Tom Mason's labour of love

Tom Mason has one thing he must do before being sworn in as a North Bay city councillor, and he calls it his “labour of love.”

Mason, general manager of the Clarion Resort-Pinewood Park, leaves tomorrow to visit his parents, who live in Rothesay, on the Scottish Isle of Bute.

“My father, who served three consecutive terms actually as a councillor back in Scotland, suffers from very bad emphysema, and he’s been bad like this for the past two
years and I try to go back when I can to see my family,” said Mason, who was born in Glasgow 43 years ago.

“This is my only regret about living in Canada, unfortunately, the distance from my father, and it’s difficult.”

Does catch up with them
Mason keeps in touch with his parents, Gordon, a retired airline executive, and Janet, a former nurse, on a regular basis.

“I call, write letters and I save all the news articles and send them back to my father, and he’s following my progress very keenly,” Mason said.

“But when someone becomes almost 70 years of age, and they’ve been smoking cigarettes ever since age six or seven or something ridiculous like that, it does catch up with them.”

As any son would do
Although he’s taking time off, Mason said his trip isn’t really a vacation but "a labour of love."

"When I go back it’s not about sightseeing or being out at restaurants or anything like that, I basically spend time helping my mother and my father at their house,” Mason said.

“I usually do the wee odd jobs, like painting and gardening, or buying groceries to make sure there’s plenty to eat. I meet with their medical people, make sure the car is working and serviced and safe, and try to check on their banking. I do all these types of things for them to help them, as any son would do for his parents.”

Mason said he’d have plenty to occupy himself with on the plane trip over.

He’s taking along a copy of the Municipal Act as well as material on the protocol involved in the workings of North Bay council, Mason said

“That will be my study material across the Atlantic,” Mason said. There will be no newspapers or magazines for me.”

Proud of that ancestry
The Isle of Bute is located in the Firth of Clyde, an inlet that leads to the famed Mull of Kintyre and the Atlantic.
"People leaving Glasgow for Canada," Mason said, "would wave at the island folks as their ship went by."

Mason said the Gulf Stream runs along the coastline, which is dotted with palm trees due to the resulting balmy temperatures.

The isle goes deep into his heritage too, Mason said.

“My mother's ancestry can probably be traced back to the earliest records of Bute, and I’m very proud of that ancestry,” Mason said.

He adds it’s “fun” to go back to Rothesay, which has a population of about 9,000.

“And I’m probably related to half of them.”

Social problems
Although Rothesay is "kind of a sleepy town," Mason said, it faces some of the same issues as North Bay.

“It’s a proud-feeling insular type of community, that is driven by business, although the economy is fairly similar, but smaller, but there are the same challenges," Mason said.
"They're trying to do the most with the least, the money comes from the parliament in Scotland and they’ve got to make it go so far."

That's difficult to do, Mason said, because of Rothesay's geographical location and the fact that it's underpopulated.

"There are social problems in the area as well with unemployment, and unfortunately you have to leave the island in most cases if you want to progress," Mason said.

"That’s similar to North Bay in many aspects, and that's one of the sad parts too."