Goodale was raised on a farm near Wilcox, Saskatchewan and had stayed in the province for his entire life, attending the University of Regina and University of Saskatchewan.
Active in politics from a young age he was first elected to parliament in 1974 at the age of twenty-four. He served as back bench MP until 1981 when he moved to provincial politics to become leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party which he remained until 1988. After a failed attempt to win a federal seat in the 1988 election Goodale spent five years in the private sector before returning to the federal parliament in 1993. As a member of the new Chretien government Goodale was entered into the Cabinet becoming Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. In 1997 he became the Minister of Natural Resources. Goodale maintained a squeaky clean reputation and in 2002 he was sent to the scandal plagued portfolio of Minister of Public Works and Government Services.
Long a close ally of Paul Martin, Goodale was rewarded with the extremely important role of Finance Minister when Martin became Prime Minister on December 12, 2003.