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Hamilton Arts & Letters
Driving up onto the grounds of Hamilton’s Gore Park, an expectant audience awaits Miss Canadiana as she exits her black stretch limo and hands out souvenir Canadian flags on the way. Afterwards, a lucky few could ride in the limo with her. No one in this enthusiastic throng realized Miss Canadiana had never been officially crowned.
Miss Canadiana was, in fact, the creation of Hamilton-raised, Toronto-based performance artist Camille Turner. Turner took on the persona of Miss Canadiana in 2002, and she continues to perform as a character she describes as an “icon that challenges assumptions about Canadian identity and normative beauty.”1 Here at Hamilton’s 2010 It’s Your Festival, one of her stops on the Miss Canadiana: Red, White and Beautiful Tour, she was a VIP guest along with the mayor and other local politicians at the Hamilton citizenship ceremony, which involved an official court with presiding judge. It didn’t ultimately matter if she were officially crowned or not; after all, she performed the same public function as that of a crowned contestant.
[Distillate © HA&L + Earl Miller {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]
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