ON THIS DAY

July 21, 1881

Army lieutenant and politician Roberta MacAdams was born in Sarnia, Ont. In 1917, she became one of the first women elected to a legislature in the British Empire.

She was elected as a soldiers’ overseas representative to the Alberta legislature by soldiers and nurses serving in the First World

War. She later became the first woman to introduce successful legislation. The “Act to Incorporate the Great War Next-of-Kin Association” gave legal recognition to an important veteran’s organization. MacAdams decided

not to run in the next election.