Populist: 2007

By David Topping

The most dreaded of all year-end lists is the self-reflective one: the one where an entity reflects on its past twelve months; shows off its best work; and mercilessly, shamelessly rings in the new year by tooting its own horn.
So, without further ado, welcome Populist 2007, a look back at Torontoist’s most read, most commented-on, and most recommended articles from the past twelve months––a list that you could probably assemble yourself (save the most viewed list) thanks to our Favourites page, but where’s the fun in that? So here we are––fifteen of some of our best articles out of the 2,700 that we’ve published this year, from ROM bombs to Sam’s signs.

Most Recommended

1. Ceci N’Est Pas Une Bomb (47 recommends)
BY DAVID TOPPING, NOVEMBER 29
In the hours after the ROM bomb scare, all signs pointed to Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson, an OCAD student, as the person behind it. Torontoist published our interview with Jonsson the following day, only hours before he turned himself in to police.
2. Tall Poppy Interview: Meryn Cadell (33 recommends)
BY MARC LOSTRACCO, FEBRUARY 26
In the early 90s, Meryn Cadell was famous in the Toronto scene, most of all for her song “The Sweater.” Now, a decade and a half later, she’s a male university professor. Marc Lostracco’s great interview with Cadell was our most popular Tall Poppy interview of the year, followed by trey anthony & Ngozi Paul of Da Kink In My Hair and the infamous Brad J. Lamb.
3. These Are The People In Your Neighbourhood (28 recommends)
BY ROXANNE BIELSKIS, FEBRUARY 8
Roxanne Bielskis’s comic strip, Povertyville, was certainly our most polarizing feature, but the caricature of everyone’s least favourite neighbour, George, was met with near-universal joy. Everyone, it seems, totally hates at least one neighbour.
4. Audi Vandalizes Toronto Parks and Roadways (27 recommends)
BY MARC LOSTRACCO, MAY 19
Audi pissed off just about everyone in the city at the start of the summer by installing giant logos around the city––not only without a permit, but with a fake permit. It’s a good thing the Audi TT offers such a smooth and glorious ride, otherwise people’d be really angry!
5. PhotoTO: You Give Me Faith (26 recommends)
BY MILES STOREY, AUGUST 29
Jonathan Goldsbie spotted this year’s best discovery, a sign at Queen and Palmerston written to “Larissa, Gus (?), Nurse with ice cream cone, Man with cellphone, [and] Woman from La Hacienda with wet towels”––urban heroes of the highest order who helped a bicyclist after a brutal spill.

Most Commented

1. SOS––Save Our Sam’s (111 comments)
BY DAVID TOPPING, JUNE 14
When Sam the Record Man went out of business this year, the fight to save its front façade got dramatic, as Heritage Toronto and the city rushed to its rescue to save the key parts of the property before it went to auction (though much of its interior still got practically given away anyway).
2. Ceci N’Est Pas Une Bomb (86 comments)
BY DAVID TOPPING, NOVEMBER 29

3. Queen’s Park Media Analysts are So Ghetto (83 comments)
BY DAVID TOPPING, JULY 22
Aileen Siu, a Queen’s Park employee involved in the hiring process for media analysts, called Evon Reid, a black man who she had never met but who she had spoken to on the phone, a “ghetto dude” in a forwarded e-mail that she (accidentally, like it matters) forwarded to Reid. Cue Star-backed hysteria, political grandstanding, a case of false Facebook identity, and, ultimately, Siu’s resignation.
4. Help Make The TTC’s Website The Better Way (80 comments)
BY DAVID TOPPING, JANUARY 3
In the first of what it turns out would be two massive attempts at public consultation on behalf of the TTC, we asked our readers what they’d want to see on the new and improved TTC.ca. A year later, the new site is still forthcoming, but we’ll, of course, be all over it every step of the way.
5. Making History in Ontario (69 comments)
BY CHRIS TINDAL, MAY 21
Though we’ve all but forgotten it now, the middle of the year saw our political world obsessed with the Mixed Member Proportional system––a system that in spite of alllll of its merits would eventually easily lose in the provincial election. So that kinda sucks.

Most Viewed

1. PhotoTO: You Give Me Faith (50,000 views)
BY MILES STOREY, AUGUST 29

2. Ontario Coalition Against Discourtesy (34,000)
BY JONATHAN GOLDSBIE, MARCH 31
The perfect example of a good guerilla art project done by an OCAD student in a year that ended with a far more famous bad one, Mark Daye’s faux street signs drawing attention to the city’s homeless problems were stimulating, to-the-point, and, most importantly, effective.
3. “Thank God For Trent Reznor” (31,000)
BY MARC LOSTRACCO, APRIL 19
Supermegaultraproducer Bob Ezrin praises Trent Reznor for being the captain of his own ship. File sharers everywhere rejoiced.
4. The Little (Little!) House On The West Side (17,000)
BY ALEXANDRA SAMUR, OCTOBER 18
If you have $179,900 lying around, really really like Geico’s Tiny House ad, and are claustrophilic rather than -phobic, you’ll love Toronto’s smallest house.
5. Bon Cop, Bad Cop (15,000)
BY DAVID TOPPING, AUGUST 22
Cops dressed as protesters at the Montebello protests tried to incite other protesters. Too bad for the former group that they were not only uncovered as police officers, but that the whole incident was recorded, and uploaded to YouTube.
(These ones didn’t quite make the most-viewed list, but are definitely worthy of mention: Karen Whaley’s p0wner Of This Car 4 m4y0r, Fauxreel’s Rosie, Will You Marry Me?, and Marc Lostracco’s scoopalicious Inside The ROM Crystal: A First Look.)
Happy New Year! If you want to see your name up in lights––or illuminated LCD screens, at least, which is kinda the same thing––we’re always hiring.