Which political party did Albert Edward Smith belong to from 1918 to 1920?
Albert Edward Smith Albert Edward Smith ( October 20 , 1871 – 1947 ) , known as A . E . Smith , was a Canadian religious leader and politician . A social gospeller , Smith was for many years a minister in the Canadian Methodist Church before starting his own Peoples Church . He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1920 to 1922 as a Labour representative . In 1925 , he became a member of the Communist Party of Canada . Early life . Smith was born on October 20 , 1871 , in Guelph , Ontario , the son of William George Smith and Elizabeth Bildson , working-class immigrants from England . He worked as a machinists apprentice and later a bookbinder to contribute to the familys income . His family later moved to Hamilton , where he developed an interest in religion after joining the Gore Street Methodist Church . After passing an oral examination , he became a lay preacher in 1888 . In 1890 Smith was transferred to MacGregor , Manitoba , to begin field work . His appointment came from James Woodsworth , and father of J . S . Woodsworth . Smith was a vocal supporter of Thomas Greenways Liberal government in Manitoba during the 1890s . During the Manitoba Schools Question , he defended the Greenway governments decision to remove funding from French-language denominational schools . Ordination . After three years work as a probationer , Smith enrolled as a student for the ministry at Wesley College in Winnipeg in 1893 . He was formally ordained to the ministry in 1897 . He married Maude Mercy Rogers in 1898 , with whom he would have seven children . After working in Dauphin , Manitoba , and Prince Albert , Saskatchewan , Smith was stationed at the MacDougall Memorial Methodist Church in north-end Winnipeg in 1902 . Left-wing politics . Smiths political views now turned to labour , and he spoke in support of Labour MP Arthur Puttees re-election in the 1904 federal election . Smith left Winnipeg in 1906 , and moved to Portage la Prairie . In 1910 , he accepted ministerial work in Nelson , British Columbia . He spoke at Socialist Party gatherings , and became acquainted with Jack Johnstone , later a leading figure in the Communist Party of the United States . Smith returned to Manitoba in 1913 , to accept a position as minister of the wealthy First Methodist Church in Brandon . Smith was an advocate of church union with the Presbyterians throughout the 1910s . In 1925 , this union came about via the creation of the United Church of Canada . Smith was asked to consider running in the 1917 federal election as a supporter of Robert Bordens Union government of pro-conscription Liberals and Conservatives . Although he rejected these requests , Smiths name was put forward for the Unionist nomination in Brandon . Bordens government was supported by both mainstream labour and the Methodist Church , and some local government supporters believed Smiths name would aid their cause . Asked to make a speech at the nomination meeting , he informed the delegates that he had no confidence in either of the older parties , and did not believe the Union arrangement would make any difference . To the surprise of none present , Smith did not receive the nomination . Socialist politics . In 1917 , Smith read The Communist Manifesto for the first time . He later claimed that the work was like a revelation . Smiths 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 . After reading The Communist Manifesto , Smith eventually reached the conclusion that Jesus was a communist . Smiths 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 . Smith supported the strikers from his pulpit during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and opened his church to Brandon civic workers who voted for a parallel strike in their city . As a member of the Brandon Trades and Labour Council , Smith provided extensive logistical support to Brandons strike committee . He also testified before the Royal Commission on Industrial Relations . Not surprisingly , Smiths labour activities were opposed by more conservative figures in his Methodist church . At a special meeting of the church board held on May 26 , 1919 , a prominent church member moved that Smith be restrained from any further preaching in First Church . No formal charges were made against him , and the motion was withdrawn . Nonetheless , his role as Brandons Methodist minister had become untenable . On June 8 , he announced the formation of a new Peoples Church in the city . Peoples Church . On June 22 the first meeting of the Peoples Church was held , with roughly 400 people in attendance . Despite his commitment to the Peoples Church , Smith did not intend to leave the Methodist Church . He hoped to secure a leave from the Church so that he could pursue his work with the Peoples Church . The Methodist Stationing Committee initially granted his request , but when a motion was called to put all special cases before the committee as a whole , the decision was rescinded . Smith was determined that the Peoples Church would spread across Canada , offering an alternative to the traditional church . In 1920 he travelled to Western Canada and established the Peoples Church in Vancouver , Victoria , Calgary , and Edmonton . In 1923 Smith moved to Toronto and began working with the Toronto Peoples Church . Labour MLA . In 1920 , Smith was prevailed on to run for the provincial legislature as a labour candidate in Brandon . He received the nomination of the Brandon Labour Party , which was aligned with the Winnipeg branch of the Dominion Labour Party . He was successful in the 1920 provincial election , defeating Liberal incumbent Stephen Emmett Clement by 604 votes . Some blamed vote-splitting by the Liberals and Conservatives for his victory . For the next two years , Smith sat with the labour parliamentary group led by Fred Dixon in the legislative opposition . Unlike other labour members , Smith did not join the Independent Labour Party when the Winnipeg branch of the Dominion Labour Party split in late 1920 . In August 1921 , he instead attended a meeting of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council which led to the creation of the Canadian Labour Party . While joining the CLP took Smith on a different path from his co-legislators , he remained a member of the labor parliamentary group . Labours political support in Manitoba had declined somewhat by the 1922 provincial election . Smith lost his seat to John Edmison , who ran as a fusion candidate of the local Liberals and Conservatives , thus preventing any possible vote-splitting in the Liberal and Conservative camp . 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 . He moved to Ontario in 1923 , and immediately started a Peoples Church in Toronto . Smith was also involved in the Forum Committee of the local Labour Temple , and became a prominent member of the Canadian Labour Party in the city . Unlike James Simpson , Smith supported opening the CLP to members of the newly formed Communist Party of Canada . Joining the Communist Party . Smiths personal philosophy continued to develop in this period , and in January 1925 he made the decision to join the Communist Party himself . His membership in the party was confirmed at a small upstairs room at 8 Gerrard Street East in Toronto , where a meeting of the party was held . He later explained his decision to a Toronto Star reporter by arguing that communism was a part of mans social evolution . Smith remained a member of the Communist Party for the rest of his life . Still a prominent figure in Toronto , he often defended the Communist Party against threats from hostile governments . He became a prominent organizer for the Canadian Labour Defence League across Canada in the 1920s , and served as its general secretary until it was shut down by the Canadian government in 1940 . 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 finished fourth , with 1,363 votes . The winner was William Fitzgerald Langworthy of the Conservative Party . At the time of the election , Smith described his occupation as educationalist . He ran again in the 1926 election , and finished third with 1,382 votes . The winner was Conservative Donald James Cowan . Smith ran for municipal office in Toronto during this period . In 1925 , he ran for alderman in Ward Seven as a candidate of the Labour Representation Political Association , a broad-tent group aligned with the Canadian Labour Party . He was defeated , and lost a second time in 1926 . He also ran as a candidate of the Ontario division of the CLP in the 1926 provincial election , receiving 416 votes in Hamilton Centre . The winner on that occasion was Thomas Jutten of the Ontario Conservative Party . In the 1930 federal election he ran as an independent candidate in Fort William winning 594 votes . Opposition to Trotskyism . During the late 1920s , Smith became a prominent opponent of Trotskyism within the Communist Party of Canada . He supported the removal of Maurice Spector and Jack MacDonald from the CPC , and endorsed Tim Buck , a strong supporter of Joseph Stalin , to become the partys new leader in 1929 . 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 . He received 594 votes , finishing third . The winner was Robert James Manion , who later served as leader of the federal Conservative Party . Stalinism . Smith visited the Soviet Union for the first time in 1932 and wrote favourably of the experience upon his return . In July 1936 , he traveled to Spain during the Spanish Civil War as an emissary of the Friends of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion . Smith was one of CPC leader Tim Bucks most vocal defenders in the early 1930s . Buck was put in prison and nearly killed in the Kingston Penitentiary . 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 . He was acquitted . The coverage of the court case publicized the truth of an attempt on Bucks life , and soon Buck and seven other CPC leaders were released from prison . In the 1934 provincial election , Smith ran as a candidate of the Ontario Communist Party against Conservative Premier George Henry in the constituency of York East . He finished fourth , though still polling a respectable 664 votes . Also in 1934 , Smith polled a surprising 8,500 votes when he ran for Mayor of Toronto . Returning again to northern Ontario , Smith ran for the House of Commons as a candidate of the Communist Party in the 1935 federal election . He received 1,161 votes for a fourth-place finish in Port Arthur . Later years . Smith largely curtailed his political activities after this time , though he remained an active figure within the Communist Party . He returned to Manitoba for the 1945 federal election , and campaigned for the Labor-Progressive Party ( as the Communist Party had renamed itself ) in his old riding of Brandon . He received 497 votes , finishing fourth . The winner was Liberal James Ewen Matthews . Smith died in 1947 . His autobiography , All My Life , was published posthumously in 1949 . The work chronicles his religious and political evolution , and gives extensive consideration to the Communist Partys struggles of the 1930s . Joseph Stalin is never mentioned by name in this book . To the end of his life , Smith argued that his beliefs were a reflection of the message promoted by Jesus . A . E . Smiths son , Stewart Smith , was a leading member of the Communist Party in his own right .