After her return to Canada, Watts worked as a credit manager and a materials consultant for an architecture firm during her 20s and early 30s.

[8] She was a stay-at-home mother with two daughters prior to being a campaign manager for new provincial MLA and family friend Bonnie McKinnon in 1991.

She ran as an independent candidate, defeating incumbent Doug McCallum at the polls on November 19, 2005, who had been her political ally as recently as 2003.

Surrey First is not an official party and its members are reportedly free to vote their consciences on land development and other contentious issues before City Hall.

"[11][12] Watts was a driving force behind the controversial 2011 Surrey Regional Economic Summit, in which former US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton were featured speakers.

[13] Amnesty International stated it had provided the RCMP with more than 4,000 pages of documents[14] alleging that the former US president was engaged in war crimes, and called for his arrest.

The human rights group stated that it had submitted a memorandum to Canadian officials outlining why Bush was legally responsible for human-rights violations that took place between 2002 and 2009.

On September 18, 2014 Watts announced that she was running for the Conservative Party of Canada nomination to replace Russ Hiebert who was retiring as federal MP for South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale.

Watts announced on September 24, 2017, her resignation from the House of Commons in order to seek the leadership of the British Columbia Liberal Party.

She spent the next few years travelling to places like Australia, Nepal and South America before returning to British Columbia sometime in the late 1980s.