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HuffPost Canada Readers Have Spoken. The 2013 Newsmaker Is...

Why He Isn't Our Newsmaker
TORONTO, ON- NOVEMBER 14 - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks to the speaker in council City Hall in Toronto. November 14, 2013. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Steve Russell via Getty Images
TORONTO, ON- NOVEMBER 14 - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks to the speaker in council City Hall in Toronto. November 14, 2013. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Last week, we asked our readers to help us pick our 2013 Newsmaker of the year. Would it be Calgary's Naheed Nenshi, Toronto mayor Rob Ford, astronaut Chris Hadfield or Canada's controversial senators?

In the end it wasn't even a contest.

We tallied up the votes on Twitter, Facebook and our poll and our readers overwhelmingly chose astronaut Chris Hadfield as the newsmaker of the year.

The final tally:

Chris Hadfield: 971 votes

Naheed Nenshi: 476 votes

Rob Ford: 156 votes

The Canadian Senate: 137 votes

There wasn't any shortage of scandal, disaster and bad news this year. But readers voted to recognize the best of the country and Canadians, to celebrate the highlights rather than the low points that made headlines.

Runner-up Naheed Nenshi is a politician who helped lead Calgary through one of its most trying summers. Online he's responsive, communicative and not dismissive, even when some of his constituents are a little less than polite.

Compare him to the obfuscators in Ottawa or the political (and personal) train wreck in Toronto and Nenshi stands out even more.

And when it comes to Chris Hadfield, need we say more?

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