The Sharp family businesses in New Brunswick were losing money due to a combination of factors including the effect of the protectionist McKinley Tariff introduced in the United States in 1890, the death in 1892 from tuberculosis of Francis Peabody Sharp's son Franklin, who had taken over the businesses from his father, and the devastation of the plum orchard by an usually cold winter in the following year. In order to assist her parents and unmarried sister, Minnie Bell Sharp sent money home, and went into debt to do so. She also spent the summer and fall of every year but 1894 and 1895 in New Brunswick helping with the fruit harvest and sale. In 1897, while she was home for the summer, the Woodstock school district trustees presented her with a bill for back taxes owed by the Sharp orchards. She refused to pay the full amount of the bill, on the grounds that the property's value had declined. She was then arrested and spent 17 days in jail. She was released after she realized that she was not subject to arrest because she was a non-resident, a fact that she learned by reading the New Brunswick statutes while in jail. The lawyers for the school trustees said that they were unaware of this exemption. She sued the school trustees for $2,500 for false imprisonment. She won the case but was awarded only $1. She appealed the amount and a second trial took place in April 1900, in which she was awarded damages of $75. After her marriage to Tappan Adney in Woodstock in September 1899 she returned to Victoria late in the year. She left for New Brunswick in April 1900 after closing the conservatory. In the same year she opened the Woodstock School of Music, which she ran for the next 20 years. She also led choral groups for adults and children.. Between 1906 and 1916 Minnie Bell Sharp Adney and her husband worked together to revive the Sharp nursery and orchard businesses, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. Political candidacy In 1919, Minnie Bell Sharp Adney announced her candidacy as an Independent for the federal constituency of Victoria—Carleton in a by-election to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of Frank Broadstreet Carvell. She declared that she would support the government in office and would "work first for justice and the people; for an adequate recompense for