[5] He describes his platform as "I want no cops in gambling, sex or drugs or rock and roll, I want no usury on loans, pay cash or time, no dole.

[3] Turmel received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1976 with a specialization in the mathematics of gambling[dubious – discuss][citation needed] and became Teaching Assistant to Walter Schneider in the course until 1978 when he was fired for running a highly publicized Blackjack "21" game in the Faculty Club.

[citation needed] In 1991, Turmel was convicted in Gatineau, Quebec, of running a common gaming house and sentenced to 4 months in jail.

[citation needed] Before getting out after one month, Turmel ran for Chair of Ottawa-Carleton Regional Municipality while in jail, collecting approximately 3,500 votes.

[citation needed] His campaign to legalize gambling and the notoriety he received as a result, combined with his family's background in social credit ideology, led Turmel to seek election at the federal level for the first time at the age of 28, as an independent candidate in Ottawa West in the May 1979 federal election in which he ran as the self-described "champion of hookers, gamblers and dope smokers"[3] in a campaign in which he argued interest on money, usury, was the evil instability in financial affairs and swore to "abolish interest rates".

He ran as an independent candidate in the April 13 federal by-election in London West, claiming to be interim leader of the Ontario Social Credit Party.

[citation needed] He also sought the Social Credit Party of Canada’s interim national leadership unsuccessfully at a convention in November in Calgary.

[citation needed] While running in the Hamilton West federal byelection, Turmel registered for Mayor of Ottawa in November, collecting 1,928 votes.

[citation needed] In September, Turmel was a candidate in the federal by-election in Spadina riding in Toronto, collecting 98 votes.

Raymond Turmel ran as an independent against O’Malley in the by-election held in Joliette, Quebec on the same day, claiming to be the "real Social Credit" candidate.

The eleven delegates, who represented about 100 party members throughout the province, elected former Toronto mayoral candidate Anne McBride as their new interim leader in a vote of 7 to 1 with 3 spoiled ballots.

[citation needed] In September, Turmel was reported to be fighting his expulsion from the federal Social Credit Party, and seeking its leadership.

[citation needed] In June 1982, Turmel returned to Hamilton West to run in a provincial by-election as a candidate of the Christian Credit Party that he had recently founded.

[citation needed] He also ran for the Christian Credit Party in the September federal by-election in Broadview—Greenwood (in Toronto), winning an all-time low 16 votes.

[citation needed] In July, Turmel attempted to recruit members for his new party at the Social Credit national convention in Regina.

"[citation needed] Turmel, with Therese and Ray, Marc and Emi Gauvin and Serge Girard picketed the 1983 Bilderberger conference held at Chateau Montebello.

Turmel issued ID card to SA recipients and recruited local retailers to cash the cheques at no discount.

[citation needed] In September, he ran as an "independent créditiste" claiming to be the heir of Réal Caouette in a federal by-election in St.-Maurice, Quebec when Liberal MP Jean Chrétien resigned.

[citation needed] In June 1996, Turmel ran under the Abolitionist Party banner in a Hamilton East federal by-election and lost.

[citation needed] In 2000, Turmel ran as an independent candidate in the September Kings—Hants (Nova Scotia) federal by-election against Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark.

[citation needed] In the same year, he made a presentation to the United Nations on the interest-free UNILETS resulting in Millennium Declaration Resolution C6 to governments to use an alternative time-based currency to restructure the global financial architecture.

[citation needed] Turmel was convicted of drug possession in March 2006, resulting from a one-man protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa three years earlier.

[13] The by-election was pre-empted by a federal election call in which Turmel re-filed his candidacy for the same riding – he came in tenth out of eleven candidates receiving 58 votes.

On September 10, 2009, police were called after Turmel lost control and disrupted an all-candidates meeting during the provincial by-election in Ontario's St. Paul's riding.

[14] Angry at a moderator's rule which forced residents to direct their questions at four of eight candidates, thus effectively limiting his opportunity to speak, Turmel lashed out and ran around the church hall shouting at debate panelists and audience members that he'd go back onstage when he could answer too.

[21][22] stating "we want no cops in gambling, sex or drugs or rock and roll, we want no usury on loans, pay cash or time, no dole."

He ran on a campaign pushing for mass production of marijuana to fight cancers he says are coming from the "nuclear fallout that hit us from Fukushima".

[3] On the provincial level, Turmel has continued to carry the banner of the Pauper Party of Ontario and ran in the August 1, 2013 by-election in Ottawa South to choose the successor to Dalton McGuinty placing last with 43 votes.

On September 1, 2016, he secured second-to-last place in the Scarborough—Rouge River provincial by-election by one vote over former Trillium Party candidate Ania Krosinska.