Before entering political life, he was a member of various hog marketing and advisory boards.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1984 federal election,[1] defeating New Democratic Party incumbent Terry Sargeant by 662 votes in Selkirk—Interlake[2] amid a national landslide victory for the PC Party under Brian Mulroney.
[3] During his time as a parliamentarian, Holtmann served as a backbench supporter of the Mulroney and Kim Campbell governments.
He was acquitted by the courts on April 26, 2007, with the judge saying that although there was some evidence of impairment, there was still room for reasonable doubt.
The judge in the case Lynne Stannard told Holtmann, "I don’t see a lot of 70-year-old people in court because they have figured it out, at your age, you should know better and shame on you for not."