Q: What is the purpose of the Miss West Indian Canadian Pageant?
The Miss West Indian Canadian Pageant was created for young West Indian Canadian women to inspire the next generation. It also became a platform to develop their own self confidence and meet like minded individuals to create long lasting friendships, to network, and create opportunities. It has been running successfully since 2010 and still going strong with overwhelming support from the community.

Q: What is the role of the pageant winner?
The role of the winner is to take the initiative to promote the pageant by attending various charity events that Wi Canadian sponsors or donates to. She is also responsible for being social and out going to various West Indian community events in order to inspire and humanize her title. She will also spread the awareness of Community Support, and other programs that Wi Canadian supports. She will also choose a cause of her own to promote with the help of Wi Canadian.

Q: How does the contestant fee work?
To officially become a contestant, confirmed registered contestants are required to raise their fee with the help of 1 or 2 businesses and/or family and friends. This fee covers 1 full page advertisement in Wi Canadian Magazine opposite contestant’s photo (if 2 businesses, full page advertisement will be split in half), 1,000 copies printed targeting West Indians in the GTA (also available online), your business will be announced during the pageant’s opening ceremony, business listing in WiConnect Business Directory on WiCanadian.com, advertisement on Miss Popularity Facebook Contest reaching 120,000+ people, and business listing on the pageant DVD highlights and WebTV.

Including the above, contestant fee also covers the contestant’s experience with the pageant at the meet & greet including appetizers, all 5-6 rehearsals including lunch, dance studio rental, choreographer, magazine photo shoot including lunch, 2 copies of the magazine, pageant t-shirt, poster of their magazine photo, pageant DVD, backstage finger foods, an amazing experience, and so much more!

Q: How does the judging of the pageant work?
As with all pageants, a panel of reputable judges is selected with a wide range of public service skills, and an extensive educational background and/or experience in their field. Without these judges, the pageant would not be a competition therefore, we MUST appreciate their final decision out of respect for their privacy, integrity, and the extremely difficult burden they took on of judging the competition for us. Judges use the same criteria list given to the contestants to be evaluated in their Talent and Evening Gown. Scores are tallied by management to retrieve the top 6 contestants. A Q&A is then initiated and the finalists are determined based on a combined score of Talent, Evening Gown, and Q&A. We have a golden rule to which all contestants sign to and understand and it states: Management will determine scoring system procedures. The “Titles” of Miss West Indian Canadian and her Court will be decided upon and awarded by a panel of selected judges according to the rules and regulations set forth by management and the judging results will be final. Contestant agrees and understands that the pageant can only have one winner. The decision of the judges is final and scores are not to be discussed or disputed. This golden rule is set in place to avoid bitterness caused by hindsight 20/20 which can result in disrespect for the management, the judges, contestants, and all past winners.

Q: In my opinion, I didn’t think the results were fair.
While we appreciate your opinion, the only opinion that matters is that of the 3 judges and the criteria sheet as their guideline. One major misconception over the years is that the pageant talent segment is a dance competition. Talent in pageants can vary. Talent in pageants do not require intricate technique in dancing because the panel of judges are not professional dance teachers. Talent is based on presentation, performance, entertainment factor, originality, connection to the audience, enthusiasm, and creativity. Talent can also vary from singing, spoken word, sport, or playing of an instrument etc. There is also an evening gown segment and while a contestant may score high on her talent, she may fall short on her evening gown score or vice versa. During the next round which is Q&A, the final scores are tallied from the talent, evening gown, and Q&A to determine the final winners. At this point, where a contestant may have ok scores on her talent, extremely high scores on her evening gown, and ok scores on her Q&A, she can still place high or vice versa. There are various scoring scenarios that can determine the outcome which cannot be seen from an audience perspective. The winner always has high scores in talent, evening gown, and Q&A for an all around great impression on the judges. Judges cannot all have the same outcome. One may score high, or medium or low for the same thing which can cause the results to be off by 0.5-2.0 score difference. If we feel the judges final decisions were “completely” off and unfair, we would then have a quick meeting with them to discuss however, we have been pleased with the consistency of our judges since 2010 and the fairness of the overall averages. This pageant is meant for the audience to enjoy, feel proud of to be West Indian, and support the contestants no matter what the results because these girls are brave souls for even attempting such a great public service in front of their friends, family, and community to be proud of.

Wi Canadian is in the business of empowering the West Indian community with class, substance, and style. We respect all the contestants and have treated them all fairly since 2010.

Q: I saw a contestant make a mistake during her talent but still placed. How come?
Our criteria sheet is pretty standard for all pageants with a few exceptions like if a contestant makes a mistake like a quick slip during her talent or evening gown that the judges should not judge her based on her mistake but judge her based on how well she picks herself back up and continues. We do not condone unrealistic expectations from our contestants because we understand that mistakes do happen. For talent, our judges are aware that the wrong file can be played or the DJ might press play too soon or too late or the contestant wasn’t ready for whatever reason or there was a miscommunication with the DJ etc. This allows the contestant at the very beginning of their talent to start over however, if a mistake occurs in the middle of her talent, then it’s all in how well she picks herself back up and continues. The judges aren’t aware of the talent so if a mistake occurs in a dance move, we encourage the contestants to always carry on like nothing happened. These challenges are no different from our life experiences so we encourage the contestants to always shrug it off and keep pushing forward as they should in life.

Q: My daughter’s talent, evening gown, and Q&A was perfect so why didn’t she win?
While we also think your daughter did outstanding, there are other contestants she’s competing with as well. There are also 3 judges with the very difficult task of scoring the competition. All our contestants are COURAGEOUS for joining the pageant, simply knowing that they may not win and still try knowing they can lose. The entire experience is most definitely worth more than the results. We encourage families to support their courageous daughters for making it into the pageant and being part of such an empowering experience regardless of the outcome.