She represented the Manitoba electoral district of Churchill in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2006, initially as a New Democrat and later as an Independent after losing her party's nomination in late 2005.
She graduated from Bert Fox Composite High School in 1973, and held several positions at the General Hospital in Thompson, Manitoba, over the next twenty-four years.
[4] She held several official responsibilities in the 36th Canadian Parliament, including serving as her party's critic for housing and the Treasury Board of Canada.
[6] She defeated Harper again in the 2000 election, and NDP leader Alexa McDonough appointed her to be the party's Industry Critic in the following parliament.
Desjarlais joined the Canadian Air Force for a week, and participated in a search and rescue exercise in Northern Ontario.
Her position placed her in conflict with both official NDP policy and party leader Jack Layton, who described same-sex marriage as a human rights issue and ruled that caucus members would not be permitted a free vote on matters of equality.
[16] She resigned from the NDP caucus on the same day and announced she would run as an Independent in the next federal election,[17] which took place on January 23, 2006 after Prime Minister Paul Martin's government lost a vote of confidence.
After her defeat, Desjarlais took a job in Ottawa in the office of Greg Thompson, Minister of Veterans' Affairs in the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.
Caucus Chair Judy Wasylycia-Leis described her decision as "mind-boggling and very disappointing", and commented that it was "hard to understand how Bev could have gone from being an active New Democrat to actually supporting and upholding the Stephen Harper agenda".