He spent time working for a Canadian aid agency in Jamaica before becoming a junior high teacher for the Scarborough Board of Education for several years.
[5] Tonks entered municipal politics in 1978 and served as a member of the Board of Control in York from 1978 to 1980.
In 1999, he was appointed chair of the Greater Toronto Services Board and served until 2000 when he became a federal member of parliament.
[10] He was also unsuccessful in the 1987 Ontario election, losing to NDP leader Bob Rae by only 333 votes in York South.
[13] He served as a member of the official opposition from 2006 to 2011, when he lost his seat by around 2500 votes to the NDP's Mike Sullivan.