Robert Smith was an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

-born Member of the Legislative Assembly

Member of the Legislative Assembly

A Member of the Legislative Assembly or a Member of the Legislature , is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to the legislature or legislative assembly of a sub-national jurisdiction....

 of the province of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 from its entry into Confederation in 1871 until the provincial election of 1878. Smith represented the Fraser Canyon

Fraser Canyon

The Fraser Canyon is an 84 km landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley...

-Interior

Interior Plateau

The Interior Plateau comprises a large region of central British Columbia, and lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains on the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range on the west. The continuation of the plateau into the United States is known there as the...

 riding of Yale

Yale (provincial electoral district)

Yale was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia from the province's joining Confederation in 1871. It was a 3-member constituency and retained the name Yale until the 1894 election, at which time it was split into three ridings, Yale-East, Yale-North and...

. The Yale riding in this period included the Okanagan, Similkameen, Nicola and Shuswap areas.

He represented Yale and Lytton in the Legislative Council of British Columbia

Legislative Council of British Columbia

The Legislative Council of British Columbia was an advisory body created in 1867 to the Governor of the "new" Colony of British Columbia, which had been created from the merger of the old Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia...

 before 1871. Smith was an unsuccessful candidate for the Yale seat in the Canadian House of Commons in 1872. Smith introduced a motion in the assembly that, if the railway to the Pacific was not started by January 1876, that British Columbia be allowed to withdraw from Confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

and be awarded 30 million dollars in compensation from Canada.