Background
Searle, David H. was born on August 4, 1936 in Edmonton, Alberta.
lawyer politician president professor
Searle, David H. was born on August 4, 1936 in Edmonton, Alberta.
University of Alberta (Bachelor of Arts, 1960. Bachelor of Laws, 1961). Member, 1967-1979 and Speaker, 1975-1979, Northwest Territories Legislature.
Born in Edmonton, Searle moved to Yellowknife with his family in 1946. Searle established his law practice in 1963 partnering with Justice Mark de Weerdt in Yellowknife. He practised law in the territory until 1981.
He served as a crown attorney until his election in 1967.
Searle moved to Vancouver and practised mining and environmental law with a firm called Davis & Company. He served as President of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories.
From 1991 to 2004, he was a professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law. He retired in August 2006.
Searle was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories in the 1967 Northwest Territories general election.
He served the riding of Mackenzie North. In his first term in office he was at the press conference to unveil the current Northwest Territories flag on January 31, 1969. He was re-elected to his second term in office for the new district of Keewatin North after redistribution for the 1970 Northwest Territories general election.
Searle ran for a third term in the 1975 Northwest Territories general election this time in the new district of Yellowknife South after a much large redistribution of the ridings.
He was re-elected and on May 1, 1975 became the first elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly since Archibald Beaton Gillis in 1905. Searle ran in the 1979 Canadian federal election in Western Arctic for the Liberal Party of Canada and ended up coming a close second.
Member, 1967-1979 and Speaker, 1975-1979, Northwest Territories Legislature.