Whiteway first ran for the House of Commons in the 1968 election as a Social Credit candidate in Dauphin, and finished fourth against Progressive Conservative Gordon Ritchie.
The Liberal Party of Canada won a majority government in the 1974 election, and Whiteway entered parliament as a member of the official opposition.
He was on the right wing of his party, and opposed abortion, supported capital punishment, and spoke against federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
[3] He sought a return to the House of Commons in the 1993 election, after winning a four-person contest for the Reform Party nomination in Provencher.
[4] Whiteway argued that the Reform Party was a natural home for evangelical Christians, and spoke of bringing "some moral fibre to Parliament".