Today is Valentine's Day. And since I'm single, I like to imagine that I meet a beautiful Canadian woman and she takes me to Canada. I had a recent dream where I ran a contest to determine the sexiest Canadian woman.
I have met many non-famous Canadian women who were sexy, cool, graceful, and fun, but mentioning them here wouldn't be helpful to you since you have no idea who they are. So I want to throw out some names of women who I think have that essence du Canada.
Molly Parker: Long-time readers knew Parker would end up on the list. She isn't the classic beauty; I love her freckles, even if others don't. And her pale skin sometimes blends into the scenery too well. All she has to do to get you to notice her is walk into the room. Parker (left) doesn't have to say a word; truly one of the best non-verbal actresses you will ever find. As I described recently, she is a cool center of calmness.
Caroline Rhea: Caroline brings you into her world with her humor and smile. Something about you is drawn to her. Despite her self-deprecating humor, she has some nice curves. Rhea, like most of the women on this list, offers a pretty face and a fun attitude. Plus, her curves can keep you warm on a cold winter night in her native Montréal.
Catherine O'Hara: O'Hara proved that outer beauty wasn't a handicap in being really funny in her days on "SCTV." While she had classic beauty looks, she wasn't afraid to throw that off for a good laugh. And that makes her a good sport.
Clara Hughes: You might remember Clara Hughes from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Hughes is a Summer and Winter Olympian, winning medals in cycling and speed skating. She won two bronze medals in the 1996 Summer Games and four medals, including a gold medal, in three Winter Olympics.
Hughes (left) is the only Canadian to ever win medals in summer and winter. And she'll be back in cycling in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London at the age of 39. Clara Hughes has also been a role model, increasing awareness about depression, having suffered from depression herself. Hughes is the national spokesperson for the Let's Talk campaign to support mental health services. She's a hero on and off the cycle/skates.
Sarah Polley: Similar to Molly Parker, her sexiness doesn't come from the obvious. She is also a cool center, though in a different way from Parker. On a basic level, she is the girl next door, but you always know she has more layers than the rings of a California redwood tree. Her directing and writing make you want to love her more for her mind. After seeing “Take This Waltz” last fall, I fell in love with her storytelling. And if you see her in “Guinevere,” you would want to be with her for everything else, too.
Jessica Paré: Besides being a good actress (in the right role), Paré’s beauty lies in part that she doesn’t take her beauty that seriously. That is so Canadian. Her two best films are “Stardom” and “Lost and Delirious,” but she also had a lot of fun in “Suck.” Jessica was just as convincing as a hockey player as she was as a model in Denys Arcand’s “Stardom.” Boys and young men can easily get caught up in Paré’s figure, but if you only focus on two things about Jessica, you are truly missing her essence.
Jill Hennessy: Jill is secretly Canadian, though she clearly had that Canadian coolness on her American TV shows, “Law & Order” and “Crossing Jordan.” Graceful, dark-haired beauty would be enough to put her on the list, but you honestly feel like you would love hanging out with her, even shooting pool, even if she wasn't that pretty. As if that wasn't amazing enough, Jill (left) has a twin sister, Jacqueline. For a great but brief shots of the Hennessy sisters, look for “Dead Ringers,” an early David Cronenberg film where Jeremy Irons plays a set of twins.
Sarah McLachlan: Her voice is enough to have her on my list, but her warmth and her laid-back style adds to her charm. Plus, she has a face you could stare at for hours and not get tired. She has such a pretty smile. Her love for animals warms your heart. Even if those commercials to save the animals can drive you nuts, I always watch when her commercial comes on. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.
Laura Calder: Calder is still very unknown and seems so aloof, you wonder if she ever wants to have a boyfriend. Her cooking shows have developed a small cult following and I am one of those people. You look at her and think she's pretty. You see her figure and you go “Wow!” You listen to her speak and her voice is extremely cool.
You watch her casually talk about French food for 30 minutes on TV and you want to go home with her, and you realize that your motivations have very little to do with her physical beauty.
The beauty of Canadian female celebrities is that they sing and act and tell jokes. Their beauty lies not just in the lines of the face, but in the way they move, act, and perhaps even breathe.
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Beauty, inside and out, can be subjective. So while these women didn’t make the top echelon of my list, these lovely ladies might be on your list:
Kim Cattrall, Sandra Oh, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Chalke, Rachel McAdams, Evangeline Lilly, Margot Kidder, Natasha Henstridge, Neve Campbell, Genevieve Bujold, Andrea Martin, and Gilda Radner.
Maybe Playboy playmates are your thing, including the late Dorothy Stratten, Shannon Tweed and her sister Traci, Kimberly Conrad Hefner, and Pamela Anderson 1.0, pre-surgery, pre-“Baywatch."
How about Alanis Morissette, Cobie Smulders, Ellen Page, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Helen Shaver, Jennifer and Meg Tilly, Kathleen Robertson, Susan Clark, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Rae Dawn Chong, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rachel Blanchard, Mia Kirshner, and Anna Paquin (born in Canada, but considers herself from New Zealand).
Linda Evangelista, Carly Pope, Gabrielle Miller (Corner Gas), Cree Summer, Laura Vandervoort, Nia Vardalos, Catherine Mary Stewart, Deborah Kara Unger, and Sandrine Holt.
Canadian women who have passed on: Mary Pickford, Yvonne de Carlo, Fay Wray, and Colleen Dewhurst.
Honorary Canadians (women who married Canadians): Hilary Duff, Carrie Underwood, and Scarlett Johansson
Molly Parker photo credit: Getty Images
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