Editor’s Letter: Our annual debate over the year’s most influential Torontonians

Last year, PWHL games were the hottest ticket in town. Toronto’s team sold out its home arena 12 times, and the league overall had 40 million views on YouTube from people in 88 countries. Yet I didn’t quite get just how large those players loom as cultural figures in this city until I brought my daughters, 10 and 8, to the cover shoot for our December issue. When they spotted Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner and Blayre Turnbull, their faces beamed. My eldest turned to me and gushed, “This is the best day of my life.”

At Toronto Life, our annual debate over the Most Influential list is usually a rip-roaring affair. Our editors, who know Toronto and Torontonians better than anyone, pitch the people they believe belong at the top of the list and then defend their selections like a prime-years Matlock. In this, the year of interest rate–induced angina, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem (No. 2) rated highly. Mayor Olivia Chow (No. 3) was a contender for her bipartisan leadership, inexhaustible stamina—have you noticed how many events she attends?—and commitment to solving the housing crisis. There were convincing points for telecom kingpin Edward Rogers (No. 4), who keeps racking up victories: over his siblings, over Corus Entertainment, over his MLSE co-owner Bell, at the Competition Bureau and in the courts. And he’s got ambitious plans, starting with the 50,000-seat stadium at Downsview that will soon host Oasis. (Now if he can just will the Blue Jays to the World Series...)

But the most persuasive case was for the Toronto Sceptres. The team, about to enter its second season, stands at the head of a global movement in professional sports. In 2026, Toronto will inaugurate a WNBA team, led by Larry Tanenbaum (No. 9) and team president Teresa Resch (No. 21), and a Canadian soccer start-up called the Northern Super League will soon launch with a slate of six teams including AFC Toronto.

Women’s sports are technically impressive, fast-paced and fun to watch. Yet so many women’s hockey leagues have come and gone, always with the same dashed hopes. So what makes this moment demonstrably different?

Our features editor Stéphanie Verge put this question to the cover stars in her roundtable discussion. It’s one I asked the general manager of the ­Sceptres, Gina Kingsbury (No. 38), as well. Three factors coincided, she told me: a collection of smart, committed “hockey ops” people came together with a common vision; they were carried along by the momentum created by women’s Olympic soccer and the WNBA; and, crucially, they had the financial backing of Mark Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a private equity firm with a $325-billion (US) portfolio that includes the LA Dodgers and Chelsea Football Club. Walter is willing to invest cash and take a loss in the short term, which gives the league time to get rolling. What’s more, tennis icon Billie Jean King is on the league’s advisory committee. She dropped the puck at the first game in front of a rabid fan base, a moment that still resonates with Natalie Spooner. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much electricity go through my body,” she told Verge.

My daughter expressed the same thunder­struck sentiment upon meeting Spooner and her teammates. After the photo shoot, I went online to buy Sceptres tickets, although I quickly realized I should have known better: season tickets for 2025 had already sold out.

Malcolm Johnston is the editor of Toronto Life. He can be reached via email at editor@torontolife.com.