I'll get right to it. Here are my picks for 2011 (can’t wait for the debate on these):

Number Five: Christy Clark becomes Premier of BC

Love her or hate her, the return of political powerhouse Christy Clark to elected office was big news in BC this year. Gen-Xer Clark went from her successful gig as a CKNW radio host to Premier of BC in less than three months, blowing away her competition for the BC Liberal leadership even though she had no seat in the Legislature and the support of only one sitting MLA, Harry Bloy.

Clark has travelled a rocky road ever since. Many anticipated a speedy general election was on its way in the fall of 2011, given Clark’s series of upbeat campaign-style announcements over the summer. But then Bill Vander Zalm, John Cummins and the HST referendum came along. If they weren’t enough (and they are), Clark has been saddled with other baggage from her predecessor Gordon Campbell, too – all of which have been a drag on her administration and threaten to sink it yet.

While Clark’s personal popularity remains strong, the Premier and her team must craft an agenda and brand that is uniquely hers – all while facing major challenges from the BC NDP’s formidable Adrian Dix in the centre-left, and the BC Conservatives’ John Cummins on the right. Time will tell whether she can turn things around for the next general election in 2013.

Number Four: Stanley Cup Riot

After the Canucks made it all the way to the finals, Vancouver made a fateful decision to host Olympic-style street events – complete with jumbotron TVs for the public to watch the hockey together – in downtown Vancouver. And for the first few evenings, we all loved reliving a bit of our 2010 Winter Games experience downtown.

However, many reported a different mood on the June evening of Game 7, as thousands of young people poured off public transit already intoxicated in the early afternoon. After the game ended, things quickly got out of control. Cars were set on fire, young men and women cheering and posing for cameras in front of the flames. Next came skirmishes with police, smashing of store windows and looting well into the night. Incredibly, much of this was caught on camera and documented – even by the rioters themselves – on Twitter and Facebook.

The riot shamed a city so proud of what we’d accomplished when we hosted the world for the 2010 Winter Games just a year earlier. Reviews, blame and accusations followed, but collectively as a city, we all take responsibility for what happened that night – and for making it right.

Number Three: Orange Wave and the late Jack Layton

Late NDP leader Jack Layton’s incredible ride on the “Orange Wave” of federal NDP support in the May 2011 election was unquestionably one of the biggest stories of the year. Jack’s infectious optimism and dynamic personality had always been a favourite of Canadians, but in this election, he translated that popularity into a historic breakthrough for the NDP in Quebec, bumping the Liberals for Official Opposition status in the House of Commons.

When news broke that Jack’s cancer had come back with a vengeance later that summer, many of us hoped that, like the last time, Jack would recover and bounce back. But it wasn’t to be. Jack Layton passed away on August 22, 2011. Canada took Jack’s death personally, with an outpouring of grief, love and community not seen since the passing of Pierre Elliott Trudeau a decade earlier. In Layton’s own words, written just days before he died:

Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.

We miss you, Jack.

Number Two: The Japanese Earthquake and tsunami

The pictures that came out of Japan during and following the enormous Tohuku Earthquake – measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale – were terrifying. The courageous Japanese people are no strangers to earthquakes, and more prepared for tsunamis than any other nation on earth. In fact, the word ‘tsunami’ is Japanese for “harbour wave” or tidal wave.

And yet, no one could be prepared for the terrifying, massive black waves, collecting ships and debris as they went along, that crashed into Japan’s northeast coast with devastating force, and destroyed homes, factories, and farmland in its wake.

Over 16,000 Japanese died and nearly 6,000 were injured in the earthquake and tsunami, with nuclear reactor damage and resulting radiation putting countless more people at risk in the weeks and months that followed. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that "[…i]n the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan."

Number One: Global protests and the Occupy Movement

Well, Time Magazine didn’t dub “The Protester” Person of the Year for nothing. Whether one is referring to the Arab Spring, protests against Putin in Russia or Occupy Wall Street, here’s no question that protesting – after being ‘so 1960s’ for a good two decades – is cool again. We were not always clear whose side we were on – Wall Street financiers or the people who lost their homes in the credit crisis...or dictators in "stable" Arab regimes or their citizens demanding democracy and freedom from oppression. Ironically, many wealthy and powerful rushed to count themselves among the “99 per cent," seeing the the writing on the wall.

“Something’s happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” In North America, the Occupy movement (and Occupy Vancouver here at home) forced us all to think and talk about income equality, and the dramatic gap between the 1 per cent – those who hold most of the wealth in our society – and the rest of us.

This kind of protest against inequality is not new – the American and French revolutions were precipitated by just these kinds of disparities in income and power between a small, privileged minority and the struggling majority. The people of your democracy are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore. 

While there are some important principles at issue here, the Occupy movement also challenged us to truly consider how an encampment of people, without a plan or a goal or focus, could make meaningful change over the long term. I hope the activist spark that has now been lit by the Occupy movement in hundreds of thousands of people around the world keeps the their passion for change alive, and that they continue to make their voices heard.