World War I, Return To Municipal Office, and Federal Politics
In 1916, East enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, where he spent the rest of the First World War on the hospital ships Araguaya and Letitia before leaving the military in 1919.
Upon his return to civilian life, East returned immediately to politics, running in the 1919 municipal election. In the years intervening since his last election, party politics had arrived at the municipal level in Edmonton, and East aligned himself with the Labour slate. This was a good election for Labour; their mayoral candidate, Joseph Clarke, was re-elected, and they also took the top three spots in the aldermanic race; East finished second. The 1921 election was less kind to Labour, and East, finishing second, was the only one of their candidates elected to city council. He finished first in 1923, second in 1925, and third in 1927.
While serving as alderman, East contested the 1925 federal election as a Labour-Farmer candidate (aligned with J.S. Woodsworth) in Edmonton West, where he finished last of three candidates, behind Liberal Charles Stewart and Conservative James McCrie Douglas.
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