Sarah Ramsland (1882 – 1964)

Sarah Ramsland Scythes was a politician, the first woman elected to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly. Born and raised in Minnesota, she joined husband Magnus Ramsland in Saskatchewan in 1907, settling near Canora and starting a family. Saskatchewan women were granted the right to participate in provincial elections in 1917. That same year, Ramsland successfully ran for a seat in the Saskatchewan Legislature, but he died soon after. The grieving Ramsland was convinced to run in her husband's place and she was elected twice, serving as representative for Pelly District from 1919 to 1925. In the final hours of her second term, she called for an amendment to grant women the same right as men to apply for divorce on the grounds of a spouse's adultery. Upon her defeat in 1925, Ramsland went to work in the provincial library. She retired and remarried in 1942.