[2] In 1956, he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, in Washington, D.C.[3] McKinnon later spent a "lengthy period" in the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

[5] When National, then led by Jim Bolger, won the 1990 election, McKinnon became Deputy Prime Minister.

During his tenure in the former role, he oversaw New Zealand's election to the UN Security Council, increased activity in the Commonwealth of Nations, and attempts to broker a truce on the island of Bougainville.

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1999 (CHOGM), in Durban, he was elected to the office of Secretary General.

Since that time, he has had to deal with issues such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and George Speight's attempted nationalist coup in Fiji.

At the opening of the 2003 CHOGM, in Nigeria on 5 December, McKinnon was challenged for the position of Secretary-General by Lakshman Kadirgamar, a former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka.

[7] In a 2007 interview McKinnon criticised British public support for evicted white farmers in Zimbabwe as being "a bit of a guilt thing" and argued that the evictions were justified as there was "no way you can justify a society where 15,000 white farmers control 80 per cent of the most fertile land".

[9] In 2009, McKinnon was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the Commonwealth.

[12][13] McKinnon is chairman of the Global Panel Foundation Australasia, a non-governmental organisation that works in crisis areas around the world.