After 62 years in the news business, Mike McCardell has decided it’s time to call it a day.
“I’m 80 years old,” he says. “I’m tired.”
Since the mid 1970s McCardell has been telling stories to British Columbians on television, becoming well known for his signature style of delivery and penchant for introducing audiences to unusual and often uplifting characters he meets on the street.
He got his start in print, chasing crime stories in the early ’60s for the New York Daily News. It was a rough and tumble introduction to local journalism in a dangerous city.
“It was my job to count the bodies and the bullet casings at the shootings.”
He had his teeth knocked out one day by a stranger. When his wife Valerie lay on top of their young son and daughter at a playground to protect them during a gun battle between police and a local gang, they knew it was time …