He attended Trinity College at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School, and enlisted with the Canadian Army during World War II.
He campaigned for the Ontario party in the 1963 provincial election, and lost to Progressive Conservative candidate Stanley Randall by 4,456 votes in the Toronto constituency of Don Mills.
[3] The NDP experienced a major breakthrough in the 1967 provincial election, greatly increasing its representation in the legislature and emerging particularly strong in Toronto.
Jim and Margaret Renwick were the first husband and wife ever to serve simultaneously in a Canadian provincial or federal legislature.
Donald C. MacDonald had led the Ontario NDP and its predecessor, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, since 1953, and was seen as out of touch with the younger, more radical mood of the 1960s.