Career
He entered the railway business as a contractor under civil engineer James Ross, working on projects in Ontario, British Columbia, Maine, and the North-West Territories (present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta) between 1874 and 1891. In 1895, together with Donald Mann, Mackenzie began to purchase or build rail lines in the Canadian prairies, which would form the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR), a company that would stretch from Vancouver Island to Cape Breton Island and form Canada"s second transcontinental railway system. He started Pat Burns" career by giving him a series of contracts for provisioning food for the railway contract.
Burns would go on to build one of the World"s largest meat empires.
Mackenzie and Mann were knighted in 1911 for their efforts in the railway industry, but personal and company financial difficulties led to the bankruptcy of the CNoR. The system was nationalized by the federal government on September 6, 1918, and subsequently became part of the Canadian National Railway. Mackenzie died in Toronto, Ontario.