Former member of parliament and radio personality Bob Wood is poised to be fittingly recognized for his decades of service to our community.
At the tail end of Tuesday's regular meeting of North Bay City Council, Coun. Chris Mayne gave notice of his intent to bring forward a motion designed to honour Wood.
"Airport Way at the North Bay Airport is proposed to be renamed as 'Bob Wood Drive,' and I look forward to bringing forward details of that motion at our December 8th meeting," announced Mayne.
Mayne says he is pleased to play a role in beginning the process of renaming the street. He says requests from former Premier Mike Harris and Wood friend Michael Brophy to the Jack Garland Airport board to honour Wood in such a fashion were considered and approved.
It will now take the approval of Council to make the change official as the roadway is the City's.
Airport Way heads west off Airport Road just before 22 Wing/CFB North Bay and services Jack Garland Drive, where the North Bay Airport is located before crossing Aviation Avenue and curling around the airfield.
The location of the roadway proposed to be renamed in his honour is appropriate. A military veteran himself, if not for MP Wood's advocacy for the local base, it might have been completely shuttered years ago.
Wood was instrumental in stopping the Canadian military’s plan to close North Bay CFB 22 Wing and relocate the NORAD operations to Winnipeg in the late 1990s. He has said the late-Mayor Jack Burrows ensured North Bay was part of the proposal that ultimately won the backing of the then Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Wood was a safety equipment technician at RCAF Station Gimli, Man., before moving to North Bay in 1966. Listeners tuned in to listen to Wood on the airwaves for more than two decades and he was famous for his Let Wood Work for You show on CFCH.
Wood was first elected to represent what was then known as the Nipissing riding in 1988 as a Liberal MP and retired from politics in 2004. He also served as a city councillor.
Wood, 80, has been fighting a personal battle with Alzheimer's but has continued to use his standing in the North Bay community to draw attention to the disease and the challenges people with Alzheimer's face on a day-to-day basis as they live their journey with dementia.
In 2018, Wood was the special guest at a successful fundraising event organized by now-BayToday reporter Dave Dale and earlier this year helped raise the flag at North Bay City Hall in recognition of Alzheimer's Month.
"Everybody is afraid to talk about it and it is time we brought it out in the open," said Wood then about living with dementia.
With files from Dave Dale and Chris Dawson
