A year of drama and folly
Let’s face it: 2016 had way more than its share of appalling news.
It began with Donald Trump beating on his Republican rivals like so many cheap piñatas. Amazingly, appallingly, it ended with . . . Donald Trump, days away from taking the oath as the 45th president of the United States.
It was the year of Brexit and Ghomeshi and Pokemon. And, tragically, it was the year the world stood by and watched as an ancient city and its people were pounded into dust by the bombs of a murderous regime. Aleppo joined a long list of martyred cities, alongside such tragic names as Guernica and Sarajevo.
In Canada, it was a more hopeful year. Justin Trudeau strode the land, his bright shiny government floating on a wave of popularity, the New York Times hailing Canada as newly hip under its dynamic young leader. Everything was going swimmingly — until suddenly it wasn’t with hard questions about cash-for-access and election reform.
Some things, though, never change, and the Star’s annual end-of-year Darts and Laurels for the goats and heroes of the year are among them. Here’s our modest selection for a year we certainly won’t be missing:
To teenage swimming sensation Penny Oleksiak. She won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals in Rio, was the youngest Olympic medallist in Canadian history and the most decorated Canadian athlete ever in a single Summer Games. Bravo!
To Bonnie and Clyde, the cuddly capybaras who captured the city’s imagination when they escaped from the High Park Zoo in May. The rascally rodents spent weeks on the lam, dodging zoo staff and eluding a professional capybara chaser.
To Donald Trump. For everything. Just everything. All of it.
To Toronto councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, for remaining refreshingly silent for most of 2016. City council’s biggest blowhard kept a low profile until the very end of the year when he emerged to wage a losing one-man campaign against road tolls. Too bad: You were on a roll as long as you kept your mouth shut.
To Bombardier Inc., for playing with our emotions. You delivered just enough of those spanking new low-floor streetcars to whet our appetite for 21stcentury transit — then kept missing deadline after deadline for getting more of them on Toronto streets. Why are you toying with us?
To Sheldon Wolf, the Calgary businessman who responded to pointed questions about his credit repair companies by creating a website to attack the Star and investigative reporter David Bruser. We know the news media are taking it from all sides these days, but that’s a bit much.
To the good folks at the Toronto Wildlife Centre, who rescued tiny “Scoop” the raccoon from her perch on a fourth-floor ledge of the Toronto Star building and nursed her back to health. In a year of disastrous news for the media, we finally had something to cheer.
To culture whiz Jeff Melanson and french-fry heiress Eleanor McCain, for providing the juiciest marriage-gone-wrong saga of this year, or maybe any year. Hope it all works out for you, kids.
To Premier Kathleen Wynne, for showing how to execute a well-timed flip-flop by changing her mind about cash-for-access fundraisers.
To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for stubbornly sticking with cash-for-access fundraisers in the face of criticism from all sides (including this page). Here’s a tip: Give Premier Wynne a call and get some expert advice on how to reverse field elegantly on this issue.
To Drake, for being a world-class ambassador of a city desperate to be thought of as world-class. He’s given The 6 a lot, including the nickname “The 6.” We may not actually use it, but we really like that other people might.
To New Democrats, for flubbing the leadership test. They gave poor Thomas Mulcair the back of their hand in a confidence vote, but after eight months not a single candidate has stepped forward to succeed him. This is getting seriously embarrassing.