Roderick MacKenzie (politician)

Roderick Mackenzie (January 5, 1868 – April 29, 1957) was a Canadian politician and pioneer merchant. He served in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1928 to 1933 from the electoral district of Cariboo, as a Conservative.

Roderick was a merchant from Williams Lake. Born in Applecrooss, Scotland a remote peninsula across from the Isle of Skye which could only be accessed by boat in the winter until the 1950s. He was the son of Murdo and Mary Mackenzie. Roderick served in South Africa as a soldier in the Boer War in 1899 as part of the Highland Regiment. He later returned there to work as a merchant. He married Elizabeth Maclagan of Perth, whom he met while she acted as the hostess of Lord Middleton's Applecross estate. Her relative was the Factor of the estate. Since he was a bachelor, he asked her to join him to be the hostess there.

In Roseburg, South Africa, now part of Johannesburg, Roderick and Elizabeth had three children, Iain, Anne Christian (1903) and John Harris. Iain died as an infant of dysentery.

The family emigrated to Canada in 1908 and Roderick started a store in Squamish in 1912, where their son Alistair Bain was born. In 1918 Roderick opened another store in Williams Lake at the very beginning of the town's formation. In his book, The Fraser, Bruce Hutchinson mentioned Roderick as a renowned and visionary salesman and merchant.

The Squamish store was later run by youngest son Alistair MacKenzie and his wife Pauline. A third store in Wells was opened in the 1930s and was run by eldest son Jack. The Williams Lake store was later run by daughter Anne's husband, Douglas Stevenson.

The Main Street in Williams Lake became Mackenzie Avenue, named for the store and the family that ran it. The creation of Scout Island park is a legacy of Roderick Mackenzie's term as an MLA. The Mackenzie family donated land to the city for a golf course. Golf was a passion for Roderick and his daughter Anne. The golf course was later demolished to create the Boitano Mall, and another golf course was created.

Roderick and Elizabeth Mackenzie's daughter, Anne Mackenzie Stevenson, was a teacher and school counsellor in Williams Lake. She had a junior high school named after her. When the school was incorporated into a new Williams Lake campus for Thompson Rivers University, the library was named for her. St[1]