Much has happened in 2013 and lots of it is a bit quirky. Here are a few things Your Working Girl would like to take note of.
The Grant Officer of the Year Award
John Cook – Gawker.com
For not making the easy call. Cook researched well-deserving community groups to find a home for the $200,000 he collected on behalf of the Crackstarter campaign. Among the recipients was The Somali Canadian Association of Etobicoke, which is using the funds to leverage more money for a two-year youth leadership project. Click here to find out how the rest of the money is being spent.
The Most Unpleasant Person We By Stuff From Award
A tie
Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Mike Jeffries who doesn’t sell women’s pants sizes bigger than size 10 and other women’s clothing any size bigger than L because he doesn’t want fat people (in particular, fat women) wearing A & F clothes.
Lulu Lemon CEO (former), Chip Wilson: After dealing with a recall of one fifth of their new pants line this spring, Mr. Wilson suggests the sizes of women’s bodies might be the problem. His apology was called one of the worst ever. If you really want to see it click here.
The Most Unreliable Punditry Award
Pollsters
You don’t have to take Your Working Girl’s word on this. Pioneering Canadian pollster, Allen Gregg says “the dirty little secret of the polling business . . . is that our ability to yield results accurately from samples that reflect the total population has probably never been worse in the 30 to 35 years that the discipline has been active in Canada.”
This could be good news for Torontonians who’ve been subjected to reports of Rob Ford’s supposed approval ratings, mostly based on robo-polling conducted by Forum Research. See “If 1000 monkeys typed for 100 years, one would pen Othello.”
The Optimist of the Year Award
Following Commander Chris Hadfield on Twitter was a daily treat for Your Working Girl in 2013. On many mornings “Good 
morning Earth!” was the first sentence she read. She loved him for sharing his adventure, for showing what the best looks like and for his endless optimism about us Earthlings. And he gave us his version of Bowie’s Space Oddity, of which Your Working Girl herself accounts for 43, 715 of the nearly 20 million YouTube views.
The Wealthy Provocateur Award
Peter Buffet, son of Warren
For his op-ed in the New York Times, The Charitable Industrial Complex, where he wrote that wealthy people “launder their conscience” as they “heroically” give back to the communities that are destroyed by their accumulation of wealth. Ouch.
The Best Cover Song of the Year
A tough category in a year that included two very different, but great, versions of Stairway to Heaven. Your Working Girl gives the nod to Pakistani group, the Sachal Studio Orchestra’s version of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five.
The Thanks (for Nothin’) Award
Rob Ford
For supplying an arsenal of ill-advised activities to which young people can now favourably compare their own behaviour. “Well, it’s not like I’m going to be doing lines down at The Bier Market or anything,” a young man of Your Working Girl’s acquaintance said as he was leaving the house for the evening.
Hall of Infamy: 2013 Inductee
Charity Intelligence
Because it shows appalling arrogance in rating the effectiveness of Canadian charities. Because its charitable status was revoked in 2012 for failing to file a return. Because there was no mention of the revocation on its website. Because the Board of Directors is made up of a hugely diverse group of investment fund managers. Because the Fraser Institute’s Peter Cowley, architect of the “free market school system”, is on the Board of Directors. Because it characterizes itself as representing the best interests of the Canadian donor. Because it personifies hypocrisy.
Your Working Girl 
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