A lifelong Airdrie resident was crowned Miss Calgary 2023 on April 1, capping off an exhaustive two-week pageant that included everything from personal interviews, to scholastic exams, and other judged components.
Emily Marston, 28, said it was an emotional moment when she learned she was officially the winner of the 2023 Miss Calgary Pageant on Saturday.
“I’m still in quite a bit of shock,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s not the first pageant I’ve run for, and I represented Airdrie before at a pageant, but never actually placed higher than top 15. So for me to actually win a title is the craziest feeling in the world.”
While she's no stranger to the world of pageants and was previously named Miss Rodeo Airdrie in 2016, the George McDougall High School alumna said this was the first time she'd won an official pageant, and the accomplishment came with a mixture of excitement and relief.
“I’m still trying to get over it because it has been years of perfecting my technique, really figuring out who I am, what I represent, and what I want to do in my community,” she said. “This isn’t something I spontaneously decided to do.”
Marston said the Miss Calgary Pageant took place over two weeks in late March, with multiple divisions and categories, including a personal interview component, a scholastic exam, a fashion show, a fitness portion, and an evening gown portion.
Pageant participants' final scores from all components of the competition were tallied at the end, with a winner officially crowned on April 1.
As a result of her victory, Marston said she will represent Calgary at an upcoming national-level pageant, which could be either Miss Universe Canada or Miss World Canada.
Away from the pageantry world, Marston is also an advocate for local sustainability initiatives. She graduated from Olds College in 2018 with a diploma in environmental stewardship and rural planning, and is currently working towards completing a bachelor’s degree in environmental management at Royal Roads University this spring.
Last summer, she presented to Airdrie City council a proposal for a local urban agriculture collective she was spearheading, called the Mud Pie Project. The project is designed to help reduce the city's food waste and encourage Airdronians to grow more of their own food locally.
Marston said the City has been a great partner since launching the project, and the plan is to do more outreach this summer to help expand the growing urban ag collective.
As someone who grew up rurally rather than in the city itself, Marston said sustainable agriculture is something she holds near and dear to her heart, and the importance of environmental sustainability is what she always tries to promote when she's participating in pageants.
“Especially growing up as a farmer, I really noticed a disconnect between the urban community and the rural world, and a lack of understanding of the necessity of depending on the environment,” she said.
“My goal with every title I’ve gotten is to further educate the community on how to live sustainably and understand that, yes, you’re not going to be perfect, and that’s OK, but what matters is you try to make a difference and try to correct yourself and hold yourself accountable.”
For any locals who would like Marston to attend their event as Miss Calgary, she said they can submit those requests to [email protected]
