The son of two former federal Members of Parliament, Sherwood Rideout and Margaret Rideout, he was a lawyer by career, in practice with Stewart & Stratton and later Rideout & Robinson.
Rideout thus served in the 34th and 35th Canadian Parliaments and in doing so, gave the Rideout family the distinction of being one of the few in Canada to have three separate family members to hold the same riding.