He was a Progressive Conservative Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1985 who represented the GTA ridings of Halton East and Oakville.

He worked as a farmer and a carpenter and he started his own business called Snow Construction Ltd. which built houses in post war Ontario.

[1] Snow self-published an autobiography after leaving political life, and purchased a golf course in Hornby, Ontario.

In 2006 Snow and his wife Barbara donated half-a-million dollars to the Milton District Hospital Foundation's CT Scanner Campaign.

The complex housing the scanner is named the "James and Barbara Snow Family Trust Diagnostic Imaging Annex".

The town of Milton, Ontario, renamed Fourth Line (in the former Trafalgar Township) James Snow Parkway (Halton Regional Road 4), with initial approval for an interchange with Highway 401 coming in 1979.

The overpass of the James Snow Parkway at Highway 401 was damaged in 1986 when it was hit by a fuel tanker that caught fire, necessitating that the bridge deck be entirely replaced.