Our staff & contributors
Troy Lanigan
Founder and CEO
Troy Lanigan is a consultant who works with clients in the fields of advocacy and public policy.
Prior to starting his consulting business, Troy worked in a variety of capacities with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation over 26 years including spokesperson in his home province of British Columbia, overseeing national communications and as president and CEO for ten years.
He is the author of Fighting for Taxpayers: Battles Fought and Battles Ahead and is currently chairman of the World Taxpayers Associations an umbrella group of approximately 60 taxpayer organizations on six continents – purposed for networking, best practices exchange, regional forums and support for new organizations.
He has helped found two organizations: the campus-based campaign Generation Screwed and the storytelling think tank SecondStreet.org.
Troy enjoys travel, attempting to golf, playing guitar and participating in various athletic endeavours. Troy has run six marathons and is a two-time finisher of Ironman Canada but is today more likely to be found watching football or F1 in front of a television. He and his wife Erika have four children and live in Victoria, BC.
Mark Milke
Founder and Senior Fellow
Mark Milke, Ph.D. is an author, policy analyst, non-profit consultant and columnist with four books and dozens of studies published across Canada and internationally in the last two decades.
Mark is president of the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary, has a Ph.D. in International Relations and Political Philosophy from University of Calgary, is past President of Civitas—a Society for Ideas, and is an occasional lecturer in Political Science.
Mark’s ongoing policy work has been published by think tanks in Canada, the United States and Europe including the Fraser Institute, the American Enterprise Institute and Brussels-based Centre for European Studies. He has been interviewed by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and all major Canadian media.
Mark’s columns appear regularly in the Globe and Mail, National Post and Maclean’s. His topics touch on everything from taxes, civil rights, and private property to airline competition, insurance, aboriginal policy, government monopolies and the folly of crony capitalism to lighter topics such as architecture, art, and hiking.
Mark’s doctorate dissertation analyzed the rhetoric of anti-Americanism in Canada while his Master’s thesis chronicled the double standards on human rights in East Asia. Mark lives in Calgary and is an active hiker, skier and runner with an interest in architecture, photography, cities, and history.
Colin Craig
President
Colin Craig has two decades of public policy experience
and has helped shape government decisions at the municipal, provincial and federal level.
In 2018, he was hired as President of SecondStreet.org and played an instrumental role in launching the organization. Colin oversees the organization’s groundbreaking research and storytelling activities, including the organization’s groundbreaking research into the sad reality that Canadians sometimes die while languishing on government health care waiting lists. He is the host of SecondStreet.org’s new television show – On Second Street – which can be viewed on The News Forum.
Colin previously worked for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a non-profit taxpayers’ watchdog organization. During his time with the CTF, he led the organization’s efforts to convince the federal government to draft and pass the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. Colin was also instrumental in exposing corruption during the construction of the City of Winnipeg’s police headquarters project. While working for the CTF in Alberta, he exposed and helped discontinue the City of Calgary’s golden retirement bonus scheme, helped reform council’s pension system (the mayor’s second pension is being phased out) and helped the CTF convince a majority of voters to vote “no” during Calgary’s Olympic bid plebiscite (2018).
Colin has an MBA and a degree in economics from the University of Manitoba. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee medal in 2022 by the Premier of Alberta. Colin is the author of “The Government Wears Prada” and contributed several chapters to the eBook Life After COVID.
Email: colin@secondstreet.org
Phone: 403-909-2055
For a professional headshot of Colin, click here.
Melanie Harvie
Executive Secretary
Melanie was born and raised in Flin Flon (Manitoba) and currently works part-time as Executive Secretary for SecondStreet.org.
Melanie also serves as the Executive Vice President of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Auditor and Assistant Secretary for the World Taxpayers Associations and acts as Administrator for Civitas Canada.
Melanie currently lives in Regina, Saskatchewan with her family and spends her spare time running half marathons (slowly) and doing CrossFit (badly).
