Shipley ran in the 2004 election for the Conservatives in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex but lost to incumbent Rose-Marie Ur of the Liberal Party of Canada by only 164 votes.

[1] The motion called on Parliament to streamline the fertilizer regulations and approval processes with the United States.

It passed by unanimous consent in the House of Commons and backed the creation of the Office of Religious Freedom.

[3] Shipley was chosen in 2011 by the Prime Minister to chair the South West Ontario Conservative Regional Caucus.

A graduate of the Centralia College of Agricultural Technology,[7] Shipley was elected as a councillor in Lobo Township in 1986 and as the Warden of Middlesex County in 1995.