Vice Patron of the Order

MGen (Ret'd) Lewis MacKenzie CM, OOnt, MSC and Bar, CD was born in Truro, Nova Scotia a long time ago. He is a graduate of Xavier Junior College of Sydney, Cape Breton and the University of Manitoba. During his thirty six years of military service in the Infantry he served nine years in Germany with NATO forces and managed to fit in nine peacekeeping tours of duty in six different mission areas - the Gaza Strip, Cyprus, Vietnam, Cairo, Central America and Sarajevo.

In 1990 General MacKenzie was appointed commander of the United Nation's Observer mission in Central America. Two years later he was assigned to the United Nation's Protection Force in Yugoslavia. In May of that year he created and assumed command of Sector Sarajevo and with a contingent of soldiers from 31 countries opened the Sarajevo airport for the delivery of humanitarian aid during the height of the Bosnian civil war. As result he became the only Canadian, military or civilian, to be awarded a second Meritorious Service Cross. He retired from the Canadian Forces in 1993.

Lew was made an Honorary Chief of the Metro Toronto Police Force in 1993. He holds Honorary Doctorates from numerous Canadian Universities and is a member of the Board of Advisers of the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research. He was Tourism Canada's Canadian of the Year in 1992 and he is an alumnus of the Maclean's role of Honour. In 2002 and 2006 respectively he was invested with the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada for his humanitarian work in Africa.

Following the attacks of 11 September 2001 MGen. MacKenzie was appointed one of two advisers to the Government of Ontario on counter-terrorism and emergency measures.

MGen. MacKenzie was inducted into the Order of St. George, in absentia, in Niagara Falls, ON, on the 29th of May, 2010. He was formally declared the Vice Patron of the Order, with the rank of Knight Grand Cross, in Ottawa, on the 4th of June 2011.

In spite of all the above, Dora MacKinnon of Baysville, Ontario is still married to the General. Their daughter Kimm,born in a British Military hospital in Germany, works, rides and resides in Ottawa.