Arthur Henry Williams

Who was Arthur Henry Williams?

Arthur Henry Williams 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, emigrating with his wife to Canada in 1929.

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.

At the end of 1933, Williams was elected to and served a one year term as alderman on the East York Town Council for 1934. That same year, Williams ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1934 provincial election as an Ontario CCF candidate and won 21% of the vote coming in third place. He also ran for the House of Commons in York East during the 1935 federal election for the national CCF 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.