Fonds F1766 - John Kenneth Sutherland fonds

John Kenneth Sutherland, 1889-1958, was born in Nova Scotia. He came to western Canada in 1908 on a harvest excursion and in 1909 took up a homestead in the Hanna district of Alberta. In 1920 he married Elizabeth Jean Munro, also from Nova Scotia, and they had three children, John, Anne and Ruth. He joined the United Farmers of Alberta in 1909, and remained a member of the organization and its successor, the Farmers' Union of Alberta, the rest of his life. He was elected to the provincial board of the UFA in 1923 and served on the executive until 1945.

He participated in the founding of the CCF in Calgary in 1932. He unsuccessfully ran as a CCF candidate for Acadia in the 1945 federal election. He was active in many agricultural organizations, including the Canadian Council of Agriculture, the Alberta Wheat Pool, the Hanna Coop Association and the Alberta Poultry Producers Association. He was a well-known contributor to CBC and other radio stations. He also wrote many articles and stories regarding agriculture and life in Alberta, and he helped produce a National Film Board film, "Harvest on the March". On his death, the FUA created a memorial scholarship in his name, to be awarded to a University of Alberta agriculture student.