Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she precious? Isn't she the wrong Miss Universe Canada?
That was Denise Garrido's reality when she was mistakenly named as the winner of the pageant for 24 hours before being told that an error put her in first place, rather than third runner-up.
The 26-year-old from Bradford, Ont., was crowned Miss Universe Canada 2013 on Saturday in Toronto, but the next day, the beautiful brunette's dreams were crushed after an audit found that an accidental typo affected the top five finalist results.
Despite this error being the first of its kind in the pageant's 11-year-history, organizers barely mentioned the mistake. Instead they announced the real winner, Calgary-native Riza Santos, in a news update on the Miss Universe Canada website.
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Miss Universe Canada Contestant Jenna Talackova
Beauties of Canada (which runs the Miss Universe Canada pageant) apologized to Garrido:
"We would like to offer our sincere apology to Denise Garrido for this human error discovered while validating the results. Miss Garrido’s example and grace represents all we look for at Miss Universe Canada. We have no doubt she will continue to succeed in her endeavours and we wish her well. We truly hope she remains a strong part of the Miss Universe Canada Organization."
But Garrido is taking it all in stride. “We are extremely lucky to have such a gracious young lady,” said pageant spokesman Andrew Lopez. “She totally understands.”
We have yet to hear any words from Denise herself, as her last Twitter update was made before the pageant.
This embarrassing error comes after a controversial decision that was made (and then reversed) last year to eliminate transgender contestant Jenna Talackova from participating in the Miss Universe Canada pageant.