Nov. 7, 1983: Cynthia Kereluk wins Miss Canada pageant
Cynthia Michele Kereluk, a 23-year-old, blue-eyed blond from Edmonton, won the 1984 Miss Canada pageant.
“It’s the greatest event I’ve ever received in my life, to represent my country,” Kereluk told Journal reporter Conal Mullen. “I didn’t expect to win. I was very surprised ... and I still am.”
Kereluk was back in town by the end of the week preparing for a one-year stay in Toronto, where an apartment and car were provided. Her other prizes included a $1,500 scholarship.
“I’d like to thank Edmonton for choosing me,” she said, referring to her earlier Miss Edmonton title. “I’ll miss Edmonton. The people are so friendly.”
Kereluk was a Saskatoon native who had moved to Edmonton 13 months earlier, after living in Vancouver and the Okanagan Valley. She credited an unconventional family for helping her develop a positive approach to life.
“I was adopted. My mother took in foster children and mentally and physically handicapped adults. I want to relay that to other people out there. I came this far and I didn’t have the perfect family.”
Kereluk, a fitness instructor, was chosen from among 38 contestants. She told judges she hoped to obtain a doctoral degree in holistic medicine.
She explained that holistic medicine involves medicine of the “whole self” — the spiritual, mental, and physical self. Kereluk listed her sports interests as weightlifting, judo and gymnastics. She had won a number of athletic awards, including two judo championships, and awards in short story, poetry and drama competitions.
Two other women representing Edmonton have won the title of Miss Canada in the pageant’s history: Terry Lynne Meyer in 1975 and Leslie McLaren in 1991.
From 1985 until 2000, Kereluk helped millions of Canadians and Americans keep fit with her televised exercise program, Everyday Workout. She has held fitness workshops and telephone consultations, contributed to exercise videos and books, and produced her own exercise videos. In 2007, Kereluk, now 52, married English singer-songwriter Paul Rodgers, best known as a member the bands Free and Bad Company. They live in the Surrey/White Rock area of British Columbia.