A physician by profession, Oberg was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as an Progressive Conservative in 1993. He was first appointed to the Alberta Cabinet in 1997 and served numerous posts. Over the next two years, he oversaw the move of children’s services and services for persons with developmental disabilities to community-based delivery. He launched a western Canadian initiative to address Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and implemented an interprovincial strategy to share resources and develop new and better approaches for addressing FAS. In May 1999, Dr. Oberg was appointed Minister of Learning, a post he held until November 2004. He began the second language initiative in Alberta schools to give students an edge in the world marketplace and initiated the development of the daily physical activity program to improve the health of Alberta students. In 2006, Lyle Oberg was named Minister of Finance in Premier Ed Stelmach's cabinet. Oberg opened C2DNA in Edmonton, the first private DNA testing facility in Canada. He founded the lab with his brother and other investors.