Morrison protested that "The white hats undermine efforts to establish Calgary as an oil and industrial centre", and Alderman Grant MacEwan said, "The presentations have been carried to a foolish extreme".
[3] Mackay was an enthusiastic supporter of Operation Livesaver, a 1955 mass civil defense evacuation which intended to move 40,000 Calgarians into neighbouring towns in a single day.
[6] Calgary City Council requested the provincial government hold an inquiry following the revelation MacKay borrowed 35 bags of city cement for personal projects at his home and failed to return the bags by fall of 1958, and in October 1958, Premier and Attorney General Ernest Manning ordered Judge L. Sherman Turcotte to hold an inquiry.
The resulting report (Turcotte Inquiry) published in July 1959 outlined a number of improper gifts and benefits received during MacKay's time as Mayor of Calgary from individuals seeking public contracts or approvals from the City.
In 1962, he joined the Downtown Development Corporation in Phoenix, Arizona and later, worked for the Calgary Convention Centre and the realty firm of Cowley and Keith.