Countrywide wisdom
Another local woman in the running for Canada’s Smartest Person
The secret to winning the Canada’s Smartest Person competition, Katy Warren has said, is down to the theory of multiple intelligences: being at least a little bit smart in a number of different areas.
It earned her the title about a year ago, after she beat 29 other competitors from across the country to win CBC-TV’s “Canada’s Smartest Person” game show.
CBC has announced this year’s contestants, including a psychic, a neuroscientist, a paralympian and a professional video gamer. Among them is 22-year-old Jennifer Martin, a copywriter from St. Philip’s.
Starting Nov. 13, five groups of six competitors each will go head-to-head in a series of challenges testing their intelligence in different areas — linguistic, physical, musical, visual, social and logical — with one in each group advancing to the final round.
The five finalists will participate in the championship round airing Dec. 18, where one will be crowned Canada’s Smartest Person for this year.
Warren, 22, is a former provincial spelling bee champ, a unicyclist, a roller derby girl, a ukulele player, an improv actor and a lifelong member of Girl Guides of Canada.
“It was such a confidence builder,” she told The Telegram at the time of her win. “You’re in this awesome environment of everyone playing together, and nobody had any bad attitudes or anything. It was one of the most fun and crazy experiences I’ve ever had.”
On Wednesday, The Telegram asked Warren what advice she had for the new contestants.
“The best advice I can give them is to focus on taking it all in and having fun,” she said. “I didn’t go in with any expectations for myself, so I was focused on just enjoying it all, and I didn’t get nervous at all until the very end. The less time you spend panicking and secondguessing, the easier it’s going to be to get the challenges done quickly.”