Ralph William Sutherland[2] (born October 19, 1925 – June 28, 2023)[4] was a Canadian physician, administrator, professor, politician, forester and author.
[8] He served with the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1943 to 1945, allowing him to enrol at the University of Alberta.
He then obtained a diploma in hospital administration from the University of Toronto and joined the Saskatchewan health department in 1961.
[10] Sutherland first entered the political foray when he was nominated to be New Democratic Party candidate in the riding of Ottawa West for the 1968 Canadian federal election.
Upon being nominated, he criticized the Liberal government's "failure to provide its civil servants with goals or philosophical objectives" and was "distressed over the prospect of the ... election being turned into a French-English battleground".
[10] In the election, Sutherland won 11% of the voting, finishing third behind Liberal Lloyd Francis and Progressive Conservative Dick Bell.
The following year, Sutherland entered municipal politics, running for a seat on Ottawa City Council in Carleton Ward.
He ran on a platform of making Ottawa "a place to live at a price you can afford", access to reasonable recreation space, improving services and facilities for senior citizens and the handicapped.
He ran on a platform of that re-affirmed "the importance of 'quality of life' in a city 'designed for people'", and advocated a "'responsible administration' of tax dollars... but not if holding the line works to the detriment of social services".