TORONTO — When 30-year-old Shawna High walked onto the set of The Price is Right in Los Angeles earlier this year, she never thought she’d be the subject of international criticism for mistakenly thanking her friends in “Canadia.” But she says that after facing blowback from the media and people around the world online, her critics need to understand the full story.
“I arrived that morning super excited, nothing was working in my favour; I was late, parked in a tow zone to run across the boulevard to make the gate,” she said, adding that she then met two Canadian women and chatted with them as they waited in line.
“We got to know each other, we talked, I told my story of why I was there and I eventually had everyone surrounding me rooting for me to be a contestant on the show.”
Family connection
In 1981, High’s mother went on The Price is Right as a contestant and was one dollar away from winning a car in one of the show’s games, called Lucky $even. When High was five months old, her mother was killed in an impaired driving collision.
Two years ago, High found video of her mother on The Price is Right on YouTube. It was the first time she had ever seen video footage of her mother.
“I still don’t know who posted it but I love them for it. In the six minutes, I get to see every emotion possible. Because when she passed I was only five months old so when she went up there I got to see her happy, I got to see her excited, nervous, I got to see her win, lose, every emotion you could tie in in six minutes was in this clip and I even got to hear her speak,” she said.
“It was something so great because she left three of us girls behind and my two sisters in Washington were seven and nine at the time and they have a memory of her. And the only memory I have of my mom is that little footage on YouTube that someone had posted of her being on The Price is Right.
“I got to see her, I got to see what she does, her movements, her smile, her excitement, it was just amazing.”
High set out to honour the memory of her late mother, by winning the car she had lost 34 years prior.
Canadian support
Her newfound Canadian friends were overjoyed and wanted nothing more than for her to win after hearing her story.
“One of the women actually got teary-eyed. She was super happy for me, she was amazed,” High said.
“She was just excited and she was visiting with her best friend to attend the show and to try to be a contestant but at that point I think her mind had changed and she was rooting for me, she really wanted this to happen for me.”
Despite showing up late, word of High’s story spread throughout the studio and she was quickly ushered to the front of the crowd.
“We were super close, we were right behind contestants’ row, there was music playing it was so exciting to be there and it all started and it was just the way the stage looked and it all just seemed, I just felt like my heart was pumping,” she said.
“I thought I heard my name, I really did think that I heard my name. I couldn’t hear because people were so loud, it’s exciting and for some reason I thought they said High. I couldn’t really see, I couldn’t hear, but I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I think my name was called.'”
That’s when High was pulled up onstage with the iconic “Come on down!” catchphrase.
“I was so excited I don’t even think I hugged the party I was with, I hugged the people that were to the left of me and I was just full of joy,” she said, adding that her Canadian friends watched the video of her mom and later reminded her she was at the exact same podium her mother stood at in 1981.
“I did not win the car but you know what it was the experience that was the best. I didn’t win the car but I did win, I bid on some kitchen appliances and I won all of the appliances.”
She said she wasn’t sure at the time what she would do with the double-oven she won as a prize, which now resides in her living room, but had one last shot at a car in the classic Showcase Showdown at the end of the show.
That’s when she stood up to thank her loved ones, but instead made a blunder that has plagued her ever since.
‘Canadia’ catastrophe
“I do remember the moment clearly, and it’s not because I sat at home watching my episode numerous times, it’s because it’s all over the Internet,” she said.
High said the pressure of trying to honour her mother’s memory amid the bright lights and loud crowds of the show caused her to say “Canadia” instead of Canada, but never thought the fallout would be so harsh.
WATCH: ‘Price is Right’ contestant says hello to friends from ‘Canadia’
“You know I don’t think I realized that I said that. I may have realized and I wasn’t worried about it,” she said.
“I don’t care that I shouted out to a country and I happened to say ‘Canadia,’ it was an accident, but hey at least I shouted out to my new friends that were there supporting me.”
High says she woke up to a message from one of her Canadian friends, Mika Audette of Ottawa, who sent her a Canadian news article chastising her for mispronouncing the name of the country.
“She said, ‘Oh my gosh babe, you made the news — this is why I love you.’ And she told me not to let it get to me, that no one understood how nervous I was,” High said.
“And I read the article and I’m like, ‘Oh no here we go.’ And then I started reading the comments and stuff that people said and just the lack of compassion that people had. I don’t expect anyone to know my story or know why I was there, I did not expect the amount of criticism I got for saying ‘Canadia’ on accident.
“I was on a live TV show, how excited does anyone get to spin that wheel and to see all those comments and the video going viral of this mistake and people laughing at me, it hurts you know? I have a daughter that was bullied last year and it’s hard.”
Online backlash
High said the nasty comments and critical articles were “robbing my excitement” and for days after the news broke she said she wished she didn’t go on the show.
“I didn’t know I was going to be the joke, it’s embarrassing. I won’t let someone take the complete moment from me because no one understands the connection I did have. But I don’t expect them to know my story,” she said, adding that she began responding directly to critics on social media.
“If people knew my story I think they would appreciate my appearance a little bit more and for someone to go and laugh and call me an idiot or say that I’m trailer trash or that I’m big or all of these things, it just takes the experience and makes it like, ‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t have went and been televised.'”
High said she understood this type of thing could happen by going on TV, but never expected Canadians to attack her as well.
“When Canada makes fun of me for shouting out to two women that were awesome that day, I didn’t expect it to be so negative,” she said.
“I didn’t even know that I had said ‘Canadia’ and I just woke up to it being a joke. My apologies.”
By speaking out about the cyberbullying she endured, High wants to get the message across to the public that there can be more to the story when someone embarrasses themselves in a very public way, and one should always think twice before lashing out.
“You never know, everyone has a story and I think my story could humble anybody,” she said.
“I just wish that people knew why I was on there and show a little compassion, be excited for me. This is a happy story, this has happiness in it. There’s so much negative, let’s focus on the positive. Stay humble, be kind to people.”
High said despite everything, she is considering travelling to Canada in the near future to visit her friends in Ottawa.
“I don’t think anybody could rob me fully of the moment but I do want to feel better about that mishap,” she said, adding that she doesn’t hold a grudge against her neighbour to the north.
“Stay kind Canada.”
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