Kevin S. MacLeod

Who is Kevin S. MacLeod?

Kevin Stewart MacLeod CVO CD is the Canadian Secretary to the Queen of Canada, former Usher of the Black Rod for the Canadian Senate, and the author of the historical fiction novel, A Stone on Their Cairn/Clach air An Càrn.

Born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, MacLeod studied at Boston University and Carleton University, where he received both his bachelor's degree in history and political science and a master's degree in international affairs, before moving on to the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France. After his return from there, MacLeod served for 10 years as an administrative assistant in the Canadian House of Commons, subsequently acting as a chief of staff for one of the then ministers of the Crown before being employed by the Department of Canadian Heritage for 22 years. Among his accomplishments in that office, MacLeod was appointed as the Chief of Protocol and then authored A Crown of Maples/la couronne canadienne – an educational book on the Canadian monarchy, published by the heritage department.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Canadian Heritage to organise royal tours of Canada, and it was for that in 1987 of Queen Elizabeth II, that MacLeod first had a part in coordinating such an event, and, by the time of the Queen's 2005 visit to the prairies to celebrate the centennials of Alberta's and Saskatchewan's entry into Confederation, MacLeod was given the role of Acting Secretary to the Queen. For his service to the monarch, he had already been in 1992 appointed as a member of the Royal Victorian Order, and in 2002, the year of Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. But, it was during the 2005 tour that MacLeod was elevated by the Queen in person to the highest position a Canadian can hold in the order, that of commander; this made MacLeod the only Canadian to be promoted through all three levels of the order in Canada.