Mason B. was the son of John MacKay and Margaret Bell Skinner. He was a well known tenor and director of the Caledonia Male Chorus, a celebrated choir in New Glasgow est. about 1910. In 1925 the Caledonia Male Chorus directed by Mason B. MacKay entrained to Moncton and presented a 14 number concert on Station CNRA. They opened with "Canada, My Canada" and closed with the Halelujah Chorus and became the first Pictonians to broadcast on radio.