Marcie Laking is the new president of the Toronto Humane Society

By unanimous vote of the board of directors.

A huge congratulations to Marcie. She is one of the hardest working animal welfare people I know who has wholly dedicated the last two years of her life to saving and then reinvigorating the THS, not to mention the years of volunteer work she'd done before that.

Michael Downey, who was the president last year, leading the THS out of the mire it was in post-Trow, decided not to run again and nominated Marcie in his place. He remains on the board and he has been and will continue to be a valuable guide for Marcie in her new role.

I'm not going to say she deserves the position of president because that implies it's some kind of reward. It's no reward. Instead, it's going to be a long and difficult job with lots of really good days and lots of really bad days. She will have to bear the burden of animal life and death in that facility and I know she will bear it personally. She will have to walk gingerly through the animal welfare politics, lead the still recovering charity to financial well-being, guide the formation of a practical and efficient organizational structure built around animal care.

Her work is cut out for her so I'm not sure I'd say she deserves to be president of the Toronto Humane Society but the Toronto Humane Society absolutely deserves her to be its president.

I always knew she'd get there.