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Toronto's Timeless Beauties

Beauty pageants in the city date back more than 80 years

Toronto has a long and storied history of beauty contests. This month, the CHIN Picnic returns to town, and that means one thing: a bikini contest. But despite dating back more than 40 years, the CHIN Picnic Pageant was not the city’s first attempt at parading a bevy of beauties in front of a throng of people on a hot summer’s day. Beauty contests in this city date back more than 80 years to 1926, when the first Miss Toronto Pageant was held at Sunnyside Park.

Beauty contest participants included anything and everything in the good old days: babies, dogs, birds, you name it, we subjectively judged it. But 1926 was the first occasion where the city’s loveliest ladies were put to the test, five years after the Miss America Pageant got the North American beauty ball rolling in Atlantic City.

Although the location changed to the Canadian National Exhibition, Woodbine Park and back again, the contest survived until 1991.

During the war years, beauty contests boomed, some say as a misguided attempt to entice women into the workforce. Case in point: Miss War Worker 1943. Seriously.

Today, there is also the Miss Chinese Toronto Pageant, Miss Tourism Toronto, in addition to Miss Teen Toronto, Miss Universe, Miss Galaxy, Miss Earth and so on.

Despite what one might think, the contests aren’t without controversy. A beauty brouhaha took place last year during the Miss Tourism Toronto contest when a judge was dismissed after it was revealed that her hobbies included reading tarot cards, and practising reiki, apparently dark arts. Nuff said. The 2009 Miss Tourism Toronto contest was won by Haylie McCulloch, a ringer who also happened to win the CHIN bikini contest in 2008. Not sure what she’s entering this year, but look out.

The CHIN contest is slated for July 4 and 5. Perhaps with the economy in the tank, they could add a new contest: Miss TSX 2009. That’s sure to give the index a rise. Ahem.