1. Michael Telford
2. Ashley Dunne

Canada's Worst Driver was a Canadian television series that aired on Discovery Channel Canada and occasionally on the CTV Television Network from October 3, 2005 to December 17, 2018. The show was based on Britain's Worst Driver, was a part of the Worst Driver television franchise and was produced by Proper Television, whose president, Guy O'Sullivan, was the director of the original Britain's. A note to Canada's Worst Driver - Donna Hicks from Sault Ste. Marie On the show was Donna Hicks, a 61 year old grandmother, that lives here in the Sault. Her driving was atrocious.

Canada's Worst Driver Ever was the ninth season of the Canadianreality TV show Canada's Worst Driver, which aired on the Discovery Channel. As with previous years, eight people, nominated by their family or friends, enter the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to improve their driving skills. This season brought back nine former contestants, who were either named Canada's Worst Driver or failed to graduate in the final episode of their respective seasons, giving them one more chance to improve their driving and avoid being named Canada's Worst Driver Ever.^[1] This year, the Driver Rehabilitation Centre is located at the now-defunct Dunnville Airport in Dunnville, Ontario for the fourth straight season. The initial drive started in Thorold, Ontario and the final road test occurred in Hamilton, Ontario.

• 3Synopsis

Experts[edit]

• Cam Woolley is the show's longest-serving expert, having been present in every season except the first and has seen the habits of Canadian drivers change drastically since 2000, with the most common offense having changed from DUI to distracted driving over the previous decade. He is the traffic expert on CP24 in Toronto and had a 25-year career as a traffic sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police. As the longest-tenured expert on the panel, Cam is already familiar with every returning driver except Chris.
• Philippe Letourneau is a veteran high-speed driving instructor who counts BMW and Ferrari among his clients. Since joining the show in Canada's Worst Driver 3, the average car has gained considerably in speed and acceleration, with the high-speed emphasis of this season making his job a particularly important one. As the second-longest-tenured expert on the panel behind Cam, Philippe is already familiar with every returning driver except Chris, Henrietta and Michael.
• Shyamala Kiru is the show's resident psychotherapist and relationship expert, a position which has become more demanding each year since joining the show in Canada's Worst Driver 7, as the stresses in driving and everyday life seem to always be on the increase. As the second-shortest-tenured expert on the panel, the only returning drivers Shyamala is already familiar with are Kevin, Shirley and Sly. With Shyamala returning for her third season, that ties her with Dr. Louisa Gembora (the psychologist from seasons three-five of Canada's Worst Driver), as the longest-serving psychologist so far.
• Tim Danter is in his second season as the show's head driving instructor. In this position, he not only gives the drivers help and instructions for challenges, but gives them further lessons off-screen. As the shortest-serving expert on the panel, the only returning driver Tim is already familiar with is Kevin. With Tim returning for his second season, that officially makes Dan Bagyan, the head instructor from Canada's Worst Driver 4, the shortest-tenured head instructor in Canada's Worst Driver history.

Contestants[edit]

This season saw nine former contestants returning from previous seasons. However, it also has the fewest graduates so far with only four. Six of them returned with their original nominators and two (Dale and, initially, Michael) joined with new nominators, while Chris returned without a nominator with him. The only season to see no contestants returning is Canada's Worst Driver 4 (neither Ashley van Ham nor Emily Wang returned this season).

