The crowning of the Cochrane Lions Rodeo Queen has been moved to Saturday this year to allow them to kick off their reign during the Labour Day Weekend. 

For the past month, contestants Riley Larsen, Kyla Lightfoot, and Anna Rich have been judged in several different scenarios. Judging wraps up tomorrow following their participation in the free pancake breakfast rodeo kickoff and the early evening Slimdor Ranch Rodeo.

The pandemic has seen Breanna Correia do an exceptional job of representing the Lions and serving as an unofficial ambassador for Cochrane for nearly three years. Coordinator Susan Black says they took this opportunity to change the crowning day to kick off the new queen's reign with a bang.

"She'll start her reign on Saturday afternoon and she'll ride in the Labour Day Parade as the queen on Monday."

The process of selecting the queen has evolved over the years. It was a simpler process In the beginning and made sense to crown them on Monday. But now there's a full month of judging and preparation.

"The tradition had carried on and we would always crown on Labour Day Monday, but what it eventually did was have your current queen's last appearance at their own parade, which didn't make sense. So we changed that up and make it so their first appearance is at the first parade."

Once again a team of judges has had their hands full in choosing between three fine candidates. Whoever wears the crown will have a full schedule over the next year.

"We go to rodeos throughout southern Alberta into Central Alberta. We participate in a large number of community events throughout the whole season in Cochrane, and when you add those all together we go to close to 60 events."

The estimated time of the crowning at Saturday's rodeo is between 2 and 3 p.m.