Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba in 1972 and a Doctor of Chiropractic from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto in 1976. He was first elected in 2000 as a Canadian Alliance candidate. He was re-elected in 2004, 2006 and 2008 under the banner of the Conservative Party. He resigned from the Conservative caucus on March 31, 2015, claiming on his blog, "the realm of politics at senior levels" have become hostile to "a Christian world-view", and completed his term in parliament as an Independent MP. He had earlier announced that he would not be standing in the 2015 federal election scheduled for the fall as his constituency is being eliminated due to redistribution.