Miss Universe Canada contestants get ready for their closeup in national pageant

Finalists have been announced for the 60th Miss Universe Canada pageant, whose winner will be crowned June 25 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto, and go on to represent the country in Sao Paulo, Brazil in September.

While the current Canadian incarnation has only been around since 2003, it was responsible for a world champion within a couple years when Natalie Glebova was named Miss Universe 2005.

But with a growing number of avenues for people to express themselves online, a place where the popularity contest never ends, do we still need pageants to provide a launch pad for a young woman's career?

A survey of the 60 faces headed to Miss Universe Canada would suggest the event can still attract a more eclectic bunch than found on the typical reality show.

Below, some interesting factoids gleaned from five of the 60 contestant biographies:

Tina Grant (Calgary): The recent star of a television commercial for Tide Acti-Lift, she once placed second in a female skateboarding competition and wants to be a skydiving instructor someday, which would be a few steps up from her first job: "I worked at the Calgary Stampede sweeping garbage."

Betsy Leimbigler (Saint-Jerome, Que.): While she had a winter weekend job at age 16 at a Beavertails pastry shack on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, and handed out free hot chocolate to people who fell on the ice, she left it behind to become a parliamentary guide and Senate page.

Michelle Manak (Surrey, B.C.): An aspiring Victoria's Secret Angel, she's willing to settle on a journalism career if that doesn't work out, although she was also recently involved in the mud-soaked process of helping to design and build a house from the ground up.

Mannu Sandhu (Surrey, B.C.): A full-time correctional officer, she credits an experience doing door-to-door sales for the Vancouver Province newspaper with helping her learn how to be tough: "I had people shut doors on me and angry people yell at me as I interrupted my naptime."

Sabrina Sixta (Ottawa): This self-described A+ student in math and economics will go to the gym with slides in her hand to memorize, which is apparently all part of her plan to become the governor of the Bank of Canada, even if the only job she's had to date was at a judo camp.