Roberta MacAdams

Lt. Roberta Catherine Price née MacAdams (July 21, 1880 – December 16, 1959) was a provincial level politician and military dietitian from Alberta, Canada. She was elected to one of the two seats Alberta had for serving military personnel during WWI. She was the second woman elected to a legislative body in the British Empire and the first to introduce and pass a piece of legislation.

Early life MacAdams was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Her father, Robert MacAdams, was the owner and editor of the Conservative newspaper Sarnia Canadian.

In 1911, MacAdams graduated from the Macdonald Institute for Domestic Science, located on the campus of the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. She moved to Alberta, where she worked as a domestic science instructor with the Alberta government.

She traveled around the province, speaking with rural women about their needs and teaching home economics. Her report on her findings led to the creation of the Alberta Women's Institutes, a support network for rural women.

Military career In 1916, MacAdams was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, even though she was not a nurse. Her enlistment papers listed her as a "nursing sister" because she would be trained and quartered with nurses. She was appointed the staff dietitian at the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, England, where she oversaw the production of 3,500 meals a day for the hospital's patients and staff. She chose not to run in the 1921 election.

Debbie Marshall's book Give Your Other Vote to the Sister: A Woman's Journey into the Great War (University of Calgary Press, 2007) covers the life and work of MacAdams.