He worked as an advertising executive, was a founder of the Ontario New Liberal Association, and received a provincial recognition award in 1968.
[4] He supported Jim Breithaupt for the Liberal Party leadership in 1982, and resigned from the legislature in 1984 to run federally a second time.
Cunningham was defeated in the 1984 federal election, losing to Progressive Conservative candidate Geoff Scott by over 10,000 votes amid Brian Mulroney's landslide victory across the country.
[6] In 2002, he told an interviewer that his company was investigating possibilities with several Canadian municipalities for private sector expansion in water treatment.
In 2004, he supported Tony Valeri over Sheila Copps for the federal party's contested nomination in Hamilton East—Stoney Creek.