[9] Ashe served as a trustee on the Durham Region Roman Catholic Separate School Board from 1985 to 1997.
At the time he was employed as a jewellery manufacturer, and ran on a stated belief in "traditional family values and service to the community".
[7] By the 1988 elections, Ashe was a group insurance consultant, and ran on a platform of increased communication with parents, and fighting to replace portable classrooms with permanent buildings.
O'Connell remarked that her win ended the city's "old boys' club", as there weren't any female members of the previous council.
[15] In the general election, he lost the race to another Ajax councillor, Joe Dickson, who was running for the Liberals.
[5] Ashe was re-elected to his Ward 1 seat on election day,[18] defeating Deborah Bissett by over 1,300 votes.
As the vote was tied, council ended up appointing someone, which angered many voters who felt like their "democratic rights were trampled".
[6] In May 2020, Ashe tested positive for COVID-19, believing to have gotten it from his daughter who worked as a personal support worker at Orchard Villa Long Term-Care Home, which had a large outbreak resulting in 67 deaths to that point.
[28] Ashe later criticized Robinson for being racist after she called politicians' support for Black History Month as "hypocritically championing a people’s contribution throughout history (to) get Afro-Canadian votes",[29] suggesting they have "become 'hung up' on the transatlantic slave trade", and characterizing herself as a "modern day slave".