He ran for the Ontario legislature in the
1971 provincial election, and lost to
Progressive Conservative Fernand Guindon in
Stormont. Guindon resigned from the legislature in 1974, and Samis contested a
by-election to succeed him. He was successful, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Guy Leger. Samis was re-elected for the redistributed constituency of
Cornwall in
1975,
1977 and
1981. He supported
Bob Rae for the party leadership in 1982. Samis announced his retirement from the legislature in early 1985. He remains the only New Democrat to have represented the city of
Cornwall at either the provincial or federal level. At the time of Samis's retirement, the Progressive Conservative party had governed Ontario without interruption for forty-two years. Samis argued in March 1985 that the NDP would be unable to remove the Progressive Conservatives from office unless it formed an alliance with the
Ontario Liberal Party. After the
1985 election, an historic two-year pact between the Liberals and NDP allowed Liberal leader
David Peterson to form government as premier. The Peterson government appointed Samis to the Ontario Highway Transport Board in 1986. Samis later moved to the
Kingston area. In the
1999 provincial election, he endorsed Liberal candidate
John Cleary in
Stormont—Dundas—Charlottenburgh, a successor riding to Cornwall. ==See also==