Hair By Daryle Bennett

Bennett was born in Peterborough and graduated from the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School. His father, George Bennett, was a city councillor from 1971 to 1980, and his father-in-law, Keith Brown, was a Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1959 to 1967. Bennett worked for his father-in-law's businesses after graduating high school, founded Liftlock Coach Lines in 1974, and later established the Liftlock Group of Companies. He chaired the Greater Peterborough Business Development Centre and the Greater Peterborough Community Futures Development Corporation in the 2000s. Bennett was also a founding member of the Market Hall Fund-raising Committee, and in 2003 he was named to a committee that oversaw plans for Peterborough's centennial celebrations. He served on the board of governors of Trent University from 2000 to 2004, and there was some surprise when his position was not renewed; Bennett has suggested this may have been because of difficult questions he posed to university officials. He organized a campaign for local businesses affected by a major flood in mid-2004 and shortly thereafter was named as person of the year by the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce. In the 2003 provincial election, Bennett co-chaired the unsuccessful re-election campaign of Progressive Conservative incumbent Gary Stewart. He supported Sylvia Sutherland's re-election as mayor of Peterborough in the same year's municipal election.