[2] Conroy was born in Rossland, British Columbia and raised in Castlegar, where he attended Stanley Humphries Secondary School and Selkirk College.

Under the ruling NDP, he served as government caucus chair from June 1996 to October 1997, then from March to November 2000.

[4][5] He contested the newly constituted riding of West Kootenay-Boundary in the 2001 provincial election; with the NDP deeply unpopular within the province, he lost to Liberal candidate Sandy Santori.

[3] Katrine Conroy is the current MLA for the redistributed district of Kootenay West; she has served in the provincial cabinets of Premiers John Horgan and David Eby.

[6] He died at the age of 73 on June 26, 2020, from complications from surgery after sustaining a broken hip.