Skelton was a loyal member of the Liberal Party, an expert on international affairs, and a nationalist who encouraged Canadians to pursue autonomy from the British Empire, and to take on what he proclaimed was "the work of the world.

His education in classical languages helped him to pass the examinations for entry into Britain’s Indian Civil Service (ICS), but he failed the medical test.

He then took up the study of political economy at University of Chicago and followed the lectures of Thorstein Veblen, whom he admired for his "stock of science and of philosophy & of first hand knowledge of business affairs."

[3] King's choice of Skelton to succeed Pope was influenced in part by an address which Skelton gave to the Canadian Club in Ottawa in 1922, praising King's decision for neutrality during the Chanak crisis and stated that Canada should not issue "blank cheques" to Britain as in 1914 when Canada considered itself automatically at war with Germany because Britain had declared war.

Historian John English, in his biography of Lester B. Pearson, wrote that Skelton played the major role in the building of Canada's external affairs department.