Background
Born in Lachute, Canada East, the son of Hugh Boyd and Maria Kilfoyle, Boyd attended common schools in Oxford County, Leeds and Grenville and studied at the Grammar School in Ottawa. After school, he worked with his father in railroad contracting and spent time working in telegraphy.
Career
He moved to Manitoba and worked as the chief train dispatcher and assistant superintendent for the Canadian Pacific Railway in Manitoba. Afterwards, he started a wholesale and retail lumber business in Winnipeg called Boyd and Crowe, which operated in the Point Douglas district of Winnipeg. In 1886, he started a ranching business with a ranch of 23,000 acres (93 km2).
He first ran as the Conservative candidate for the Canadian House of Commons for the riding of Marquette in the 1891 federal election but was defeated.
He was acclaimed in an 1892 by-election resulting from the resignation of the sitting Member of Parliament, Robert Watson. He was re-elected in 1896 for the riding of Macdonald.
The election was declared void in 1897 and Boyd did not run in the resulting by-election. He died at the age of 88 in 1941.