Miss Grand Canada is a national beauty pageant,[1][2][3] founded in 2017 in Calgary by Angelo Di Benedetto of Di Benedetto Model Agency.[4] The contest winner represented the country in its parent international platform, Miss Grand International.[1][2] After the license was taken over by Pageant Group Canada Inc. in 2019, most Canadian candidates at Miss Grand International were determined through the Miss World Canada pageant.[5][6][7]
Canada has been sending its delegates to compete in the Miss Grand International since 2013.[8] The highest achievement was the second runner-up, won in 2014 by a model and actress from Alberta, Kathryn Kohut.[9][10]
Background
From 2013 to 2015, the Miss Grand Canada license belonged to the Miss Earth Canada organizer, Rosotro Productions, headed by a Montréal-based Filipino-Canadian organizer, Ronaldo Soriano Trono. The Canadian representatives to Miss Grand International during such a period were elected through the Miss Earth Canada pageant.[11]
Canada began to organize the separate event for the Miss Grand International pageant in 2017, under the management of the Calgary-based model agency Di Benedetto Models, headed by Angelo Di Benedetto.[12] However, the pageant's winner, Maddison Fysh, resigned the title, which caused the organizer to appoint their affiliated model –Natalie Allin – to instead compete in the international competition.[13][14] The same incident also happen in 2018, when the runner-up Grace Diamani was promoted to take over the position after the original winner – Veronica Rodriguez – had relinquished the national title for undisclosed reasons.[1]
In 2019, Benedetto lost the franchise to Michelle Weswaldi, the president of the Miss World Canada pageant and Pageant Group Canada.[15] Since then, the first runner-up of the said national contest has automatically been assumed Miss Grand Canada,[16] Except in 2021, the Miss World 2020 contest was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the winner of Miss World Canada 2020 to compete at Miss World 2021 instead, and the 2021 national contest was also delayed, the organizer then decided to hold an ad hoc virtual contest to determine the country representative for Miss Grand International 2021. The contest featured 23 national finalists, in which a Ukrainian-Canadian model, Olga Bykadorova, was announced as the winner.[17][3]
Editions
The Miss Grand Canada was organized as a stand-alone pageant three times; in 2017 and 2018 by the Di Benedetto Model agency,[13][14][18] and the online pageant in 2021 by the MTC-W Inc.[17]
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