[1][3] Working since his teens,[1] Simpson settled in the advertising industry, climbing the ranks to the position of media director for Toronto's Stanfield, Johnson and Hill agency.
The contract had originally been offered to Simpson's former Media Buying Services, but its current bosses had judged the terms unacceptable, leading to the formation of the new agency.
The nature of those terms came under scrutiny when Roger Nantel, Simpson's partner in Media Canada, candidly revealed that part of his management fee would be used to finance events hosted by the incumbent majority.
While the PCs' hiring of a friendly agency was not unheard of—the Liberals had replaced MBS with the left-leaning MacLaren Advertising during their own term in office—Nantel's admission led to accusations of kickbacks from the opposition, and Minister of Supply and Services Harvie Andre commissioned an RCMP investigation to prove the absence of wrongdoing.
During the making of Prom Night III, Simpson was present on set, ostensibly to reassure investors about Ron Oliver's directorial debut, but tempers flared between the two and the producer ended up taking co-directorial credit.
[20] Between more commercial films, Simpson capitalized on personal connections to the Canadian recording industry to put together his passion project, 1982's Melanie, a rock star drama which featured Burton Cummings of The Guess Who and Lisa Dal Bello.
[22][23] A music enthusiast, he occasionally wrote songs for his own movies such as Bullies, a rural revenge story described by director Paul Lynch as a counterpoint to the lighthearted wildlife adventure of Simpson's first production The Sea Gypsies.
[1][24] Seldom remembered today, the film was criticized for its violence and turned down for subsidies by Telefilm Canada, but proved lucrative after it was picked up for U.S. distribution by Universal.
[27] Towards the end of his career, Simpson stepped in to produce the critically acclaimed but financially troubled series The Eleventh Hour, which had been launched by his wife under her own production imprint, resulting in a final, Gemini Award-winning season in 2004–05.
[1][28] In addition to his business endeavors, Simpson was a board member of the Toronto International Film Festival for ten years, and was named by The Montreal Gazette as one of the event's top fundraisers.
[2][8] When Ontario premier Mike Harris called for Norstar to be denied access to public facilities in retaliation for planning a biopic of serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, the producer sardonically replied that he would "sleep better for this".
[31] His career Genie acceptance speech also earned notice for some coarse language and an attack on Creative Artists Agency's privileged relationship with Telefilm Canada.
[27][32] While collaborator Ron Oliver was thankful to Simpson for the opportunities that kickstarted his career, he acknowledged that "Peter's personality is bigger than life, and I think some people find it hard to work with him.