Early Life and Career
Milliken was born in Kingston, Ontario, the eldest of seven children to a physician father, and is a descendant of United Empire Loyalists who left the new United States of America after the American Revolution. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Queen's University (1968), a Bachelor of Arts (1970) and Master of Arts (1978) in Jurisprudence from Oxford University in England, and a Bachelor of Laws (1971) degree from Dalhousie University. He was active in student politics, and served a year as speaker of the student government's assembly at Queen's. In 1967-68, he worked as a special assistant to federal cabinet minister George J. McIlraith.
Called to the Ontario Bar in 1973, Milliken was a partner at the prestigious Kingston law firm, Cunningham, Swan, Carty, Little & Bonham, before entering political life. He also lectured on a part-time basis at the Queen's University School of Business from 1973 to 1981, became a governor of the Kingston General Hospital in 1977, and has been a trustee with the Chalmers United Church. As a consultant, he produced the Milliken Report on the future of Queen's University athletics in the late 1970s. A fan of classical music, he has sung with the Pro Arte Singers and the Chalmers United Church Choir as well as serving on the board of the Kingston Symphony. He also often canoes, taking week long trips in northern Canada. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the State University of New York at Potsdam. He is an honorary member of the Royal Military College of Canada, and an Honorary Patron of Choirs Ontario.
Milliken has long been active in political matters, having served as president of the Frontenac Addington Provincial Liberal AssociationKingston in the 1980s. He subscribed to the Canadian House of Commons Hansard at age sixteen, and once wrote a thesis paper on Question Period. Unlike most MPs, he was already well-versed in parliamentary procedure at the time of his first election.
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