to travelling salesman for the company's Winnipeg office. It was in Winnipeg where Temple – who had been a staunch Conservative, supporting Prime Ministers Sir Robert Borden and Arthur Meighan – was captivated by the speeches of local socialist clergyman and politician J. S. Woodsworth, and became a socialist in 1921. Temple would regularly encounter Woodsworth, then a member of parliament in Ottawa, on train trips for his sales job. Arrow moved him and his wife Mary Temple to Regina, Saskatchewan where he met Major James Coldwell, who at the time, was the principal at the school that she taught at. Coldwell was the leader of the Independent Labour party (ILP), and Temple would drive him to political rallies and events during this period. Another important socialist figure that he met at this time, was Clarence Fines, an assistant principal at Coldwell's school. They would go door-to-door to raise money for the ILP. Fines would later become the finance minister in Tommy Douglas's Saskatchewan government during the 1940s and 1950s. Temple joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) when it was formed by Woodsworth and his followers in 1932. Great Depression When Temple was transferred by Arrow to Kitchener, Ontario in 1933, he became president of the local CCF organization. His employer disapproved of Temple's socialist activism and told him to choose between politics and his job. Temple chose politics, putting himself out of work when the Depression was at its worst. Temple borrowed $5,000 from his sister and went to England, where he obtained samples of cashmere sweaters, Dack slacks and Burberry coats, and returned to Canada to find retail outlets. His import business continued until the war, when he enlisted in the RCAF. Political career In 1943, Flying Officer Temple, took leave, to become the Ontario CCF's candidate in the west-end Toronto constituency of High Park in the provincial election. He was narrowly defeated by George Drew, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, by a mere 400 votes. Drew became Premier of Ontario as a result of the election. Temple ran in the June 1945 federal election as the CCF candidate in High Park. He placed third. Undeterred by his previous electoral defeats, he ran again in the High Park constituency, this time at the provincial level, in the 1948 Ontario election. Temple castigated Drew for softening Ontario's liquor laws, claiming the Premier was the captive of "liquor