Preceded by Heath MacQuarrie Role Political Scientist Name Thomas McMillan | Profession Political scientist Succeeded by George Proud | |
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Born October 15, 1945 (age 78)
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island ( 1945-10-15 ) Political party Progressive Conservative Party Progressive Conservative Party of Canada | ||
Preceded by Suzanne Blais-Grenier | ||
Thomas Michael "Tom" McMillan, PC (born October 15, 1945) is a Canadian political scientist and former politician.
Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, McMillan was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1979 general election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Hillsborough, Prince Edward Island. He was re-elected in the 1980 and 1984 elections. He served as Deputy House Leader from 1983 to 1984 under Leader of the Opposition Brian Mulroney.
Following the Tory landslide in the 1984 general election, Mulroney appointed McMillan to Cabinet as Minister of State for tourism. A year later, McMillan was named Minister of the Environment, replacing the controversial Suzanne Blais-Grenier.
He was concerned with emerging issues of the 1980s like acid rain, and remained active in local issues and heritage preservation. When in 1981 an historic bank building in his riding was demolished there was an outcry from concerned citizens, including McMillan. He summed up the loss of this historic structure, "The actions of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Charlottetown have been decidedly more imperial than Canadian." He became increasingly active in preservation causes including the restoration of a brick powder magazine located in Brighton Compound in Charlottetown.
McMillan remained Environment minister until he was defeated in the 1988 general election due to opposition to the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement among his constituents. In August 1989, McMillan was appointed Canada's consul-general to Boston. He maintained his involvement in politics, and attempted unsuccessfully to regain his seat in the 1993 general election. He again attempted a comeback in the 1997 general election, this time in the riding of Peterborough, Ontario, but came in third place behind Liberal candidate Peter Adams and the Reform Party's Nancy Branscombe.
Based on his experiences and previous studies, he wrote a book entitled Not My Party: The Rise and Fall of Canadian Tories from Robert Stanfield to Stephen Harper which was published in 2017.