Winner: The Toronto Blue Jays. At the start of the MLB season, the Jays were an afterthought in a loaded AL East. Instead, they shook off a slow start to deliver a season for the history books. It was fuelled by stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., great management, and crucially, the power of friendship. Along the way, all of Canada got swept up in Jays fever, with the team’s popularity reaching new heights. Though they fell agonizingly short in Game Seven versus the mighty LA Dodgers (IKF, why didn’t you take a bigger lead!?!?), George Springer's homer, Trey Yesavage's heroics, and all the other memories will live on forever.
Runner-up: Mark Carney. The central banker turned political powerhouse brought the Liberal party back from the brink and, once in charge, completely reoriented the party’s policies to focus on matters like nation-building infrastructure and defence spending. However, he didn’t hit a single dinger this year, so he’ll have to settle for second.
Runner-up: The TSX. We lost track of how many times we wrote “Canada’s main stock index hit a new record high” in the Markets section this year. Boosted mainly by the surging price of gold — but also strong performances in energy and financials — the TSX surpassed 30,000 for the first and outperformed both the U.S.’s S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.