William Leonard Hartley

William Leonard Hartley (December 12, 1916 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.

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