She was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until her retirement in 2005, representing the riding of Hamilton Mountain in Ontario for the Liberal Party.
She was hired by the government of Quebec in 1974 as a supervisor of program development and a teacher trainer, holding these positions until 1979.
She worked as a special assistant to Pierre de Bane, the Minister of Regional and Economic Development, in 1981.
The Liberals won a majority government in the 1993 federal election and Phinney was re-elected over Reform Party candidate Craig Chandler, her nearest challenger, by nearly 17,000 votes.
[6] She faced a much more difficult re-election in the election of 2004, with both NDP candidate Chris Charlton and Conservative city councillor Tom Jackson posing credible challenges.