Dennis Mills

His other published book is Developing an Agenda for the 21st Century.

Dennis Joseph Mills (born July 19, 1946) is a Canadian businessman and former politician.

He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Toronto—Danforth in the east-end of downtown Toronto.

Mills served on the personal staff of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau from 1980 until 1984, when Trudeau was succeeded as Liberal leader and prime minister by John Turner.

In the 1988, 1993, 1997 and 2000 general elections, he won re-election to the House of Commons in the Danforth area of Toronto.

Mills ran as the Liberal candidate in Broadview-Greenwood in the 1988 election in which the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney was re-elected, defeating New Democratic Party incumbent Lynn McDonald over the issue of support for the Meech Lake Accord, which Mills opposed.

With the Liberal Party in opposition, Mills served as parliamentary critic for entrepreneurship and small business.

In 1989, Mills organized the Summit on the Environment in Toronto, which attracted approximately 50,000 people and performers such as John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot.

In 1993, Mills was inducted into the Order of St. Michael

When the Liberal Party, under the leadership of Jean Chrétien, formed the government following the 1993 election, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry from 1993 to 1996.

He then served 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 an "Independent Liberal", protesting the government's failure to abolish the Goods and Service Tax as it had promised in the 1993 campaign.

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 $10 million was ever actually delivered.

He was considered by many to be an opponent of Toronto mayor David Miller.

Starting in 1999, Mills initiated events for the Family Farm Tribute (See http://dennismills.com/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 2001, with the Assembly of First Nations, Mills organized and co-chaired the Bala Summit on Water (See http://dennismills.com/water-manifesto/), attended by leading experts from Canada and the United States.

In 2001, he was criticized for spending $330,884 on travel and office expenses, more than any other Liberal Member of Parliament (MP).

These include World Youth Day in 2002 that brought Pope John Paul II to Toronto, and the post-SARS Rolling Stones concert in 2003.

Following Chrétien's resignation as Liberal leader, Mills publicly considered running to succeed Chrétien at the 2003 leadership convention and agitated against a "coronation" for front runner Paul Martin, but he did not end up standing for the leadership.

He is best known for helping to organize large events in Toronto.

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 and thus felt the issue had been exploited, 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.

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 promised on May 20, 2004 by the federal government, but only $3 million, which will not be sufficient.

This was part of $125 million re-announced by Paul Martin in funding for the other recommendations in the project.

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 Taxingand The Single Tax.

From February 2012 until November 2016, Mills was a member of the board of directors of Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp and from April 2013 until the present he has been a director on the board of CGX Energy Inc. Mills is currently the President and CEO of Toronto Partners Inc. and is also founder of Racing Future Inc. where he is currently President and CEO.

Mills has long conducted business in Toronto.