My five most popular posts of 2015

Every year, I find it’s a helpful exercise to look back on some of my output from the past 365 days to see what resonates. Some of that is the stuff that resonates with me, personally, and some of it is what resonated with people more widely. I’m happy to see that this year, more than any previous ones, the stuff that resonated widely is largely the stuff that resonated with me, as well.
According to a combination of Google Analytics, Medium’s built-in analytics, and Facebook + Twitter shares, these are my most popular pieces of writing of 2015:

Journalism 2015 – reflecting on cuts on a contracting industry – this one went gangbusters on Twitter, and some very prominent people shared it and said it resonated- pretty amazing

Why all those headlines about Aboriginal women knowing their killer are a little misleading – this one also got notice from some prominent people – I’m told it was shared by Wab Kinew on Facebook – and was eventually reworked into an analysis piece for CBCs

Hello, let’s talk about a park: Why giving civic space its indigenous name is everything and nothing – this one surprised me a bit. It felt very personal, but also very local. But it got responses from people across Canada and even as far away as Germany, with people saying it rang true to them. Very gratifying.

This is why the Prime Minister didn’t attend the Canada Winter Games in Prince George – fun times

So a magazine called you a name: a survival guide from Canada’s Most Dangerous City – this was a fun one. The Economist magazine called Vancouver boring and some people there had a slight meltdown. This was my tongue-in-cheek response.