 At the 1885 general election, Cameron was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wick Burghs as an independent liberal, defeating the sitting Liberal MP John Pender.A committed land reformer, he had been nominated by the Wick Radical Workingmen's Association and supported by the Highland Law Reform Association and appears to have been sympathetic to the Crofters Party.He served as a Liberal Party MP and held the seat until his defeat at the 1892 general election by Pender, who was by then a Liberal Unionist.