It is the responsibility of the Department of Canadian Heritage to organize royal tours of Canada, and it was for that in 1987 of Queen Elizabeth II that MacLeod first had a part in coordinating such an event.

For his service to the monarch, he had already been in 1992 appointed as a member of the Royal Victorian Order, and in 2002, the year of Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

[5] But it was during the 2005 tour that MacLeod was elevated by the Queen in person to the highest position a Canadian can hold in the order (due to the government's adherence to the Nickle Resolution), that of commander;[6] this made MacLeod the only Canadian to be promoted through all three levels of the order in Canada.

[2] On March 27, 2008, MacLeod was appointed by order of the Governor-in-Council as the Usher of the Black Rod for the Senate,[3] replacing Terrance Christopher.

[11][12][13] MacLeod retired from his post as Canadian Secretary to the Queen, and from the public service, on February 10, 2015.