Background
Miller was born in San Francisco, California. His American father, Joe Miller, died of cancer in 1960, and his English mother Joan returned with her son to Thriplow, south of Cambridge. Miller spent his earliest years in England before moving to Canada with his mother in 1967. He attended Lakefield College School on a scholarship at the time Prince Andrew was a student there.
Miller completed a four-year undergraduate degree at Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude in Economics in 1981. He earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1984 and became a partner at the prominent Toronto law firm of Aird & Berlis LLP, specializing in employment, immigration law and shareholder rights. He represented Toronto Islands residents in a 1985 arbitration case while an articling student, and later described this experience as his introduction to municipal politics. He married fellow lawyer Jill Arthur in 1994. The pair have two children. Miller joined the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1985, and has a picture of former NDP leader Tommy Douglas displayed on his office wall.
He first campaigned for the Metropolitan Toronto council in 1991, arguing that Toronto needed to improve its public transit system to establish itself as a world-class city. He lost to incumbent councillor Derwyn Shea. Miller was subsequently the NDP's candidate for Parkdale—High Park in the 1993 Canadian federal election, and finished fourth against Liberal incumbent Jesse Flis.
He did not renew his membership in the NDP when it expired in 2007, stating that he did not want to be seen as partisan when dealing with the provincial and federal governments.
Read more about this topic: David Miller (Canadian Politician)
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