TORONTO – Veteran CBC journalist Mary Lou Finlay has decided to retire as of November 30th.
In a note to staff today, vice-president, radio Jane Chalmers called Finlay “one of our most outstanding journalists and hosts. 
Finlay (left) has co-hosted As It Happens for eight years and spent many more years with the English networks as a respected journalist and host. “She is ready to leave the rigors and intensity of a daily program in order to have the time to develop her own projects,” wrote Chalmers.
“It’s just the right time for me, even though it will be hard to leave. I’ve never loved a job more,” said Finlay. “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.”
Finlay co-hosts the program with Barbara Budd.
“This is excellent news for Mary Lou,” added Chalmers, “and I know that all of us at CBC Radio are wishing her the very best as she embarks on the next stage of her career. However, there is no question that Mary Lou has made a tremendous contribution to both CBC Radio and Television over the last three decades, and her absence will certainly be felt.
Finlay 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. She returned to CBC in 1981 to join Barbara Frum as co-host of CBC Television’s legendary nightly current affairs program The Journal. She later turned her attention to producing in-depth documentaries and special reports for The Journal where she remained until 1988. Along the way, she won a prestigious Martin Goodman Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.
Finlay “brought her journalistic and interviewing skills to CBC Radio in 1988 as host of another current affairs powerhouse, Sunday Morning, where she remained until the spring of 1994. She hosted the weekly media watchdog program Now The Details from 1994 to 1997, and then became co-host of As It Happens,” recounted Chalmers.
Over the years Finlay has brought penetrating insight and journalistic skill to such stories as the end of martial law in Poland, the fall of the Berlin Wall and our national struggle with Quebec’s pursuit of sovereignty, and to powerful interviews with a wide range of political and cultural figures including Timothy Findley and Rene Levesque. She has loved speaking with ordinary Canadians passionate about our country and its role in the world every bit as much as with the politicians and celebrities who have crossed her path – and she has a special fondness for the Arctic, which she has visited three times in her CBC career.
“Mary Lou is a solid journalist and a wonderful broadcaster, and has always set the bar high in bringing quality journalism to As It Happens audiences. As we move forward, we are committed to maintaining those same standards and giving our listeners the superior shows they have come to expect from CBC Radio.
“It’s important to recognize that this is not a goodbye, but rather a farewell. The door is open for Mary Lou to contribute to CBC Radio programming down the road, and we all hope that we will hear her familiar voice on CBC once again,” concluded Chalmers.
