Bill Hartley

Who is Bill Hartley?

William Leonard Hartley was an electrician, insurance salesman and political figure in British Columbia. He represented Yale from 1963 to 1966 and Yale-Lillooet from 1966 to 1975 as a New Democrat.

He was born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, the son of Leonard Hartley and Sarah Ann Lee, both natives of England, and grew up in Clayburn, British Columbia. Hartley settled in Mission, B.C. He was president of the North Fraser Co-operative Association and served on the board of C.U. & C. Health Services. Hartley ran unsuccessfully a number of times as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidate for a seat in federal elections, before he was elected provincially for the New Democratic Party in 1963. He was subsequently re-elected three times. He served in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Public Works, in the New Democratic Party government from 1972-75 Hartley was defeated when he ran for re-election in 1975. He retired from the insurance business in 1986.

Hartley help found Co-op Fire and Casualty, later The Co-operators.

In 1955, he married Marianne Martha Mueller a nurse from Lumsden, Saskatchewan. He had three children, Gretchen, Eric and Lisa.