Arthur Henry Williams (born December 4, 1894, date of death unknown) was a Canadian trade union organizer and politician who served in both the Ontario legislature and the Canadian House of Commons on behalf of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. He was born in Tredegar, Wales.

Williams lived in the Toronto suburb of East York, Ontario in the 1930s and served as president of the East York Workers' Association, a Great Depression era labour organization which was formed in 1931 to improve the situation of the unemployed and had 1,600 members by 1934.

Williams ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1934 provincial election and won 21% of the vote (30% in East York Township) coming in third place.^[1] He also ran for the House of Commons in York East (the federal riding that included East York) during the 1935 federal election but was defeated by Conservative Robert Henry McGregor and the Liberal candidate.

One of the Association's campaigns led by Williams was to convince the East York town council to issue poor relief in the form of cash instead of vouchers. After the council agreed to issue cash instead of vouchers but reduced the value of relief payments the Association organized a "voucher strike" to raise the payments. Council reversed its decision and the Association retaliated by encouraging members to pull their children out of school which had the effect of reducing the provincial government's grant to East York. The Council then capitulated to the Association's demands only to have the Bank of Nova Scotia refuse to grant the municipality a loan which in turn caused the council to end cash relief and return to vouchers. In December 1935, Williams was elected reeve of East York.^[2]

However, Arthur was more than three months in arrears in his rent and had to defend his right to take office as the provincial government had passed a law prohibiting anyone owing more than three months rent from holding office. A new election was scheduled but as no other candidates ran, Williams was acclaimed. The Workers Association under Williams also organized to block bailiffs from evicting families from their homes. The blocking of evictions had the support of many residents and Township officials, no matter their political views. Williams lost the reeve’s office when he ran for re-election in the December 1936 election but the Township's council continued to support the policy of blocking evictions and set a licencing fee for bailiffs and then refused to issue licences for two months giving families threatened with eviction a reprieve.^[2]

According to a local historian, "If a member of the Workers Association caught wind of an eviction about to take place,they would telephone other members and yell to their neighbours on the street “eviction.” Members would race by foot or by automobile if one were available to the house where the eviction was to take place. As the bailiff would remove the family’s furniture from the house, members of the Association would politely carry the furniture back into the house."^[2]

Williams ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1943 provincial election and was elected from the riding of Ontario which covered Durham County and sat as an Ontario CCF Member of Provincial Parliament for two years until he and most of the CCF's MPPs went down to defeat in the 1945 provincial election.

In 1948, he ran in a federal by-election in the riding of Ontario which occurred following the death of Liberal MP W.E.N. Sinclair and won. He served for a year until he was defeated in the 1949 federal election when he came in third place.

Williams was active with the Canadian Congress of Labour and spoke at its 1943 federal convention in support of a successful resolution for the union federation to endorse the CCF as the "political arm of labour".^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Parliamentary biography
• Ontario legislature biography

v • d • e Reeves & Mayors of East York Reeves Robert Barker · R. H. Macgregor · R. M. Leslie · John Warren · Arthur Williams · John Warren · Harry G. Simpson · Jack R. Allen · True Davidson Mayors True Davidson · Willis L. Blair · Leslie Howard Saunders · Alan Redway · David Johnson · Michael Prue