VICTORIA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today appointed Mark Milke as CTF-BC director. Mr. Milke served as the Federation's spokesperson in Alberta since August of 1997 until this appointment.

Mr. Milke's varied employment experience also includes that of a freelance writer, a news and music announcer for a Kelowna radio station, as well as work with mentally and physically handicapped young adults in Edmonton. Mr. Milke is a past-president of the Northern Alberta Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme Alumni Association, and serves on the advisory board of the Calgary-based Canadian Property Rights Research Institute.

Mr. Milke, born and raised in Kelowna, has lived in Los Angeles and Mexico while volunteering with a Christian relief organization, in Japan while on the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme, and in Edmonton where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in History at the University of Alberta in 1993 and a Master of Arts degree in Political Science in 1998. His M.A. thesis was written on human rights and democracy in East Asia.

Mr. Milke has written opinion columns for the Edmonton Journal, the Calgary Herald, the Calgary Sun, the Vancouver Sun, and the National Post on topics such as taxpayer subsidies for professional sports, the federal pay equity dispute, Alberta and British Columbia's provincial budgets, and Alberta's single tax.