It was an epic year for Toronto and we’re so glad to be right in the middle of all the action! Here are our pics for Top 10 Toronto Moments in no particular order except for the first one. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

1. Blue Jays Playoff Run

Jose Bautista Bat Flip

The Jays playoff run brought the entire City together. People that hadn’t paid attention to baseball in years, people who had no idea what baseball was…everyone! Every Uber I got into the driver was talking Jays, every store I walked into had some Jay paraphernalia hanging about. I remember walking down Wellington towards the Dome for a game and a “suit” walked out of the TD Tower (one of my favourite buildings downtown). He stripped off his blazer to reveal the Jays colours. I don’t think I’ll forget that moment. Everyone was so proud to be a Torontonian. This is my top memory from 2015.

2. Pan-Am Games

pan am toronto

I didn’t realize how much I’d enjoy the experience of the Pan Am Games. At first, like many others, I really didn’t care about the games. I thought they’d be more of a nuisance than anything else (sometimes the traffic sucked!) but big picture, the traffic delays, diverted traffic, and whatever inconvenience you bitched about is nothing compared to the increased profile of Toronto on a Global scale. We have the international emails and phone calls about Toronto Real Estate to prove it.

3. #DeadRaccoonTO

raccoon twitter1

This was sad and hilarious. Torontonians are quite familiar with the sight of dead racoons and squirrels but for some reason the City’s youth rallied around the deceased critter creating a memorial to honour the life of this dumpster diving bundle of cuteness.

4. Toronto Bike Lanes

bike lanes toronto

Back in October it became easier for Toronto to build bike lanes and other paths. There was some ridiculous law in place that made it necessary for the City to obtain a provincial environmental assessment prior to creating these bike lakes. This unnecessary step would delay bike lane construction by 6 months to over a year frustrating Toronto’s cycling community. Thanks to the work of John Tory, the meddling hands of the Provincial government aren’t involved and Toronto’s bike lane infrastructure is improving each and every day.

5. Drake

Drake, Ford

Okay so you may not agree with this one but it’s hard to ignore the unofficial ambassador of Toronto. Toronto native Aubrey Graham aka Drake has lifted the profile of Toronto in North America due to his connection with the Toronto Raptors as their official ambassador. Hi music (whether you enjoy it or not) embraces Toronto culture and The 6ix seems to have taken over from T (tee) Dot as the cool way to refer to our City. Because of Drake, Toronto is now on the radar of many of North America’s youth who’ll hopefully consider Toronto as a place to settle and contribute.

6. Norm Kelly Being Awesome

He is hilarious! Some argue that he should be politicking instead of tweeting but again, because of Councillor Kelly, people are paying attention to Toronto that normally wouldn’t know who we are. Granted Rob Ford did a pretty epic job of getting eyes on us (mind you we could have done without that moron).

7. Fashion Santa

fashion santa

A brilliant marketing initiative from Toronto’s Yorkdale Mall that caught the attention of huge digital publications like Mashable and even made the news as far away as Italy (the fashion capitol of the world!). This worked very well for Yorkdale mall and even better for Toronto once again letting the world know we’re here and we’re full of awesome people.

8. Agent Dayna’s Bike Recovered Using Power of Social

dayna bike

This was truly an inspiring event that helped restore our faith in Toronto’s humanity. Literally thousands of bikes are stolen every day in Toronto…but we got this one back thanks to the power of Social and some amazing community groups in Liberty Village and surrounding communities. You can read more about that here.

9. Suicide Squad Took Over Yonge St w/ Batmobile

suicide squad

Was so surreal seeing this happen. Toronto’s busiest, longest, and most travelled street was completely taken over by Suicide Squad and Batmobile signings were all over instagram. For those of you that don’t know, we film a TON of blockbuster movies here in Toronto. Can you name a few? Our favourite Christmas movie: A Christmas Story was even filmed here in Leslieville! (well part of it anyway)

10. Toronto Welcomes Syrian Refugees

nanor

This is by no means no. 10 or last. This is very close to my heart as the last my family members were finally able to arrive here to join the HUGE Mamourian clan. In fact, they were on the first plane to get here being greeted by Trudeau himself! The CBC caught the emotional moment when my Aunt saw her kids for the first time in years. Needless to say, this is a special Christmas for my family. We can’t wait till they get on their feet and become contributing members of Toronto. Don’t you worry, these refugees are hungry for work and will be giving back what was given to them ten fold (if not more so stop complaining).

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