After a week-long online campaign that pitted university against university, U of T’s True Blue has been voted the best mascot in Canada through CBC’s Canadian mascot contest, a Twitter poll competition of 16 mascots across the country.

True Blue, U of T’s blue beaver, won first place after the final round against the University of Western Ontario’s JW the Mustang.

The contest, titled Canadian Mascot Madness, started with mascots from 16 universities across the country placed in a tournament. The chosen universities had what CBC called “Canada’s most unique team mascots,” and included a bee from Concordia University and a duck from Mount Allison University.

Canadian Mascot Madness attracted more than 22,000 votes in total and significant online engagement from the U of T community. From day one, various U of T Twitter accounts embarked on a campaign to rally votes for True Blue.

The contest also made its way onto the U of T subreddit and Facebook meme groups, which played a large part in True Blue’s 52 per cent win over JW the Mustang.

U of T reached the final round after beating Queen’s University’s Boo Hoo the Bear, the University of Windsor’s Winston, and Bishop’s University’s The Gaiter.