 She began working as a bank manager in 1984, and had become a senior assistant branch manager with Royal Bank by the mid-1990s.She was also a part-time student at McMaster University in this period, working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree ("Hamilton Spectator", 27 May 1995).Tomasic unsuccessfully campaigned for Hamilton's public school board in 1988 and 1991, and ran for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the 1995 provincial election.