moot, in Washington, D.C., where 42 law schools competed, representing 243 universities around the world. Gormley graduated with distinction, and then practised employment law in Edmonton, Alberta. Rawlco Radio's in-house counsel since 1998, he is a member of the Law Societies of both Alberta and Saskatchewan and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2011. Since 1998, he has been host of John Gormley Live, heard weekday mornings on Rawlco Radio's News Talk 650 CKOM in Saskatoon and News Talk 980 CJME in Regina. In addition to hosting his radio show, Gormley writes a weekly column in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader Post newspapers. His first book, Left Out – Saskatchewan's NDP and the Relentless Pursuit of Mediocrity, was published in 2010 and is a Canadian bestseller. His second book, The Gormley Papers: I'm Right and You Know It, a compilation of his newspaper columns, was published in 2013. Gormley is a recipient of the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Senate 150th Anniversary Medal. Gormley has hosted an event named the "Gormley Gathering", which raises money for prostate cancer initiatives. From 2011–present, the event had raised in excess of $1.2 million. At the most recent Gormley Gathering in 2018, $164,550 was raised for the Leslie and Irene Dube Urology Centre of Health at St. Paul's Hospital, Saskatoon. During the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, Gormley tweeted "Me: Next guy in a Western democracy who chants 'Allah Ahkbar' we shoot. Wife: Don't be this way. #angry" He deleted the tweet shortly after and apologized. A group of professors at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law condemned Gormley for the tweet, and more than 2,000 people signed petitions calling for him to resign as a radio talk show host and newspaper columnist.
