In a June 2005 parliamentary debate on
same-sex marriage, she stated that, "If (her daughter) decides to get married, she will know that the meaning of marriage is the union of a man and a woman. If she chooses otherwise, it will be her choice." The result of the bill, she said, would be to "cause marriage to just go away with the stroke of a pen." She also claimed the bill was discriminatory against married couples. The
Toronto Star reported that Smith broke down in tears during the debate. She was also a member of the Status of Women Group,
Ukrainian-Canadian Parliamentary Group,
Canada-Israel Parliamentary Group and
Canada-USA Relations Parliamentary Group. In 2004, Smith was selected to be part of the Canadian delegation assigned to travel to
Ukraine and observe a court-ordered repeat of the second round of voting the
presidential election. In the
2004 federal election, Smith campaigned as a
Conservative candidate in the north Winnipeg riding of
Kildonan—St. Paul. She had previously been nominated as a candidate of the
Canadian Alliance, where she was the Manitoba organizer for
Stockwell Day's bid for leadership, before that party merged with the
Progressive Conservatives in 2003–04. Smith narrowly defeated
Liberal candidate
Terry Duguid, 13,582 votes to 13,304. Smith was named Manitoba caucus chair, giving her a seat on the Conservative Party's Planning and Priorities Committee. Smith defeated Duguid again by a significantly larger plurality in the
2006 federal election, as the Conservatives won a national
minority government, replacing the Liberals as such. Smith along with the Conservative government were re-elected in the
October 2008 federal election to another minority government. In 2006, Smith introduced a private member's bill, asking parliamentarians to condemn human trafficking and come up with a comprehensive plan to combat the problem. In February 2007, Smith put forward
motion C-153 to put a national action plan in place to combat human trafficking, and the House of Commons passed the motion
unanimously. Smith began developing the plan in 2008 and continued to work on it for several years. She sought to have the plan developed and established in order "to rescue and restore the victims and prosecute the offenders" of human trafficking. The plan was established by the
Government of Canada on June 6, 2012 as the
National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. Also in 2007, Smith introduced a
private member's bill called the
Clean Internet Act (Bill C-427). The bill was passed unanimously, and set in place a strategy to combat human trafficking globally by opposing such trafficking across international borders, specifically in the case of women and children being trafficked for sexual purposes. In her words, the bill would "... prevent the use of the Internet to distribute
child pornography, material that advocates, promotes or incites
racial hatred, and material that portrays or promotes
violence against women." Part of the bill proposes a "know your subscriber" requirement for
ISPs and would mandate them to deny Internet access to offenders. It also proposes to give special searching powers to the Ministry of Industry. The above features have led it to be criticized as something that "... would not look out-of-place in countries that aggressively censor the Internet." In her column, "Sex traders, keep your hands off our children!" (
The Province, July 29), Smith asserted that "the average age of entry into prostitution in Canada is between 12 and 14 years of age." In October 2010, Smith conducted the inaugural Honouring Heroes Award Ceremony at Eastview Community Church, an annual event recognizing people who have fought to support victims of
sexual trafficking. In 2012, Smith presented human-trafficking-related Bill C-10 to the
Senate of Canada. The bill was eventually passed as the
Safe Streets and Communities Act, a policy of the Canadian government. While Smith was in Ottawa to present Bill C-10, she was also scheduled to speak on the talkback panel in conjunction with the human-trafficking-related play
She Has a Name. Smith proposed and claimed to be working on, in July 2013, a bill that disallows access to pornography online for all Canadians by default unless they choose to opt in, similar to earlier
legislation put forward in the U.K. by British Prime Minister
David Cameron. Details of what content specifically would be deemed "pornographic" and blocked were not provided. She did not run for re-election in
2015. ==Out of politics==