Walker is the author of Great Winnipeg Dream (1979), and the co-author of Livable Winter Cities (1986), Living Within Our Means: The Role of Voluntary Associations (1986) and Canadian Municipalities and Conditions of Fiscal Austerity in International Perspective (1987) and most recently his first novel Wild World.
He campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in the 1977 provincial election, finishing second against former Progressive Conservative leader Sidney Spivak in the upscale constituency of River Heights.
Walker was the first Liberal candidate ever to win this riding, as the democratic socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and NDP had represented it for fifty-nine of the previous sixty-three years.
The Progressive Conservative Party won a majority government in this election, and Walker served for the five years of the 34th Canadian Parliament as a member of the Official Opposition.
He served as parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Paul Martin from 1993 to 1996, when he became chairman of the standing committee on industry (Winnipeg Free Press, 5 March 1996).