""I 'm the most hated man in town," Ray McKelvie told me. The town in question was Clinton, British Columbia, approximately 350 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, on Highway 97. Later, I asked another Clinton resident whether McKelvie's claim was true. She thought for a moment. "Well, there's Joe, who lives in the trailer park," she said. "We don't like him much either. But it's about even.""
"It was 2013, and antiquing was big. Part of the popularity surge had come from television. First came the BBC and PBS versions of Antiques Roadshow. Then 2010 saw the debut of American Pickers, a History Channel reality show about two hunters of collectibles who scour the United States for hidden treasures. It was joined by a Canadian version in spring 2011. The production team of Canadian Pickers (it aired in other countries as Cash Cowboys) had recently brought their cameras to Clinton."
Ray McKelvie claimed to be the most hated man in Clinton, British Columbia, though locals compared him to another disliked resident. McKelvie ran the North Road Trading Post from a converted gas station at the north end of town, with a garage and lot dotted with rusty vehicles. Clinton's main street had become filled with antique stores and the collectibles trade. Television shows such as Antiques Roadshow and American Pickers, along with a Canadian Pickers production, drove an antiquing surge around 2013. The arrival of television pickers provoked resistance from McKelvie, who threatened the production crew when they came to town, while other shop owners welcomed the publicity.
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