culture Your Choices for Toronto’s 2016 Superhero and Supervillain of the Year

Congratulations to your Superhero of the Year, and lots of boos and hisses to the Supervillain.

It’s time for the big reveal.

It was a tough competition, but after carefully considering the candidates, Torontoist readers have selected the most heroic and villainous of all in 2016.

In the hero category, swimmer Penny Oleskiak takes the bronze for her outstanding and memorable four-medal Olympic games.

For highlighting issues in the public interest in ways that Toronto institutions could not ignore, activist group Black Lives Matter Toronto received the second-most votes.

And the grand winner for Superhero of the Year is the Bloor Street Bike Lane pilot project, for providing a vital—if overdue—piece of infrastructure, hopefully with more improvements to come.

Earning the second honourable mention from voters in the Villain category is Police Leadership. This nomination included Police Chief Mark Saunders, Police Services Board Chair Andy Pringle, and Toronto Police Association chief Mike McCormack.

The runner-up is Bombardier. They earned the recognition from Torontoist voters for missing so many deadlines on delivering the city’s streetcars that no one believes what they have to say anymore.

The selection for Supervillain of the Year is Pedestrian Blaming. In a year with the most pedestrian fatalities in over a decade, some media outlets and public officials still felt the need to point out when a victim wasn’t wearing bright colours, or to find increasingly creative and bizarre ways to defend a status quo that doesn’t work.

Thanks to all the readers who voted, a congratulations to our Heroes for being great, and we hope that all the Villains have learned their lesson for 2017.