Emmanuel ran against prominent federal politician Sheila Copps in a 1996 by-election as a candidate of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada. In this campaign, he called for harsher prison sentences and an increased focus on the rights of victims. He argued that Canada's Young Offenders Act should be abolished and corporal punishment reintroduced to schools, and was quoted as saying, "If an eleven-year-old murders someone, I think his life should be taken." He finished ninth in a field of thirteen candidates. Emmanuel also ran for the Christian Heritage Party in the 1997 federal election, and finished fifth against Liberal incumbent Walt Lastewka. Later, he described both the Family Coalition Party and the Christian Heritage Party as political dead ends.