Burrows bids farewell to politics.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: North Bay; Jack Burrows - Biography

After 15 years in municipal politics, the avuncular mayor of North Bay, Jack Burrows, leaves office this fall.

In June, Burrows announced he would not be seeking re-election in November. He is looking forward to spending more time with his wife Elaine, four children and nine grandchildren.

Those who have worked with Burrows at city hall describe him as a patient listener, willing to take advice, who will hear all sides and viewpoints before making a decision.

His gentlemanly manner, along with his consensus-building style and personal relationship skills, have lent him credibility and respect in many circles over the years in smoothing over many battles at city hall and across the North.

"You can bang heads all you want, but at the end of the day you get support faster if you get people on board," says Burrows, 71, who first ran for council in 1989 before becoming mayor in 1994.

He was acclaimed in 1997 and re-elected in 2000. As a businessman for many years running Burrows Country Store and Garden Centre until turning the reins over to his son-in-law, Bob Hudson, four years ago, Burrows previously served on the North Bay and District Health Care Centre and the North Bay Hospital Commission.

Among his list of accomplishments, Burrows cites the purchase of the CP Rail lands and helping to convince the federal government to keep CFB North Bay 22 Wing in the city for 20 years.

Burrows says working with MP Bob Wood to lobby the Department of National Defence to keep the North American Air Defence command bunker in North Bay was very gratifying.

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The announcement in August of the construction of a new $23-million surface command and control centre in 2005 should "cement" North Bay as a location for years to come.

The rail lands acquisition, Burrows views as a $12-million long-term investment in the city's future. After many discussions with CP Rail to convince the carrier to re-route its operations to make that property available to the public.

The proposed $30-million Passage North project was an elaborate tourist attraction that was difficult to sell to the public until the Community Waterfront Friends produced a plan of mixed uses involving residential, parkland and recreational development, he says.

"Looking back that was one thing I believed we had to do. We had a lot of opposition and skepticism (from taxpayers), but we had to weather the criticism and make it happen."

Acquiring the rail lands as a green space should...