Russ Ramsay

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Russ Ramsay bigraphy, stories - Canadian politician

Russ Ramsay : biography

August 5, 1928 – February 9, 2003

Russell Harold Ramsay (August 5, 1928 — February 9, 2003) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1978 to 1985, and was a cabinet minister in the government of William Davis. Ramsay was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

He campaigned for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1965 and 1968 federal elections as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He lost to Liberal candidate George Nixon in Algoma West in 1965, and to Liberal Terry Murphy in Sault Ste. Marie in 1968.

Ramsay was first elected to the Ontario legislature in a by-election held on December 14, 1978. Campaigning in the provincial division of Sault Ste. Marie, he was elected by a comfortable margin over a candidate of the New Democratic Party. He was re-elected without difficulty in the 1981 provincial election. He was appointed to cabinet as Provincial Secretary for Resources Development on April 10, 1981, and promoted to Minister of Labour on February 13, 1982.

Ramsay supported Larry Grossman’s to replace Bill Davis as Progressive Conservative leader in February 1985,Globe and Mail, 25 January 1985. and was not appointed to the cabinet of Frank Miller, the successful candidate. He lost to New Democratic Party candidate Karl Morin-Strom by 1,069 votes in the 1985 provincial election. In 1996, Ramsay ran in a mayoral by-election in Sault Ste. Marie, but was defeated by former federal MP Steve Butland.

Ramsay received the Paul Dalseg Community Achievement Award in 2000. He died in 2003 at a Sault Ste. Marie nursing home, having previously been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease."A former provincial cabinet minister has died", Broadcast News, 10 February 2003. A boardroom at Sault Ste. Marie’s City Hall is named in his honour, as is the street leading to City Hall. In 2009, Ramsay was selected for induction into the Sault Ste. Marie Walk of Fame.