Russ Ramsay

Who was Russ Ramsay?

Russell Harold Ramsay 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.

Ramsay was born in Sault Ste. Marie, and was educated in that city and at Queen's University in Kingston. He became manager of CJIC-TV in 1956, and served as vice-president of Huron Broadcasting. Ramsay was the recipient of a Centennial Medal in 1967, and was named "Man of the Year" by Sault Ste. Marie's Rotary Club in 1969. He was a member of the Sault Ste. Marie city council from January to June 1975.

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.