The Sunshine Girl is a photo feature that the Toronto Sun has run since its first issue on November 1, 1971. It shows a woman in a staged photograph with a short caption, and it was adapted from the topless pictures of British tabloids into a clothed or swimsuit form. This article covers what the feature was, how it changed, the public argument about it, and what can and cannot be confirmed about its end.
What the feature was
According to the Wikipedia entry on the Sunshine Girl, the feature began on the Sun’s opening day and followed the British tabloid habit of printing pictures of young women. The Toronto version usually showed its subject dressed or in swimwear. Early pictures were black and white, color and black and white alternated through the 1990s, and color became the norm afterward. Placement moved too: page three in the 1990s, the back of the sports section in the early 2000s, and page three again in some Sun papers in 2011.
The Sun itself belongs to a larger story. It was founded after the Toronto Telegram closed on October 30, 1971, and its owners changed several times before Postmedia took over in 2015. The paper has its own page on this site: the history of the Toronto Sun. The Telegram is covered in its own article.
The public debate
Criticism has run alongside the feature for decades. The Wikipedia entry, citing Russell’s 1994 book Morals and the Media, says readers and commentators objected that the pictures objectified women and sat poorly beside a paper that wanted to be taken seriously as journalism. A concrete ruling exists. On November 14, 1985, the Ontario Press Council upheld a complaint from a Toronto reader, Margaret Coulter, that the feature portrayed women as sex objects. The ruling carried no penalty. That date comes from the Ottawa Citizen of the same day, as cited by Wikipedia, and the original issue was not available for this article.
Defenders and critics have mostly argued from different premises. Supporters treated the feature as light tabloid tradition, in the manner of the British papers that inspired it. Critics treated it as a recurring example of how a newspaper presents women. Neither view is a statement of fact, and a reader can follow the argument through the Press Council record and the sources listed below.
Timeline of what is documented
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| October 30, 1971 | The Toronto Telegram publishes its last issue. | Canadian Encyclopedia, Wikipedia |
| November 1, 1971 | The Toronto Sun’s first issue; the Sunshine Girl begins the same day. | Wikipedia |
| November 14, 1985 | The Ontario Press Council upholds a reader complaint about the feature. | Ottawa Citizen, via Wikipedia |
| 2011 | The feature returns to page three in some Sun papers. | Wikipedia |
| April 13, 2015 | Postmedia completes its purchase of the Sun chain from Quebecor. | Wikipedia |
| Early 2020 | The photo studio closes during the COVID-19 pandemic; older pictures are rerun. | Toronto Today (May 2025), via Wikipedia |
Did it end?
No source consulted for this article reports that the Toronto Sun ended the Sunshine Girl, so no end date is given here. What is documented is narrower. The Wikipedia entry, citing a May 2025 Toronto Today report by Alex Flood, says the studio had been closed since early 2020 and that the papers reran older pictures, some up to 10 times. It adds that media critic Jan Wong described the repetition as cost-cutting. The same entry reports that after the Winnipeg Sun was sold in 2024, its new owner ended the feature there, citing repetition and a mismatch with new leadership’s values. That decision applies to Winnipeg only. The status of the Toronto feature should be checked in the paper’s current editions.
Who appears, and why no names are given
The feature has shown hundreds of private individuals over more than half a century. None is named here. No ranking or “most popular” label is offered either, because no published survey or measurement of that kind was found. Some women who posed have spoken to journalists about reruns of their pictures, and those accounts belong to the reporting cited above. No source consulted tracks what the women pictured later did, so nothing is claimed here about careers in the entertainment industry or the corporate world.
Where to look next
Toronto Public Library holds newspaper runs and indexes, and the article on Toronto newspaper archives lists where to start. Decisions of the Ontario Press Council were later held by its successor, the National NewsMedia Council, which can be asked about the 1985 ruling.
Frequently asked questions
When did the Sunshine Girl begin?
On November 1, 1971, the day the Toronto Sun published its first issue.
Is the Sunshine Girl still published?
The sources reviewed do not say that the Toronto feature has ended. They report that older pictures were rerun after the studio closed in early 2020. Current editions of the paper are the only reliable check.
Was the feature ever formally criticized?
Yes. In 1985 the Ontario Press Council upheld a reader complaint that it portrayed women as sex objects. No penalty followed.
Who is the most popular Sunshine Girl?
No source measures popularity, so no answer exists. This site does not rank or profile the women who appeared.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Sunshine Girl” (secondary; cites Russell, Morals and the Media, 1994, the Ottawa Citizen of November 14, 1985, and Toronto Today of May 15, 2025): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Girl
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Sun Media Corporation”: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
- Toronto Today, Alex Flood, report on Sunshine Girl reruns, May 15, 2025 (cited via Wikipedia; original not opened)
- Ontario Press Council ruling of November 14, 1985, reported by the Ottawa Citizen (cited via Wikipedia; original not opened)
Related reading
- History of the Toronto Sun
- The Toronto Telegram and its closing
- The Toronto Star: history of the newspaper
- Toronto newspaper archives
- Toronto culture, sports and language
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 27). The Toronto Sun’s Sunshine Girl: history of a tabloid feature. http://localhost:8210/blog/who-is-the-most-popular-toronto-sunshine-girl-a-closer-look-at-the-rising-star-of-the-canadian-modeling-scene
MLA: “The Toronto Sun’s Sunshine Girl: history of a tabloid feature.” History of Toronto, 27 Oct. 2026, http://localhost:8210/blog/who-is-the-most-popular-toronto-sunshine-girl-a-closer-look-at-the-rising-star-of-the-canadian-modeling-scene. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “The Toronto Sun’s Sunshine Girl: history of a tabloid feature.” Last modified October 27, 2026. http://localhost:8210/blog/who-is-the-most-popular-toronto-sunshine-girl-a-closer-look-at-the-rising-star-of-the-canadian-modeling-scene.
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