 He made his reputation as a social reformer when he insisted the city go into deficit in order to provide relief programs for the unemployed and destitute.Croll won a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Windsor—Walkerville in the 1934 election that brought the Liberals to power under the leadership of Mitchell Hepburn.Croll became Canada's first Jewish cabinet minister when he became Minister of Public Welfare.