Christepher Wee is a busy man. When people earn a Mr. Gay title for their country, oftentimes they don’t do much else but enjoy the win – and there’s no harm in that. Christepher, however, is not that kind of fellow, nor has he ever been. When he entered the Mr. Gay competition for Canada, he didn’t go in expecting to win; he went in hoping he could make and foster contacts that would help him with the social activism he felt so strongly about. Yet, he won, and was Canada’s People’s Choice to boot.

Now, he’s getting ready to jet off to Rome for the World competition happening from August 25th to 31st. He’s doing his best to prepare, in between all of his other engagements – he has been to numerous Pride celebrations since his win, has attended the Human Rights Conference hosted in Toronto during World Pride, and is focusing on different charities and groups such as McLaren Housing Society, Rainbow Refugee, and many more. One glance at his website blog, and you’ll see.

Right now, Christepher is working on keeping himself organized. There are a lot of things he’s good at, and clearly time management is one of them. After he spoke for about five minutes on the initiatives he is working on in Vancouver alone, I had to ask him how he managed to get everything done even while he’s jetting across the country attending festivals and parades.

The trick is good old time management, and keeping in contact with everyone he meets. He gave an example of how he managed to engineer a float for McLaren Housing Society during Pride (an organization that helps house and foster a feeling of community for people living with HIV/AIDS) while he was busy flying all over the country. "[McLaren is] about providing a sense of community and home. Our float was a facade of houses, and a park with park benches, and flowers and greenery and umbrellas." What did Christepher do? Well, he designed the float, he knew a DJ, he knew the owner of a gardening center – he knew a lot of people, and they all came together. Christepher doesn’t just make contacts, he maintains them.

And he’s making a lot of plans, regardless of how Rome ends for him – after the competition he has his sights set on touring Europe, getting to know different communities, and fostering connections with other representatives from the countries that he is soon to meet in Rome. He also wants to visit Asia with the same agenda, and get to know the people there.

"That’s why I got into Mr. Gay Canada," he says. "I didn’t think that I was going to win, I went in to meet the different delegates, to see what I could do with them, and also to meet activists in the community. And I did."

While he would love the honour of the title, it’s a fact that being Mr. Gay Canada opens doors for him and brings him new opportunities; he hopes the same after being involved in Mr. Gay World. "At the Human Rights Conference I met quite a few activists and pioneers, and I’ve been in touch with them. I’ve been invited to go to Sweden, and also to Greece, to a couple homes there to see how they run their programs. I’ve been in touch with activists from Uganda, and Kenya, and Botswana. So hopefully, next year sometime, or a year after, I can go to their home countries and see what they’re doing there."

This July he spoke at Surrey Pride, quite controversially for the city – Pride organizers contacted him after the town refused to let them raise their rainbow flag. Christepher moved his schedule around to make sure he could arrive as the keynote speaker – though, at the time, only three board members knew what issue he was going to talk about. The speech made the news and was wildly discussed, but Christepher isn’t afraid to take a stand. In a way, that’s what being Mr. Gay Canada is all about - far more important than showing up for a Pride party is his continued devotion to being a representative of his community.

Competing for Mr. Gay World has its own set of trials for Christepher: he is given tasks to complete leading up to the competition, which will help the judges make their decisions. But he is also in the running for the People’s Choice Award. Only one country has won the award for five years running, now; Christepher hopes to break that streak with Canada.

He’s looking forward to going into the competition and representing our country. "I think Canada has always been seen in the eyes of the world as a leader in human rights issues and LGBT issues," he said. "It’ll be great to show the world that when we come together, we really come together."

You can keep track of Christepher through Facebook, and his personal website. And, of course, you can help make him People’s Choice!