Ralph Smith (August 8 1858 - February 17 1917) was a Canadian politician.

A miner by trade, Smith was a moderate trade unionist in Nanaimo, British Columbia. In 1898 he won election to the British Columbia legislative assembly on a moderate "Liberal-Labour" platform. He ran for Vancouver's seat in the Canadian House of Commons in the 1900 Canadian election, reports vary on whether he ran as an Independent Labour or Liberal candidate but once elected he joined the Liberal caucus in Ottawa and was re-elected in the 1904 Canadian election and 1908 Canadian election as a straight Liberal before being defeated in 1911. Smith subsequently returned to provincial politics and, returned to the provincial legislature in the 1916 provincial election that brought the British Columbia Liberal Party to power.

Smith served as Minister of Finance in the government of Premier Harlan Carey Brewster and died in office on February 17, 1917. His wife, Mary Ellen Smith, succeeded him in the subsequent by-election (held January 1918) as an Independent Liberal MLA. She subsequently became the first female cabinet minister in the British Empire.

Ralph Smith was a supporter of women's suffrage which was enacted in the province shortly after the Liberals came to power after ten previous attempts over the years had failed.