You might think that a kid with a Toronto Star paper route would harbour aspirations of becoming a journalist one day. Especially after earning the award of Newspaper Carrier of the Year in his district! But up until new CBC Metro Morning host David Common’s high school received a special visitor in Grade 13, the journalist was on track for a very different career.
“I had planned to be a nurse in the back of air ambulances and helicopters. But this broadcaster came and spoke to my high school and talked about what he did for a living and what it involves,” Common says. “It was like a light bulb appeared above my head in that moment. It changed everything, and I decided I would shift into journalism. And that broadcaster was Peter Mansbridge.”
Common was working at CBC early in his career, but another twist of fate sent him in a new direction — while visiting India, a plane got hijacked there.
“It was a major story at the time, so I called up CBC from Delhi, India, and said, ‘Hey, I’m here.’ And they put me on the air right away!”
After that, Common says he was “addicted,” quickly switching gears to foreign correspondence. Since then, he’s travelled to more than 85 countries chasing stories, but don’t ask him to pick a favourite.
“It’s impossible! I have been blessed to go to so many different places and hang out with everyday people,” he says. “I have interviewed prime ministers and presidents, and that’s cool, but I would take a regular person in their life abroad before anything else, because that’s where you find fascinating stories.”
Common recalls being in Haiti after the earthquake struck 10 years ago. “In Toronto, we’re closer to Haiti than we are to Vancouver, so I think about that disaster all the time,” he says. “But I also saw incredible beauty and other things in that moment, how families came together.”
It’s that beauty of the people that he’s excited for in his new hosting gig. “I get to interact with people across the GTA and beyond who I otherwise wouldn’t,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is help people understand the rest of this great big city that we live in and hear some of the common challenges and solutions between us all.”
So why does a reporter who gets an “adrenaline rush” from travelling all over the world for his job choose to come back to his hometown and focus on local stories for a change on Metro Morning? Common says it was time for a new challenge.
“It is a joy to get to occupy this incredible hosting seat in the GTA, a place that is actually pretty international,” he says. “We have so many lines from houses and businesses and communities that go around the world that I’m not getting rid of my international experience. It’s just the international home.”