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Dennis MillsDennis Mills (b. July 19, 1946 in Toronto) was a Canadian Liberal Member of Parliament. He represented the riding of Toronto-Danforth in the east-end of downtown Toronto. Mills has long conducted business in Toronto. He founded the event support company Chair-man Mills, and was also an executive with auto-parts maker Magna International. From the 1988 through the 2000 general elections inclusive, he won re-election to the House of Commons in the diverse Danforth area of Toronto. Mills served on the personal staff of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau from 1980 to 1984, before running as the Liberal candidate in Toronto-Danforth in 1988 for the John Turner campaign. With the Liberal Party in opposition, he served as parliamentary critic for entrepreneurship and small business. In government, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry from 1993 to 96. He went on to sit as Chair of the House of Commons Sub-Committee on Sports and Vice-Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. In 1996 he briefly left the Liberal caucus to sit as a "Independent Liberal", protesting the government's failure to abolish the GST. He publicly mooted running in the 2003 Liberal leadership race and agitated for "No Coronation" for frontrunner Paul Martin, but he did not end up standing for the leadership. He is best known for helping to organize large events in Toronto. These include World Youth Day in 2002 that brought the Pope to Toronto and the post-SARS Rolling Stones concert in 2003. In 1989, Mills organized the Summit on the Environment in Toronto, which attracted approximately 50,000 people as well as performers such as John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot. In 2001, with the Assembly of First Nations, Mills organized and co-chaired the Bala Summit on Water, attended by leading experts from Canada and the United States. Starting in 1999 Mills initiated and continues to organize events for the Family Farm Tribute to recognize the contributions of Canadian family farms. He has long been involved in the rebuilding plans for the Toronto waterfront. He was responsible for the creation of the Toronto Port Authority and is still one of its greatest proponents, though he opposes the proposed bridge to the island airport designed by the Port Authority. In 2004, Mills unveiled his plan for the Toronto Waterfront, which includes a campus of the United Nations University for Peace, as well as an aquarium, plenty of greenspace, affordable housing, and new sporting facilities. Funding for the University campus was provided in May 20 of 2004, but only three million dollars. This was part of $125 million re-announced by Paul Martin in funding for the other reccomendations in the project. This is smaller than the $325 million promised in the 1997 election and the $300 million promised in the 2000 election, of which of less than ten million dollars was ever actually delivered. He was considered by many to be an opponent of Toronto mayor David Miller. He was at first a supporter of John Nunziata in the 2003 mayoral election, but then switched his support to John Tory, who had become one of the leading candidates. In 2003 he promised in writing to resign in thirty days if an abandoned property known as the Gatekeeper Squat was not turned into community housing. This was, in Mills words, "to avoid a riot" between the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the police. Shortly before the month's end, a compromise deal to convert the property into interim housing was reached. Many protested that the house was not converted into public housing by the end of the 30 days, but supporters of Mills claim that it would have been impossible to do so much in so little time, and that the weather at the time, which went as low as -30 degrees celsius, made conversion of a building impossible. The building is still set to be converted into social housing. Mills was regularly labelled by opponents one of the most socially conservative members of the Liberal caucus. He was opposed to same-sex marriage, a position unpopular in the strongly left-wing riding of Toronto–Danforth. His defeat was a high priority of gay rights groups in the 2004 election. That said, he did favour civil unions, and stated he would respect any decision derived from a free vote on the issue in the House of Commons. He is personally opposed to abortion rights, but does not and has never opposed or raised debate regarding the issue or abortion laws. These social views are commonly associated with his Roman Catholic faith. Mills is noted for having advocated what opponents call a flat tax, which he calls a "single tax", about which he wrote two books, "A Life Less Taxing." and "The Single Tax." His other published book is "Developing an Agenda for the 21st Century." In 2001 he was criticized for spending $330,884 on travel and office expenses, more than any other Liberal MP. Mills was always among the top of the MP rankings on office expenses, which he was sometimes congratulated and sometimes criticized for. In 2004 he was voted Best Constituency MP by the Ottawa Hill Times. Mills' constituency office on Danforth Avenue took thousands of constituent cases, in such matters as immigration and citizenship, and won numerous awards. In the 2004 election Mills was defeated in a close race by NDP leader and former city councilor Jack Layton in the race for the Toronto-Danforth riding, placing a strong second with nearly 20,000 votes, ahead of Green Party leader Jim Harris and Conservative candidate Loftus Cuddy. After the election, Mills was expected to, but did not, receive a spot on the Toronto Port Authority. Instead, he later accepted a spot on the Board of Directors of his former employer, Magna International. Mills has a wife, Vicki, and four children, Jennifer, Craig, Stephanie, and Andrea. They all continue to reside in the Toronto-Danforth riding. idth="30%"|Preceded by:
federal riding created in 2000 | Member of Parliament for Toronto%97Danforth
(2000-2004) | width="30%"|Succeeded by:
Jack Layton, NDP | idth="30%"|Preceded by:
Lynn McDonald, NDP | Member of Parliament for Broadview—Greenwood
(1988-2000) | width="30%"|Succeeded by:
federal riding abolished in 2000 | External links Mills, Dennis Mills, Dennis
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