He served as a parliamentary page in 1992–1993, and chose to campaign for office after seeing parliamentarians vote the party line on issues they knew nothing about.
[3] He formed a group called "Canada in a New Century" in 1992 to oppose the Charlottetown Accord, and unsuccessfully sought the Reform Party nomination for Calgary Northeast in the same year.
He campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1993 provincial election, running as an independent candidate against Premier Ralph Klein.
His candidacy centred on a "contract" which he encouraged all MLAs to sign, promising cuts to government expenditures and to the salaries and pensions of elected officials.
He finished eighth out of nine candidates in Calgary Southwest in the 1993 federal election, losing to Reform Party leader Preston Manning.
He later challenged Al Duerr for Mayor of Calgary in 1995, promising to take a 50% pay cut in his first year and to encourage more popular participation in government.
[12] He and a third brother, Tom Ambas, started a national petition calling for reforms to Canada's Young Offenders Act, such that youths accused of murder would be publicly identified and tried and sentenced as adults.
[13] In 1996, Ambas ran as an independent candidate against prominent national politician Sheila Copps in a Hamilton East by-election.
[16] He received 160 votes (0.60%), finishing sixth in a field of thirteen candidates, and returned to private life after this time.