David O. Marley

David Owen Marley (b. March 27, 1952 in Hartlepool, United Kingdom) is a Canadian political activist, former lawyer and former British Columbia government aide.
Early life
David Marley was born March 27, 1952 in Hartlepool, United Kingdom to Jean (a secretary) and Norman (an engineer) Marley. In 1955, he immigrated with his parents to Canada.
The Marley family settled into the Capilano Highlands area of the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia. He attended Canyon Heights Elementary School and Handswoth Secondary School.
His earliest political activism started with putting up signs for the campaign of Ron Huntington, the 1974 Progressive-Conservative candidate for Capilano.
Education
He received a Bachelor of Arts form the University of British Columbia in 1974, with a focus on economics, history and politics. In 1977, Marley received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto. He served as Co-Chairman, 14th Annual Conference on Law and Contemporary Affairs, on the topic “The Regulated Society: the intrusive role of modern governments”.
In 1998, he attained a Master of Science (Business Administration) form the University of BC. His studies focused on public policy analysis and government-business relations.
His thesis was titled “Life in the Shadows: the role and relative importance of political exempt staff in the public policy-making process”.
Political experience
1981-1983: Director of Legal Services for the Progressive-Conservative Party of Canada.
1983-1985: Senior Adviser to the Attorney-General of British Columbia.
1985-1986: Executive Director of the Social Credit Party of British Columbia.
Legal experience
Marley practised law privately from 1978 to 1980 and from 1986 to his retirement in 1997, focusing on civil and commercial litigation.

He was involved in some "victim's rights" cases. Marley successfully lobbied for an amendment to the Canada Bankruptcy Act which imposed permanent liability for civil court judgements in assault cases.
Marley also successfully argued before the Supreme Court of Canada in the Mochinski case for the imposition of governmental liability respecting the negligence of independent contractors.
Political activism
In 1998, Marley was a founder of Fair Voting BC, a non-profit, non-partisan group that promoted electoral reform. The group was instrumental in BC having a referendum in 2005 on the BC-STV (Single Transferable Vote System).
In the fall of 2008, Marley was the campaign manager for Michael Lewis, who was elected councillar in the West Vancouver, B.C., civic elections. Lewis refused to seek the endorsement of an unregistered political group, West Vancouver Citizens for Good Government (WVCGG). Previous civic candidates had paid and submitted to a secret interview process to get WVCGG's endorsement. Marley and Lewis reported to the police that WVCGG and another group Low Tax, Low Growth had violated the BC Local Government Act. It was subsequently revealed that most, though not Lewis, 2008 West Vancouver civic candidates gave money to WVCGG.

In August 2008, he was a founding director of Medicare For Autism Now, which lobbies the Canadian Federal government to amend the Canada Health Act to pay for autism treatment.
Independent campaign
On February 28, 2009 in the District of North Vancouver, Marley launched his campaign as an Independent candidate in British Columbia's West Vancouver-Capilano riding against incumbent Liberal MLA Ralph Sultan. Commentators compared Marley to Don Quixote or stated he had not made it easy for himself since West Vancouver-Capilano is probably the safest seat for the Liberals in BC.

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