Not necessarily, not always. But Jim Perry, Canada’s pre-eminent game show host, warbled that superlative in the theme song that the pageant used throughout the 1960s and '70s. (Perry hosted the pageant for 24 years, his tenure expiring the year before the pageant, not Perry, dropped dead.)
The title "Miss Canada," in just two words, summarized the nation’s best single (though a girl living with a common-law husband was given the title once), quasi-articulate and possibly talented woman between the ages of 18 and 24, as the epitome of charm, poise, personality, and intellect, with a stately set of legs being an unspoken, and later loudly proclaimed as secondary, asset.
What began as a swimsuit pageant to celebrate the centennial of Hamilton, Ontario, evolved into a national contest where upwards of 40 women came to compete for the chance to promote Old South orange juice, Coca-Cola, Coty cosmetics and Elan skis, all while sporting a fashionable wardrobe courtesy of their friends at Dominion Textile and Algo. The winner’s victory was followed up (beginning in 1979) with a trip to the "grande dame" of all pageants, Miss Universe, and promotional work that took her across our country, from the Pacific coast to the Arctic and the Atlantic provinces, where this archetype of feminine livelihood could be found opening hockey games, cutting ribbons at shopping centers and gleefully riding floats in parade after parade.
It was the pinnacle of womanhood for many. Miss Canada represented class, brains and a safe investment. It was something a father could enter his daughter in without fear of corrupting the family’s values, something a teenage girl could aspire to be, and something a business executive could use to benefit his product sales. With the first nationwide television broadcast in 1963, many interested parties perked up and saw potential in "them thar gams" right from their very own homes.
Who could have dreamed that this swimwear parade, which began in 1946, would ultimately develop into one of Canada’s most sought-after promotional items and highest-rated television specials? There have been 46 women who have held the title of Miss Canada. Forty-four of them managed to hold on to the crown for a full year, while one stubborn flamenco-dancing winner from Ottawa was dethroned two months into her reign due to "parental interference." Her successor managed to keep the title for 20 straight months because there was no money to stage the contest the following year.
