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All the best, Mary Lou!

Mary Lou Finlay to retire from CBC
Mary Lou Finlay, host of As It Happens and one of Canada’s best-known journalists, is retiring from the CBC.
Finlay, who has been with As It Happens for eight years, says she wants a change from the intensity of a daily program. She plans to continue working on her own projects.
“It’s just the right time for me, even though it will be hard to leave. I’ve never loved a job more,” she said in announcing her retirement on Thursday.
“As It Happens is a great program. The people I work with are smart, funny and committed, and so is our audience. But hosting this show demands a huge amount of energy. At this stage of my life, I need to make more room for other projects I’m interested in.”
She first came to national attention in 1975, as co-host of CBC Television’s Take 30. She hosted her own program, Finlay and Company, in 1976 and 1977, and then moved to CTV in 1978 to co-host and produce the award-winning lifestyle program Live It Up.
In 1981 she returned to CBC, joining Barbara Frum as co-host of CBC Television’s nightly current affairs program The Journal. She produced documentaries and special reports for The Journal until 1988.
From 1988 to 1994, Finlay was host of Sunday Morning on CBC Radio. She hosted the weekly media watchdog program Now The Details from 1994 to 1997, and then became co-host of As It Happens.
“At As It Happens I have spoken to thousands of people and it’s so wonderful to be able to do that and to have these wonderful people around me to work with,” Finlay told CBC Arts Online.
Canadians will remember her interviews with a wide range of political and cultural figures including Timothy Findley and Ren√à L√àvesque. She has brought her journalistic skill to such stories as the end of martial law in Poland, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Canada’s struggle with Quebec’s pursuit of sovereignty.
Finlay says she has hundreds of cherished memories of her career, from doing her first interviews to travelling on the job to joining the As It Happens crew.
“I have really loved travelling Canada, especially my three trips to the Arctic,” she said. “You feel very privileged to travel in the Arctic.”
Finlay was recipient of the Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.
Finlay retires Nov. 30. Although she will no longer be the regular voice on As It Happens, she plans to continue to contribute to CBC Radio on a freelance basis.