Miss Canada Juliana Renee Thiessen

At 03:45 PM 8/10/99 -0600, Juliana Thiessen wrote:

Dear Ms. Stark,

I saw the photo of the Miss Canada International contestants on the cover of the National Post today. It was wonderful to see a Canadian pageant doing so well. I recognize many of the delegates from the Miss Canadian Universe pageant and even one that was second runner up for Miss Calgary in the pageant that succeeded mine. All the girls that I know in your pageant are wonderful young women who will make your pageant proud! From your web page, I see that you have secured many good sponsors for Miss Canada International, which must mean that there is still much support for these kinds of initiatives.

I participated in the Miss Universe competition for Canada in 1998. After such a busy year, I was interested to see that Canada also had a "Miss Canada International" pageant, which I will now follow with interest.

I also saw that much had been written about both the "Canadian Universe" and the "Canada International" pageants on the Internet. I was disappointed to see that on one web page - Mr. Sam Sloan's, there are some pretty harsh references to myself including this statement: "It is illegal for this young women to call herself Miss Canada 1998. The Miss Canada title is owned by a Toronto Company. Her official title is Canadian Search for Miss Universe not Miss Canada. This has been sent to this company's attention." - I believe this one was by you.

I wanted to make certain that I did not offend you, so I would like to set the record straight. At the Miss Universe competition, all title holders are referred to as "Miss theircountry", as I am sure it is with the delegates you have sent to "Miss World". When they post all the photos on the web page, they automatically refer to them in this way. Now, I am sure that the Toronto company that owns the name "Miss Canada" is probably very grateful that you would point out to them that I have been fraudulently using this title, however, I think that if you will go as far as to put these accusations on the Internet, you should also own up to the fact that your title holders refer to themselves in this way. (As per an interview on the Internet with past title holder Linda Bard).

I hope that I have not caused any discomfort. I sincerely wish the best for you and your pageant, I just wanted to set the record straight for my own piece of mind.

Good luck on August 12!

All the best for many successful years!

Juliana Thiessen
Miss Canadian Universe 1998

Thank you for forwarding your letter to me.

As you know, this is a big controversy.

I would be happy to make a web page about you if you could send me your photograph.

Sam Sloan

Dear Sam,

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, I have been in Sydney, Australia that two weeks, tomorrow on my way back to the site of Miss Universe 1998, Hawaii, so I've been slightly indisposed. In fact, right now, I am writing from this cute little Internet cafe, on Sydney's North shore. Okay, enough bragging.

Thanks for the offer about putting my face on the Internet, that's generous of you. Frankly, I don't want to risk it - I'm not the most photogenic of girls... :) For me the whole pageant thing is pretty much over. It was a one time shot, a great time, but not something that will make or break my life. I'm pretty ambitious, "I've only just begun... to live..." - sorry, I'm starting to sound like a Carpenters song. I guess I just wanted to leave everything on the up and up that's why I wrote. It's obvious that unless you are getting into a bar fight, in Canada, pageants won't propel you into a life of stardom - Maybe when there actually was a "Miss Canada", but those are thoughts for another day...

Unfortunately, "MsCanada" doesn't feel that way, she replied by sending me a computer virus - man, some people. I gotta say, Sam, no wonder pageants are so disrespected in this country - some people get way too serious! - And most just make it a good time... oh well, you know what they say, "one bad apple..." (now, I'm starting to sound like my mom...)

For the record, my pageant director was great, there were no false promises. I got to do whatever my little soul desired, and I did, it was great. (Am I spoiled or what?) - just lucky :)

Well, I'm off, sorry about the spelling - no spell check - and I happened to inherit daddy's knack of spelling every forth word wrong...

Hey, btw, great page! Take good care!

Julie (a.k.a. "Juliana Thiessen, Miss Canadian Universe 1998!" - phew)