He was the natural successor to Lord Mount Stephen as president of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1888, but he did not desire the position; he twice refused a knighthood.

[2] Alexander Angus was a friend of the father of Sir James Young Simpson, and five of his eight children came to Canada at various stages.

By 1869, he succeeded Edwin Henry King as the bank's general manager with an annual salary of $8,000, a position he held for the next ten years.

In 1868, he went into partnership with the future Lords Mount Stephen and Strathcona at the time that they were becoming interested in developing railways across to the Canadian West.

But by 1880, he spent most of his time with Mount Stephen as they made numerous trips to Ottawa, New York, and London to negotiate the land grants, subsidies, and building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The construction of the CPR was fraught with financial peril, testing the resilience of the syndicate – Hill resigned in 1883, followed by Angus' close friend Duncan McIntyre the next year.

He remained vice-president of the CPR after Lord Mount Stephen resigned from an active role as president in 1888.

Angus would serve as a director and committee member of the CPR for over 40 years, necessitating frequent trips to the Canadian Pacific Offices on Trafalgar Square in London.

The British Columbia Sugar Refinery was started by Benjamin Tingley Rogers, the 'brash' husband of his niece, Mary Isabella Angus.

Like many wealthy Montrealers, Angus had a passion for floriculture, particularly his beloved orchids, and the house featured a large conservatory.

[7] His new home provided a suitable space for the art collection that he had started with purchases from Montreal and London dealers in the late 1870s.

The house was completed in 1904 and replaced a home that had been built on the site in 1886 for Angus and then remodeled by Edward Maxwell from 1898 to 1899 before being destroyed by fire soon after.

A "quiet, purposeful man",[10] Angus enjoyed vigorous health and remained active until the end of his life, even embarking on a European tour in 1921, at the age of ninety.