David Searle

David Harry Searle (1936 – March 1, 2021) was a Canadian politician and lawyer from the Northwest Territories.

Legal career Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Searle moved to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories with his family in 1946. He was educated at the University of Alberta.

Searle retired in August 2006.

Political career 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 larger 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 as the Liberal candidate, finishing a close second to Dave Nickerson of the Progressive Conservatives.