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 Buck's 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 Buck's 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 Party's struggles of the 1930s. To the end of his life, Smith argued that his beliefs were a reflection of the message promoted by Jesus. A. E. Smith's