2018 was good to Mayor John Tory - as he easily won a second term as Toronto's man at the helm.
However, in other ways, it was a challenging 12 months. The van attack on April 23, followed by the mass shooting on the Danforth were two events that changed the way many Torontonians felt about their city.
"These were things that I think people thought could never happen in Toronto, and we all hope they didn't and we all hope they never do again," Tory told NEWSTALK1010's John Moore in a year-end interview.
"But if you looked at the impact that had on the city, it was profound of course," he added. "I saw the city heal itself, and it was a lesson for me as the elected leader of the city that your best approach is to try and reassure, and to comfort and to try and deal with emergency situations as best as you can."
Only four days after the July 22 Danforth shooting came a shock of a different type - Premier Doug Ford's announcement that the province wanted to slash city council by nearly half, leaving the city with 25 wards rather than the proposed 47 for the upcoming term.
"It was a 30-minute phone call and I've probably never had a phone call like it in my life," Tory says of the conversation with Ford, who had been in the job less than four weeks at the time.
"I was using swear words [....] because I was just so upset at the sort-of disrespect and the 'inappropriateness' of doing this in the middle of an election and doing it without any consultation at all."