Toronto is hosting the Pan-American Games in 2015, and you know what that means — time to pick the mascot! The choice of the mascot is going to be left up to the public, with an online vote commencing on Monday, April 22, but the six finalists have been revealed today so we can really think about which is going to get our final vote. After all, whoever gets picked it going to be representing Toronto and the Games all over the world for the next two years! This is important stuff guys. 

The designs were all submitted by kids under the age of 16 from across Canada, though the ones you see here have been redrawn by a professional artist with the right colour scheme, though the integrity of the original design has been maintained. Each submission was judged based on its kid appeal, originality, how well it represents Toronto or Canada, and of course how well it represents the spirit of the Games. The names of the design teams are being withheld until after the contest closes.

A lot of the usual Canadiana is represented —  a moose in sneakers, a beaver with a maple leaf head (which I am pretty sure is gonna win), a “punk porquepine,” a rainbow coloured owl, and little raccoon in “cool shorts.” I think those two kids in the bird outfits are described as “twins in funky hats.”

Voting begins next Monday at 9, on toronto2015mascot.ca, as well as the official Facebook page. The winner will be announced on July 17th. My vote goes to the twins based on funky hats alone. I make a lot of decisions this way.

[via Toronto2015.org]

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Megan Patterson is the Science and Technology Editor at Paper Droids and currently a Toronto Standard intern. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise. 

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