Mark Milke

Mark Milke was a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute between 2010 and 2015. Mr. Milke led the Institute’s work on Alberta-related issues as well as contributing to a broad host of national and regional studies. Mr. Milke is currently an independent analyst and consultant in Calgary.

Mr. Milke has authored four books on Canadian politics and policy and dozens of studies on topics such as property rights, public sector pensions, corporate welfare, competition policy, aboriginal matters and taxes. Prior to joining the Fraser Institute, Mr. Milke was the research director for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and former B.C. and Alberta director with the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation. His work has been published widely in Canada since 1997 and in addition to the Fraser Institute, his papers have also been published in the United States by the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation and in Europe by the Brussels-based Centre for European Studies.

Mr. Milke’s opinion columns appear regularly in the Calgary Herald and Globe and Mail, as well as in the National Post, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, and Victoria Times Colonist. Mr. Milke has a Master’s degree from the University of Alberta where his M.A. thesis analyzed human rights in East Asia; he also has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Calgary where his doctoral dissertation analyzed the rhetoric of Canadian-American relations. Mr. Milke is president of Civitas, and a past lecturer in Political Philosophy and International Relations at the University of Calgary.

Recent Research by Mark Milke

Ranching Realities in the 21st Century
— Nov 3, 2015
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ranching realities

Ranching Realities in the 21st Century highlights land ownership structures in the province of Alberta where over nine million acres of land is owned by the government and leased to farmers and ranchers. Through a collection of essays, the book looks to other jurisdictions to identify alternative structures that could facilitate higher earnings per acre of land, more livestock, or better protection of ecologically sensitive lands.  It finds that land policies in Alberta, and elsewhere, can be enhanced if policies ensure that property rights are well-defined and transferable.

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A Tale of Two Energy Booms
— Mar 24, 2015
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A Tale of Two Energy Booms

A Tale of Two Energy Booms, compares the economies and government finances of energy-rich Alberta and Texas. While Alberta has enjoyed a stronger economy, Texas has done a better job at balancing its books in the post-recession era.

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Fumbling the Alberta Advantage: How Alberta Squandered a Decade of High Energy Prices
— Feb 19, 2015
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Fumbling the Alberta Advantage

Fumbling the Alberta Advantage: How Alberta Squandered a Decade of High Energy Prices calculates that between 2004/05 and 2013/14 program spending in Alberta jumped to $43.9 billion (or $10,967 per person) from $29 billion (or $8,965 per person). Had spending increases simply been restricted to inflation plus population growth, the province would have saved $49 billion over the past decade, giving the current government an additional $8 billion in fiscal room in the 2013/14 budget.

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