Francis MacKenzie

Francis MacKenzie (born 1960) is a former leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party. He won the leadership for the party on October 23, 2004.

MacKenzie was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1960 and raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He graduated from Saint Francis Xavier University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and received a Master of Business Administration degree from Saint Mary's University in 1992.

Following graduation from St. FX, MacKenzie worked in Ontario in sales and development roles for Sealtest/Ault Foods, and Bausch & Lomb Canada. He also served for several years as General Manager for MacKenzie Standardbreds, a horse racing enterprise operating in Toronto, Montreal, New York and New Jersey, and one of the largest of its kind in Canada.

Returning to Nova Scotia in 1989, Francis became Director of Sales for the Halifax Citadels hockey franchise for two years. He was then hired as Executive Director for the Town of Bedford’s Economic Development Commission, a position he held until 1996 when the town became part of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

From 1996 to 1997 Francis was the Vice President and General Manager of the Greater Halifax Partnership, a business/government partnership involved in economic development for the metro area.

In 1997, Mr. MacKenzie was hired by the Liberal government at the time to serve as the Executive Director of Investment and Trade for the Department of Economic Development. During this period, one of his private companies developed software for cameras and some equipment. A scandal broke out when it was released that his production company tried to sell the product at a pornography fair in Las Vegas. He originally denied any knowledge of the event but later acknowledged that he had sent his team to try to sell equipment.

In 2002 he ran for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party leadership, and came in second to Danny Graham. In 2004, after Graham stepped down to be with his sick wife, MacKenzie ran again winning his second attempt. Although serving as leader for over a year he did not attempt to win a seat in the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly until the 2006 provincial election in which MacKenzie led the Liberals to a poor showing reducing their caucus to 9 MLAs. MacKenzie failed in his effort to win his own seat in Bedford. He said that he would meet with the president of the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia in order to discuss the future of the party. [http://www.cbc.ca/ns/story/ns-mackenzievote.html] Mackenzie resigned shortly after the election, and was succeeded by Michel Samson on an interim basis, then Stephen McNeil in April 2007.

The day after the election, MacKenzie suggested that the Liberals and the NDP form a coalition to topple the government and take power, with NDP leader Darrell Dexter as premier. [http://www.cbc.ca/ns/story/ns-coalition20060614.html]