James Layton Ralston PC, CMG, DSO & Bar, KC (September 27, 1881 – May 22, 1948) was a Canadian lawyer, soldier, and politician.

A Nova Scotian and a lawyer by training, Ralston fought with distinction during the First World War and pursued a career in the Canadian Army, before becoming a Liberal Member of Parliament.

Ralston was the Liberal candidate for Cumberland in the 1908 federal election, hoping to succeed to his uncle, Hance James Logan; but was defeated.

The wound having infected, he was operated on twice, and the time he spent in hospital meant that he did not take part in the Hundred Days Offensive.

After serving on some of the courts-martial convened after the Kinmel Park mutiny in April 1919, he led his unit back to Canada in June 1919.

Ralston's military service marked him deeply, and he was unrelenting in his defence of veterans' rights after the war's end.

Prime Minister King created a seat for Ralston by appointing the MP for Shelburne—Yarmouth, Paul Lacombe Hatfield, to the Senate, thus opening the riding for a by-election.

The death of Alfred Edgar MacLean, MP for Prince on October 28 opened up the opportunity for Prime Minister King to call a by-election in a Liberal-friendly riding that Ralston could run in.

In the political tradition of the era, as a federal minister, Ralston brought government patronage to the impoverished rural riding in Prince Edward Island, largely through military spending.

He reported to Cabinet that the situation was far worse than he had been led to believe; front-line infantry regiments were so short of manpower that wounded men were being pulled out of hospitals and sent back to the front lines.

In order to continue combat operations, the overseas Canadian Army needed 15,000 new infantrymen immediately, and that the only way to get these replacements was to draw from the 60,000 Zombies assigned to defend the coasts.

When the Cabinet met on the morning of 1 November 1944, King, who had only informed his Quebec lieutenant Louis St. Laurent in advance, suddenly announced that he now accepted Ralston's resignation, which had been submitted back in April 1942, effective firing him.

Ralston's ally, Navy Minister Angus Macdonald, ripped pieces of paper in frustration, but remained seated with the rest of the cabinet.

[3] One of McNaughton's first actions was to dismiss Lieutenant-General Kenneth Stuart, the Chief of the General Staff and Ralston's ally in pressing for conscription.

Historians Jack Granatstein and Desmond Morton noted that "news of Ralston's sacking put the conscription crisis on the front pages in screaming headlines.