[3] His family later moved to Hamilton, where he developed an interest in religion after joining the Gore Street Methodist Church.

[4] His appointment came from James Woodsworth, superintendent of Methodist missions for western Canada[citation needed] and father of J. S.

After three years' work as a probationer, Smith enrolled as a student for the ministry at Wesley College in Winnipeg in 1893.

[2] After working in Dauphin, Manitoba, and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Smith was stationed at the MacDougall Memorial Methodist Church in north-end Winnipeg in 1902.

[citation needed] Smith returned to Manitoba in 1913, to accept a position as minister of the wealthy First Methodist Church in Brandon.

Smith was asked to consider running in the 1917 federal election as a supporter of Robert Borden's Union government of pro-conscription Liberals and Conservatives.

Smith's religious views were, by his own admission, unorthodox for the standards of his age: he believed that the message of Jesus was "the proclamation of a new social order of human society", and rejected the "harsh theologies" of mainstream Christian churches.

"In my sermons", he wrote, "no miracle was required to explain the birth of Jesus or his life and teachings ... His name was to be cherished because He died as a leader of the people, for His principles and in protest against the unjust rulers of His day".

Smith's views had not yet developed to this stage in 1917, however, and he joined the social reformist Dominion Labour Party at the end of the First World War.

For the next two years, Smith sat with the labour parliamentary group led by Fred Dixon in the legislative opposition.

While joining the CLP took Smith on a different path from his co-legislators, he remained a member of the labor parliamentary group.

No longer receiving a salary as a Methodist minister or Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Smith experienced financial difficulties in Brandon and decided to return to Ontario.

[11] Unlike James Simpson, Smith supported opening the CLP to members of the newly formed Communist Party of Canada.

Smith's personal philosophy continued to develop in this period, and in January 1925 he made the decision to join the Communist Party himself.

He later explained his decision to a Toronto Star reporter by arguing that communism was a part of man's social evolution.

He campaigned for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1925 federal election as a candidate of the CLP in the northern Ontario riding of Port Arthur—Thunder Bay.

He also ran as a candidate of the Ontario division of the CLP in the 1926 provincial election, receiving 416 votes in Hamilton Centre.

In his autobiography, Smith accused Leon Trotsky of attempting to betray the Russian Revolution, alleging that he had been "in the service of British agents" in 1926.

With the Canadian Labour Party falling into disarray, Smith returned to northern Ontario for the federal election of 1930 to contest Fort William as an independent candidate.

In 1934, Smith was arrested and charged with sedition (under section 98 of the Criminal Code) due to statements he made in support of the Eight Men Speak play.

Returning again to northern Ontario, Smith ran for the House of Commons as a candidate of the Communist Party in the 1935 federal election.