Heidi McKillop
Contributor
Heidi McKillop is a country girl at heart, born and raised in a small village called Harvey Station, New Brunswick. Heidi’s first job, age 14, was washing dishes and preparing meals at the local nursing home. She has also worked within the restaurant industry, tourism, long term care, customer service, office management, and the energy industry. Heidi earned her first degree in sociology at St.Thomas University. She later completed her second degree in social work from St.Thomas.
Heidi enjoys camping and hiking in the beautiful Kananaskis Country. She also enjoys horseback riding and learning new ranching skills. She is an avid reader and loves the social aspects of living in downtown Calgary.
Kris Sims
Contributor
Born in the town of Hope and raised on both sides of the Strait of Georgia, Kris has been employed (and taxed) since she was 12 years old, working in horse stables, fast food joints and gas stations before attending journalism school at BCIT in Burnaby.
Kris worked in radio in the Comox Valley before moving to Ottawa to work as a legislative assistant on Parliament Hill. She then joined Ottawa News Talk Radio 580 CFRA as a reporter and anchor, eventually becoming a journalist for the CTV parliamentary bureau.
Kris was a founding reporter for Sun News Network and proudly covered issues of big government, personal liberty and the rights of small-town and rural Canadians until SNN was shut down. She then worked as the director of communications for Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole, and as the senior producer for Evan Solomon at CFRA Radio. She is proud to return to her home of British Columbia to fight for the rights of all taxpayers.
When she isn’t digging through expense reports and doing media interviews, Kris can be found reading Ayn Rand on the banks of the Fraser River with her husband and their two children.
Dom Lucyk
Communications Director
Dom Lucyk was born and raised in Saskatchewan, having grown up in Swift Current and currently living in Regina.
He has a background in media. In 2019, he graduated from the Western Academy Broadcasting College in Saskatoon and went on to spend three years working as an anchor, reporter and producer with 980 CJME and 650 CKOM, the top news/talk radio stations in the province.
He’s also worked with groups like Students for Liberty during a year-long stint at the University of Saskatchewan, where he studied political science.
When he’s not working to tell everyday people’s stories on how they’re affected by government policy, you’ll likely find him birdwatching at Wascana Park or Last Mountain Lake, rooting for his beloved Chicago Blackhawks (even when they’re very bad), enjoying some local craft beer, or playing with his cat, Rambo.
Email: dominick@secondstreet.org
Phone: 306-774-4245
James Skinner
Contributor
James was born and raised in South Wales, UK before emigrating to Canada in 2013.
After graduating in Law & Politics at Cardiff University, James worked with a variety of national governments across the world, including the US Congress, the UK Parliament and the Australian Senate. Since arriving in Canada, he has worked in communications and government relations roles, with his expertise lying in natural resources and health.
When he isn’t working, James enjoys watching football, throwing a rugby ball around and trap shooting at his local club in Vancouver, BC.
Kristen Schulz
Contributor
Based in Winnipeg, Kristen Schulz is a small business owner.
In her spare time, she helps SecondStreet.org with a number of research projects, including filing Freedom of Information requests nationwide.
Kristen is particularly interested in health care and education policy.
Ana Rizo
Contributor
Ana is a lawyer with a degree from the university of Carabobo in Venezuela, back in 2014.
A few years later, she completed a postgraduate in International Business Management in Toronto.
Ana got involved in politics in 2014 after volunteering for Cedice Libertad (Caracas), one of the most influential libertarian Think Tanks in Latin America.
Once in North America, she participated in different seminars and conferences, becoming an alumni of the Cato Institute (Washington), the Institute of Liberal Studies (Ottawa) and the Fraser Institute (Vancouver).
In addition, Ana became a formal panelist of the Toronto based and award winner political podcast, The Raben Report.
Ana has been working in banking and is an enthusiast of financial crime prevention, especially anti-money laundering.
She is also the founder and co-leader of Canada’s very first Ladies Of Liberty Alliance chapter, LOLA Toronto.
SecondStreet.org is excited for Ana to bring her unique experiences and passion for liberty to the organization as a contributor.
