Christopher Mackie, of the Noble Clan of Mackay, born in 1972, was raised in the rural district of Delta, British Columbia. He is descended on his mother's side from Joseph Treen, a United Empire Loyalist who served with 'DeLancey's Cowboys' in the American Revolutionary War.

His interest in heraldry developed as a boy, being fascinated with a Bartholomew-&-Son clan map that hung on his bedroom wall – a map illustrated by Don Pottinger with the arms of most of the family and clan chiefs. His father also displayed the shield of the Mackie of Dowloch above a pair of fencing foils in his cramped and curious study.

After his father received arms of his own from the Chief Herald of Canada, Mr Mackie’s interest in heraldry deepened as he began to consider the legal aspects of a grant of arms, and he particularly admired the juristic approach to heraldry and armory of many Scots writers. This interest and admiration lead him, in part, to take a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Victoria, and he fulfilled the degree’s major-paper requirement by writing a comprehensive analysis of Canada’s law of arms – the first such treatise on the topic written from a legal perspective. The prominent law firm Fasken Martineau Dumoulin awarded him their prize for Intellectual Property Research in recognition of this analysis.

He has qualified as a Licentiate of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada and has written on heraldry for this same society, as well as for the Clan Mackay Association of Canada and for the Heraldry Society [England]. He presently lives near Victoria, where he practices law and also serves part-time as a Naval Reserve officer aboard H. M. C. S. Malahat. For more, see his Website.