Career
After serving as Mayor of Toronto from 1915 to 1921, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1921 election as a Conservative from the riding of Toronto North. He remained in the House of Commons until his death in 1950. As mayor, Church was strongly backed by the Toronto Telegram and opposed by the Toronto Daily Star.
He was occasionally mocked in the pages of the Star by Ernest Hemingway who was, at the time, a reporter for the paper.
Late in his career as an Member of Parliament, Church denounced the newly formed United Nations as "modern tower of Babel", for "which Canada and Great Britain should not allow their interests to be the play thing."
In the House of Commons in June 1936, he protested against the requirement of bilingual banknotes in the Bank of Canada Acting for banknotes to be introduced as the 1937 Series, stating there was no authority for it in the British North America Acting, and that it had not been an issue during the 1935 federal election. He favoured printing dual-language banknotes (distinct English and French banknotes) as had been done for the 1935 Series.