Murdock was involved with the NDP for many years before running for office herself. She worked for the party from 1968 to 1975, and was a canvass organizer for
Bud Wildman's first campaign in the
1975 provincial election. She was a constituency assistant to
Elie Martel in 1986-87, and to his daughter
Shelley Martel from 1987 to 1990. She ran for the Ontario legislature in the
1987 provincial election, finishing third against
Liberal Sterling Campbell in a close three-way race in
Sudbury. She ran again in the
1990 provincial election, and defeated Campbell by 3,397 votes amid an historic majority government victory for the NDP. She served as
parliamentary assistant to the
Minister of Labour for the entirety of the Rae government's time in office. In early 1995, she announced over one million dollars in government support for aboriginal programs. In 1994, Murdock introduced a Private Member's Bill to make the
common loon Ontario's official bird, the
Avian Emblem Act. Murdock introduced a Private Bill which resulted in granting
Nipissing University its charter. As well, she was responsible for passing legislation where a 'proxy' job could be used as a comparator for female jobs that did not have similar occupations from which to determine 'equal pay for equal work'. Of the twelve pieces of legislation she carried through the House, these three are the only ones that survived the Harris onslaught in 1995. The NDP were defeated in the
1995 provincial election, and Murdock lost her seat to Liberal
Rick Bartolucci by over 3,500 votes. ==Later life and death==