As 2018 comes to a close it's time to look back at the happy, sad and bizarre happenings in the London region over the past 12 months.

To do that, CBC London looked at locally written stories readers from across the country clicked on most frequently. The resulting list is predictably varied, from an historic city election, to a killer nurse – even thieves breaking into the same pickup truck repeatedly.

London election officials didn't leave anything to chance during the country's first ranked ballot vote. The ballot shown here was used during a mock election held earlier this year to educate London voters about the process would work. (Hala Ghonaim/CBC)

London often wears its status as a test market city as a badge of honour – and that was no less the case when the community held the first-ever ranked ballot election in Canada. People across the country were fascinated by a process that promises to potentially reinvigorate democracy.

A court decision saw fitness giant GoodLife pay $7.5 million to some 22,000 employees who alleged the company didn't properly track their hours among other things. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

A look at a judge's ruling that London-based GoodLife Fitness must pay 22,000 employees $7.5 million in lost wages. The suit alleged, among other things, that the fitness giant failed to accurately record employees' working hours, made it difficult to collect overtime pay and created a working environment where trainers weren't paid for time spent doing tasks such as scheduling clients and developing workout plans.

With a flavour reminiscent of banana and mango together, the Ontario variety of a fully ripened pawpaw is tasty, sweet with a richness that gives it an almost ice cream-like texture. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

Most Canadians have never seen a pawpaw, let alone tasted its downright tropical flesh. It's no wonder so many people across the country were curiously reading about it over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder for killing nursing home patients. Police now believe she committed additional attacks. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)

The eyes of the nation were on St. Thomas on the opening day of the inquiry into the actions of former nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer. While inquiry lawyers couldn't answer why Wettlaufer committed her crimes, people were no less interested in finding out what systemic failures allowed the former nurse to continue a seven year killing spree without arousing suspicion.

This images supplied by OCS shows the store's distribution centre. The OCS website says the pot will be delivered by Canada Post in plain packages. (Submitted: Ontario Cannabis Store)

When the Ontario Cannabis Store was first setting up, people were curious as to what options existed in Ontario for people to get their hands on Canada's newly legalized marijuana. This piece was widely shared.

Dozens of Canadian-made light armoured vehicles sit idle, waiting to be disassembled at this scrapyard in London, Ont. (Ed Middleton/CBC News)

When dozens of Canadian-made light armoured vehicles turned up in a London, Ont. scrap yard, there were many questions. Even seasoned military watchers were stumped as to why so many fighting vehicles were seemingly left for scrap.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer, of Woodstock, Ontario, is escorted by police to the door of the courthouse in Woodstock, Ontario on Monday, June 26, 2017. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)

A look inside the twisted mind of a serial killer and the clues she gave lawyers and investigators on what systemic checks and balances could have stopped or even prevented her from taking the lives of eight elderly patients in her care.

Even though a motion-activated camera with a light was set up inside this pickup truck to catch thieves in action, this man continued to rummage through the vehicle he just broke into undeterred. (Michelle Kaplan/Facebook)

It seems a lot of people can related to the plight of Michelle Kaplan, a London woman who became so fed up with people breaking into her vehicle at night that she installed a motion-activated camera on the dashboard in hopes it would catch a thief in the act. It turns out she got more than she expected over the course of a day and a half.

Police said people nearby tried to administer first aid to the little girl before the ambulance arrived. She was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. (Dave Chidley/CBC)

The sad story of three-year-old girl who was killed a pickup truck making a U-turn inside the Pinery provincial park.

Three days after her 38th birthday, Shelley Cowell was lured into the basement of her Woodstock, Ont. home before being viciously murdered by her estranged husband Christopher Cowell in 2001. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

When Shelley Cowell's relatives made inquiries into the status of her killer after years of not hearing anything, what came back from Corrections Canada surprised them.