Rob Anders was first elected on June 2, 1997 for the Reform Party of Canada, where he served as a member of the Official Opposition.  He was re-elected to represent the people of Calgary West in 2000, 2004 and 2006, 2008 and 2011.

He began his career as deputy critic for Human Resources and in 1998 was appointed the chief critic for Senate and Patronage. As the official opposition's chief critic, he created and chaired the Elected Senate Action Team - a task force to advance the cause of Senate Reform in Canada. Rob worked closely with Alberta Senator Bert Brown, to see the results of Alberta's 1998 Senate election realized.  He also served as deputy critic for Citizenship and Immigration and as the Official Opposition Critic for National Defence.

Rob currently sits on the Scrutiny of Regulations Committee. His prior committee work includes; Co-chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Joint chair of The Standing Committee on the Library of Parliament, Chair of the Veteran's Affairs Committee, Vice Chair for the Subcommittee on National Security, member of the Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

One of Rob's great passions is his support for democracy and religious freedom.  Over the years he has hosted and participated in many events to protest the Chinese government's occupation of Tibet, their brutal repression of Falun Gong practitioners and their military intimidation of Taiwan.  He worked hard to facilitate his Holiness, the Dalai Lama's 2004 visit to Canada. He initiated a letter writing campaign from Canadian Parliamentarians to the President of China, urging him to respect the basic freedom of the 70 million Chinese who adhere to the spiritual practice known as Falun Gong.  Rob also played an important role to help bring together Canadian MPs and Senators with religious leaders from Vietnam.

Prior to being elected, Rob Anders directed the CAFU (Canadians Against Forced Unionism) a project of the NCC (National Citizens' Coalition) in Calgary.

In 1995, he founded the Laissez-faire club as a forum for political debate and was a spokesperson for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce Speaker's Bureau.

Rob graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. On campus, he was an active member of the Reform Party and involved with the debate and speech society.

He has been involved with of a variety of organizations including: The Fraser Institute, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Progressive Group for Independent Business, Canadian Property Rights Research Institute, the National Firearms Association, Responsible Firearms Owners of Alberta, Focus on the Family, Canada Family Action Coalition, St Andrew- Caledonian Society, the Alberta Debate and Speech Association, Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, and the Sir Winston Churchill Society.

Rob is Past President of the Canada-Germany Inter Parliamentary Group.  This group strives to improve the working relationship between parliamentarians of Canada and Germany. It helps to further cooperation and mutual understanding between the national parliaments of both countries.