Disillusioned with the grinding cynicism of Canadian federal politics, speechwriter Daniel Addison finally has enough when he catches his girlfriend going down on his politician boss. Unfortunately, the party's chief political wonk strongarms Daniel into first finding a candidate and running a election campaign in a hopeless riding before he can resign. Daniel finally finds a candidate in Angus McLintock, an eccentric engineering professor who agrees on the conditions that Daniel teaches his English for Engineers course and he himself does no campaigning. With their dummy campaign in place, everything starts to go wrong as these schemers find themselves in a race which their unorthodox deeds and goals start to energize it. Now, Daniel, inspired by the idealism by the supporters, especially the lovely daughter of one veteran volunteer, finds he is a fight to win despite his best efforts.