Ret.

Lt. Col. Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

William A. H. Law (1913 – September 4, 2004) was a Canadian politician. Known as being non-partisan and as a moderate, he served on

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

's Board of Control for four years and as an alderman on

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

for five.

Early life

Originally from

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Law joined the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

in 1933 as a Trouper in

Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) (LdSH C is a regular armoured regiment of the Canadian Army and is Canada’s only tank regiment. Currently based in Edmonton, Alberta, the regiment is part of 3rd Canadian Division's 1 Canadian Mechanize ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served domestically, and in Europe, Middle East, India and Burma, and retired from the military in the early 1960s. He served as Canadian representative on several

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

committees from 1957, and worked as a senior staff officer with the Army, and set up the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Emergency Fun post in Gaza in 1957. In civilian life, he became the executive director of the Ottawa and District Association for the Mentally Retarded, was an executive member of the Social Planning Council of Ottawa, a member of the Ontario Association of School Business Officials and a former district chairman of the United Appeal of Ottawa.

Politics

Law was elected in the

1969 Ottawa municipal election The city of Ottawa, Canada held municipal elections on December 1, 1969. Controller Kenneth Fogarty is easily elected as mayor. This would be the last election where two aldermen would be elected from each ward. Mayor of Ottawa Ottawa Board of ...

as the alderman for

Carleton Ward College Ward or Ward 8 (French: ''Quartier Collège'') is a city ward in Ottawa, Canada's west end. The ward covers the neighbourhoods of Bells Corners, Qualicum, Graham Park, Leslie Park, Redwood, Kenson Park, Parkway Park, Bel-Air Park, Bel ...

, in the city's west end. As the top-vote getting in the two-seat ward, he also won a seat on Ottawa-Carleton Regional Council. An opponent of party politics in municipal elections, he ran on a platform of getting education and civic spokesmen discussing mutual interests, reducing local councils without sacrificing ward representation and planning for rapid transit. He also supported widening the Queensway, building a safety barrier around it, and wanted more day-care programs for children and extending training facilities for handicapped children. In his first term on council, he was a member of the traffic, welfare and civic procedures committees, the latter of which made the decision to cut the city's council size in half (reducing the number of aldermen in each ward from two to one). Law ran for re-elected in Carleton Ward in the 1972 Ottawa municipal election on a platform of property tax concessions for elderly residents on limited incomes, establishing a five-year plan to clean up the

and

Rideau River The Rideau River (french: Rivière Rideau) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writin ...

s, and improving recreational facilities. At the time of the 1972 election, he was also a director of the local

Children's Aid Society Children's Aid, formerly the Children's Aid Society, is a private child welfare nonprofit in New York City founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace. With an annual budget of over $100 million, 45 citywide sites, and over 1,200 full-time employee ...

, and a trustee at the

Ottawa Civic Hospital The Ottawa Civic Hospital is one of three main campuses of The Ottawa Hospital – along with the General and Riverside campuses. With 549 beds (including the Heart Institute), the Civic Campus has the region's only adult-care trauma centre, servin ...

. In the 1972 election, he easily defeated his opponent, Ken Read. In his second term, he served on the regional planning committee, procedures committee, welfare committee, and was chairman of the community development committee. Law ran for a seat on the

Ottawa Board of Control The Ottawa Board of Control was an important part of the governance of Ottawa, Ontario from 1908 until 1980 when it was abolished. Through the 19th century Ottawa had been governed by a mayor and city council, but most councillors were only part-ti ...

in the 1974 Ottawa municipal election. At the time, he was a part-time sessional lecturer at

Algonquin College Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is a publicly funded English-language college located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The college serves the National Capital Region and the outlying areas of Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec, and Upst ...

, teaching in early childhood development. In the election, he wan on a platform of increasing housing, and increasing attention to neighbourhood rehabilitation programs. In the 1974 election, he won a spot on the city's four-seat board of control, finishing in fourth place. Instead of running for re-election to the Board of Control, Law ran for a seat as a School Trustee for the

Ottawa Board of Education The Ottawa Board of Education (OBE) was the public school board for Ottawa from 1970 to 1998. The board was created as part of a province-wide reorganization of the public education system. Previously, elementary schools had been supervised by th ...

in the

1976 Ottawa municipal election The city of Ottawa, Canada held municipal elections on December 6, 1976. Mayor Lorry Greenberg is easily re-elected. Mayor Ottawa Board of Control (4 elected) City council Ottawa Board of Education The Ottawa Board of ...

, citing that "city hall was generally heading in the right direction and (he) was ready for a change". In the election, he topped the poll in the city six-seat West zone, winning over 10,000 votes. Concerned about the 'political squabbling' at city hall, and its 'inability to make decisions', Law ran for a seat on Ottawa's Board of Control once again in the

1978 Ottawa municipal election The city of Ottawa, Canada held municipal elections on November 13, 1978. Controller Marion Dewar becomes the second woman and first New Democratic Party (and to date, only) affiliated person to become mayor of Ottawa. She defeated former alderman ...

. He was also frustrated that the Board of Education "didn't seem to make any decisions". In the election, he ran on a platform of starting up discussions with the federal government on the issue of "thorny grants in lieu of taxes". In the 1978 election, he was elected to the Board of Control once again, placing third in the race for the four-seat board. Ottawa's Board of Control was abolished in 1980, and Law announced his retirement from politics in August of that year, citing that he felt it was time for "someone younger with fresh ideas to move into his council seat". He changed his mind however, and ran for a seat as a Trustee for the Ottawa Board of Education in the

1980 Ottawa municipal election The city of Ottawa, Canada held municipal elections on November 10, 1980. Mayor Marion Dewar defeated former alderman Pat Nicol in a re-match of the 1978 race. This is the first election in 70 years without the Ottawa Board of Control, as it had ...

. In the 1980 election, he once again topped the poll in the city's six-seat Western Zone. He was re-elected in 1982, and retired from the board in 1985.

Death

He died at the Perley Veterans Health Centre in Ottawa in 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Law, Bill 1913 births 2004 deaths Lord Strathcona's Horse soldiers Canadian Army personnel of World War II Canadian officials of the United Nations Canadian people of Scottish descent NATO officials Ontario school board trustees Ottawa-Carleton regional councillors Ottawa city councillors Ottawa controllers Politicians from Calgary Canadian military personnel from Alberta