biology

Gord Miller (environmental commissioner)

Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) rather than just read about it. In short: Gord Miller (born March 27, 1953) was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, having served from February 1, 2000 to May 18, 2015. He was appointed to a five-year term in 2000 and was reappointed to this position in 2005 and 2010 for two consecutive five-year terms.

Key takeaways

Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gord Miller (born March 27, 1953) was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, having served from February 1, 2000 to May 18, 2015. He was appointed to a five-year term in 2000 and was reappointed to this position in 2005 and 2010 for two consecutive five-year terms. He also ran unsuccessfully for federal and provincial office in various Ontario electoral districts.

Early life Before his appointment, he worked for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for 14 years as a scientist, manager of training and development, and as a district manager. He also helped to set up the advocacy organization Ontario Public Interest Group Guelph. Miller received an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Biology in 1976 and a Master of Science degree in Plant ecology in 1978, both from the University of Guelph.

Tenure as environment commissioner As environment commissioner, Miller issued strongly-worded reports annually, calling the province to account on its environmental commitments. Starting in 2008, he added special reports on greenhouse gas emissions and energy conservation. Miller did not shy away from direct criticism of government decisions and longstanding abuses in law. An early example was his direct condemnation of SLAPP lawsuits for their negative effect on public advocacy. Miller's reports very strongly supported "environmental activists" who argued, "the practice is widespread in the development industry and used to pacify activists and environmentalists", that is, silence them with fear of civil liability. Ontario passed an anti-SLAPP law in 2010. In 2013 Miller called to public attention the fact that Ontario’s cabinet had allocated to itself, in the 2012 budget, the power to turn over public land to the exclusive control of private, multinational corporations. In a formal report Miller said that this, combined with cuts to staff and programs at Ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment, all "quietly and without public consultation", led to a situation with "no rules". Other actions were, Miller said, "gutting" protections for species at risk and that it was time for hydraulic fracturing regulation. In 2014 Miller warned that Ontario had done "very little" other than closing coal plants to meet its 2020 emissions targets, and had failed to build transit and other efficient infrastructure.

Appointment controversy Miller's sharp turn on the Harris government ended a longstanding controversy. Due to his two prior candidacies, Miller's initial appointment raised the perception by the NDP and Liberal caucuses that he was a Conservative partisan. Opposition parties at Queen's Park accused the Harris government of using its majority to name a Conservative as Ontario's environment commissioner. Miller was subsequently re-appointed twice by two successive parliaments headed by Liberal governments, whom he sharply criticized.

Politics Miller was, in addition to a former federal and provincial PC candidate, the president of the federal Conservative riding association in Nipissing, home riding of then-Premier Mike Harris. On May 19, 2015, Miller sought the Green Party of Canada nomination for the seat of Guelph in the upcoming Canadian federal election, and on June 8, 2015, he was selected to run. He had gone to university there in 1977-79 and helped found the Ontario Public Interest Research Group in Guelph. Miller had also previously run for provincial Progressive Conservatives in 1995 and in 1997 for Jean Charest's federal Progressive Conservatives. He said the 2015 Conservative Party of Canada "is not like and doesn't represent the points of view" of those parties: "We thought we were uniting the right, instead we united the wrong". Miller was considered a star candidate by local media. From his first public appearance he sharply criticized all the other parties for "committing to pursuing an economy based on bitumen from Alberta that we'll never be able to extract", echoing former Bank of Canada head Mark Carney's formal raising of this issue at the Financial Stability Board and Bank of England in 2014. Miller also accused the government of "silencing" scientists and called Bill C-51 "a terrible piece of legislation."

Electoral record

Federal

Provincial

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gord Miller (environmental commissioner)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gord Miller (environmental commissioner)

In research: Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, 20th-century Canadian civil servants, 21st-century Canadian civil servants, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) in simple terms?

Why does Gord Miller (environmental commissioner) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gord Miller (environmental commissioner)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gord Miller (environmental commissioner).