Nicole Dunsdon

Nicole Dunsdon (born 1970) was the last person to win the Miss Canada competition before it was cancelled in 1992 due to changing times. Some women's organizations considered the pageant to encourage the sexual objectification of women.^[1] Dunsdon, from Summerland, British Columbia,^[2] ascribed the cancellation of the pageant to the early 1990s recession, and expressed disappointment "that something as traditional as the Miss Canada pageant was touchable by the economic recession."^[3] She graduated from Summerland Secondary School in 1988.^[4] Dunsdon was crowned Miss Canada in October 1991.^[5] Cynthia Kereluk, another woman from Summerland, had been crowned Miss Canada seven years prior.^[6] Dunsdon also competed in Miss Universe 1992 in Bangkok, Thailand.^[7] Dunsdon graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Arts in 1994 and from the University of Western Ontario with a Master of Arts in Journalism the following year.^[4] As a journalist, she was one of the editors of Harold McGill's memoirs.^[8] In addition to editing three books, Dunsdon worked with The Calgary Herald and The Globe and Mail before taking her current position in communications with SAIT Polytechnic's Applied Research and Innovation Services department.

In 2007, Dunsdon shaved her head as part of a fundraiser for the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.^[9] In 2009, Dunsdon co-founded HANDS (Helping Across Nepal Development Society) to foster global citizenship locally and literacy abroad.

Dunsdon said in 2009 that there are beauty pageant contestants that meet the stereotypes; "egotistical, materialistic, slightly air-headed and ill-informed... but those ones never win."^[10]

References