The electoral district would be renamed Nanton-Claresholm prior to the 1930 Alberta general election.

In keeping with the era's custom, McKenzie responded to the cabinet appointment by resigning his seat in the legislature to contest it in a by-election.

[4][5] McKenzie's tenure as treasurer was not to last long: he caught a chill while attending the convention that nominated him as the Liberals' Claresholm candidate in the 1913 election, and by the time he returned to Edmonton on March 10, 1913, he was confine to bed.

Later McKinney was one of the Famous Five who campaigned successfully for the right of Canadian women to be appointed to the Senate.

McKinney ran for a second term in the 1921 Alberta general election as a member of the United Farmers.