He served in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1928 until he was defeated in the 1933 election, from the electoral district of Cariboo, as a Conservative.
Roderick served in South Africa as a soldier in the Boer War in 1899 as part of the Highland Regiment.
He married Elizabeth Maclagan of Perth, whom he met while she acted as the hostess of Lord Middleton's Applecross estate.
In Rosebank, South Africa, now part of Johannesburg, Roderick and Elizabeth had three children, Iain, Anne and John.
The family emigrated to Canada in 1908 and Roderick, along with business partner Jim Fraser, started Mackenzie's Ltd. in Squamish in 1912, where their youngest son Alistair was born.
[1] In his book, The Fraser, Bruce Hutchinson mentioned Roderick as a renowned and visionary salesman and merchant.