Education
Lawrie was educated in Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1893.
Lawrie was educated in Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1893.
He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1936 to 1949. Originally elected as a Conservative, he sat as a Progressive Conservative after the party changed its name. He worked as an implement dealer and insurance broker, also served as a police magistrate and commissioner.
He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election, defeating incumbent Liberal-Progressive candidate John Muirhead by 82 votes in the constituency of Norfolk.
The Conservatives were the primary opposition party in Manitoba during this period, and Lawrie sat with his party on the opposition benches. In 1940, the Liberal-Progressives and Conservatives joined together in a wartime coalition government.
He served as a government backbencher for the remainder of his tenure in the legislature. In the 1945 election, he defeated a candidate of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.
Lawrie did not run for re-election in 1949, and died in Carberry three years later.