He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003 and was a cabinet minister in the government of Ernie Eves.
[1] He ran for the Ontario legislature in the provincial election of 1990, as the Tory candidate in the working-class riding of Cambridge.
[5] He supported Ernie Eves to succeed Harris as party leader in 2002, and was named Minister of Citizenship with responsibility for Seniors on April 15, 2002.
[7] In the provincial election of 2003, he lost to Liberal candidate Peter Fonseca (a well-known Olympic athlete) by about 3,000 votes, amid a general regional decline in Tory support.
"[9] In the 2006 federal election, DeFaria ran for the Conservative Party of Canada, finishing second to longtime Liberal incumbent Albina Guarnieri.