Arthur Henry Williams (December 4, 1894 – October 4, 1968) was a Canadian trade union organizer and politician who served in both the Ontario legislature and the House of Commons of Canada on behalf of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
[1] 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.
[1] 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.
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.
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.
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 licensing fee for bailiffs and then refused to issue licences for two months giving families threatened with eviction a reprieve.