[citation needed] He trained as an ironworker[4] and became president of United Steel Workers local 6166 after moving to Manitoba.
[4] Dillen later moved to Saskatchewan and held several positions, including field staff coordinator for the Key Lake Board of Inquiry, overseeing uranium mining operations.
He also dismissed the right-wing Saskatchewan Party as "nothing more than disaffected socialists" and cited Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom as representative of his own beliefs.
Dillen also opposed gun control, the Canadian Wheat Board and the Kyoto Accord, and spoke against efforts by the Ontario government to ban pit bulls.
He returned to Manitoba after spending some years in Saskatchewan, and ran for re-election as a Liberal for the Thompson electoral division in 2011,[4] finishing third to New Democratic MLA Steve Ashton and Tory Anita Campbell.