Volunteers answered questions about eligibility and safety, but most importantly, they chased down, in real time, the elusive whereabouts of vaccine doses. At its peak, the organization had about 427,000 followers across its platforms. In addition to its Twitter and Discord accounts, Vaccine Hunters was also on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Nobody received a salary or any kind of payment at all, but they spent countless hours navigating hospital websites, printing out flyers, knocking on doors, doing whatever it took to find elusive doses and book appointments. They came from every imaginable background, with skill sets of comparable diversity: teachers, students, coders, financial people, former models, translators, doctors.

They were as young as 19 and as old as 90. The Vaccine Hunters were scattered across the country. The verdict on that, and much more from an especially eventful year, below. And Drake and the Weeknd continued their friendly slugfest over which Toronto artist was more globally dominant. Tech geniuses, especially in the field of AI, proved themselves the new rock stars. Star athletes gave young people something to aspire to. Smart, brave leaders helped the country make progress on reconciliation. The indefatigable John Tory passed a slew of smart programs that made our restricted lives a little more livable. Chrystia Freeland did a little bit of everything. Anita Anand was the one on the horn cajoling, begging and badgering vaccine makers to make good on their contract. Doug Ford, for all his missteps (and sweet Mary there were a lot), steered the province through the storm of the century.

Of course, many others played big roles in shaping this calendar year. Soon, that little group of very good Samaritans became an official network, called Vaccine Hunters, and they were our everything. The pharmacy in Cedarvale with a fresh supply of Moderna. A few tech-literate souls with warm hearts and big brains offered to help us all navigate the system, doling out tips and tricks about where to go, when to show up and what to bring. Slots that were clearly available were- click!-in fact occupied.Īnd then, salvation. The provincial website was labyrinthine, the language dense. So when the feds secured hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines destined for Canadian deltoids, it was all too predictable that the final hurdle-the online booking of vaccination appointments-would be a catastrophe. What it does not do well is quick, tech-based problem-solving.

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