He served as a trustee on the Dufferin County Board of Education for two terms, and then as a municipal councillor in Orangeville for six years.

In the latter capacity, he was the founding Chair of Orangeville's Blue Box program and a Director of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

[1] The New Democratic Party won this election, and Tilson spent the next five years as an opposition member.

The Ontario Tories won a majority government in the provincial election of 1995, and Tilson greatly increased his margin of victory, defeating Wilson by almost 15,000 votes in a rematch.

Tilson ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the federal election of 2004 and defeated incumbent Liberal Murray Calder by a margin of 43% to 39% in the new riding of Dufferin—Caledon.