Born October 21, 1945, Mr. Breitkreuz was raised on a farm near Springside, Saskatchewan. He attended a one-room country school near the farm where he grew up. His high school education was completed in Yorkton. He has six years of post-secondary education, including a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

He taught for 24 years, including three years teaching math and chemistry at a college in Cameroon, West Africa; two years as principal on an Indian Reserve in northern Saskatchewan; and 18 months teaching math and sciences in the Solomon Islands. The remainder of his teaching experience was spent teaching various subjects and grades in and around Yorkton. Seven of those years he also spent farming.

From 1993-2006, he served as a member of the Official Opposition, and he took on a number of important responsibilities including: Interim Official Opposition Whip, Official Opposition Deputy Whip, and Official Opposition Deputy House Leader. He has been an active member on numerous Standing Committees of the House of Commons including: Agriculture, Justice, Procedure and House Affairs, and Human Resources Development.

Over the years, he has become well known both nationally and internationally for his extensive work and expertise on the federal gun registry file. In 2002, then Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper appointed him as the Official Opposition Critic for Firearms. Internationally, his work has been recognized with a prestigious award from the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities, “Shooting Sports Ambassador of 2005," in the spring of 2005. He continues to advocate for the repeal of Bill C-68, including the dismantling of the federal gun registry.

Leading up to the 2006 federal election, he held the role of Associate Justice Critic as well as Vice-Chair of the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Justice, Human Rights, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

Now in government, he is Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. He has also been instrumental in establishing a new, non-partisan, parliamentary Outdoors Caucus, which he co-chairs. The mission of the Outdoors Caucus is to entrench in federal law fishing, hunting, trapping, and shooting sports as acceptable, traditional, environmentally-sustainable outdoor heritage activities. In September 2006, he received the Outdoor Heritage Award from the Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA) for his efforts to bring these issues to the forefront in Parliament.

Each year, he holds an Agriculture Forum in his constituency that receives national recognition and is broadcast across Canada on cable television. He is also presently working on renewing the Youth Criminal Justice Act with special attention to combating bullying.

First elected to the House of Commons in October 1993, for the federal constituency of Yorkton-Melville in eastern Saskatchewan, he has been subsequently re-elected by the citizens of Yorkton-Melville in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2008.

He is married to Lydia. Together they have four grown children and seven grandchildren.