William Leonard Hartley (December 12, 1916 – May 4, 2003) was an electrician, insurance salesman and political figure in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He represented

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

from 1963 to 1966 and Yale-Lillooet from 1966 to 1975 as a

New Democrat New Democrats may refer to: * New Democratic Party, a social democratic party in Canada * New Democrats (United States), the ideological centrist faction of the Democratic Party ** New Democrat Coalition, the related caucus in the United States H ...

. He was born in

Estevan Estevan is the eleventh-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is approximately north of the Canada–United States border. The Souris River runs by the city. This city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Estevan No. 5. History The ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, the son of Leonard Hartley and Sarah Ann Lee, both natives of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, 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 and provincial 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 to 1975 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 The Co-operators Group Limited is a Canadian insurance co-operative, founded in 1945, owned by 46 members including co-ops, credit union centrals and representative farm organizations. It is one of the leading Canadian-owned multi-line insurers ...

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

References

1916 births 2003 deaths British Columbia New Democratic Party MLAs Canadian electricians Insurance agents Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia People from Estevan Canadian people of English descent 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia {{NDP-BritishColumbia-MLA-stub