Shaben got his first start in politics by serving on the municipal council for the town of High Prairie. He moved his career to the provincial level when he ran for a seat in the Alberta Legislature in the 1975 Alberta general election. He ran in the electoral district of Lesser Slave Lake as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative party. He won the electoral district defeating incumbent Dennis Barton and a third candidate by a wide margin to pick up the seat for his party. With his win Shaben was the first Arab elected in Alberta and among the first Muslims elected to higher political office in North America.