• Shelby D'Souza, 37 and licensed for 11 years, from Calgary, Alberta, was nominally the runner-up in Canada's Worst Driver 3 though, in a way, was the 'worst driver' from that season since the actual worst, Jason Zhang, immediately gave up driving for good. Shelby and his brother, Elerick D'Souza, feel that regardless of the outcome, he is now a much better driver. He drives a black Chevrolet Avalanche and drove a black Mitsubishi Outlander to the rehab centre.
• Christopher 'Chris' Ferguson, 40 and licensed for 21 years, from Malton, Ontario, was the first-ever person to be awarded the dishonour of being named 'Canada's Worst Driver' in the first season. In the eight years since, however, he believes that he has hugely improved as a driver and will have much better luck this time around. His wife, Michelle Ferguson, was his nominator, but she did not accompany him during his second appearance on the show. He drives a white Pontiac G6.
• Henrietta Gallant, 68 and licensed for 42 years, from Summerside, Prince Edward Island, was deemed to be the worst driver in Canada's Worst Driver 2 due to a terrible road test performance in Toronto—which she failed to complete, no less—and refusing to admit fault for her mistakes. While her husband, Andy Gallant, acknowledges that she has at least learned to take responsibility for her errors in the seven years since, both of them fear that it may be too late for her to learn what she needs to (at 68, Henrietta is also the show's oldest-ever contestant). She drives a gray Chevrolet Impala.
• Sly Grosjean, 42 and licensed for 19 years, from Red Deer, Alberta, was the runner-up in Canada's Worst Driver 7 thanks to a decent road test performance, despite a terrible overall track record in the competition. His brother-in-law, Fred Hillyer, believes that Sly avoided being named the worst simply through luck as fellow contestant, Shirley Sampson, bombed her road test (an opinion which Andrew himself shared during that season's finale) and points to Sly's continued use of handheld electronic gadgets while driving as proof that he learned nothing from his original appearance on the show. He drives a silver Jeep Patriot and drove a purple Pontiac Montana SV6 to the rehab centre.
• Angelina Marcantognini, 30, from Sudbury, Ontario, was judged the worst in Canada's Worst Driver 5 after a horrific overall performance, which saw her fail all but one challenge during that season (the Reverse Flick was the only challenge she passed, albeit with Andrew's help) and then fail to complete the road test, in turn causing Andrew to informally judge her to be the show's worst-ever driver in the Canada's Worst Driver: U Asked! special. Angelina is determined to prove Andrew wrong, but her best friend, Christine Latondress Andrews, has seen little to no improvement in the years since and is worried she'll just prove him right. She drives a black 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.
• Dale Pitton, 65, from St. Catharines, Ontario, finished as runner-up in Canada's Worst Driver 6, avoiding being named the worst solely because she finished the road test, unlike the actual worst, Lance Morin, who was unable to complete his road test. Her disregarding the experts' recommendation that she quit driving caused a rift between Dale and her original nominator and nephew, John Pitton, midway through that season, subsequently forcing her to call on another nephew, Danny Pitton, to accompany her to rehab this time around. She drives a blue Chevrolet Cavalier.
• Shirley Sampson, 62, from Donkin, Nova Scotia, performed well for most of Canada's Worst Driver 7, only to find herself named the worst after a ghastly road test performance that included stopping on the highway. In the two years since, she has continued to improve her driving and now, she and her daughter, Janis Wall, are both determined to prove that she had a bad day when she was named the worst. She drives a blue Toyota Matrix and drove an orange Chevrolet Cobalt to the rehab centre.
• Kevin Simmons, 26, from Burnaby, British Columbia (near Vancouver), fresh from being named the joint-worst (with Flora Wang) in Canada's Worst Driver 8, has been brought straight back to rehab by his boyfriend, Lenny Stone. Since the previous season, Kevin has already been involved in another serious accident and Lenny is starting to feel that perhaps Kevin should follow Jason Zhang's lead from Canada's Worst Driver 3 and give up driving for good. He drives a white Ford Crown Victoria and drove a blue Chevrolet Malibu to the rehab centre.
• Michael Telford, 47 and licensed for 31 years, from Vancouver Island, was the runner-up to Henrietta in Canada's Worst Driver 2, performing reasonably well for most of the season, but ultimately turning in a poor road test, in which, despite committing the fewest moving violations with six, he took just over three hours to complete. His nominator and longtime friend, Yolanda Kozak (the wife of his original nominator, Eric Kozak, who was originally unable to return for health reasons), believes that Michael's driving is now even worse than his first appearance and that he will get involved in a fatal accident unless he returns to rehab. However, after learning that Yolanda was constantly giving negative feedback and had been injured during the Assessment Challenge, the producers decided to send her home and bring back Eric, who had since recovered. Michael drives a green Lincoln Continental and drove a black Chevrolet HHR to the rehab centre.

Synopsis[edit]

The contestant became Canada's Worst Driver Ever.

The contestant was runner-up for Canada's Worst Driver Ever.

The contestant was on the panel's shortlist.

The contestant left the show without permission and injured themselves, and was therefore unable to continue in the competition.

The contestant graduated.

The contestant was sent from the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to a psychological clinic and is out of the running for Canada's Worst Driver Ever.

The contestant was deemed ineligible to take part in the show and sent home.

The contestant's nominator was changed during the show.

The contestant was not the worst driver or even the runner-up, but failed to graduate from rehab.

^1 Non-Elimination Week, due to all contestants wanting to remain at the Driver Rehabilitation Centre.

^2 Non-Elimination Week, due to all contestants failing The Longest Reversing Challenge Ever.

^3 Although Dale was expelled from the Driver Rehabilitation Centre, she was brought back for the trophy presentation because the experts believed she could have been named Canada's Worst Driver Ever even though she didn't participate in the final challenges.

Episode 0: Remember..[edit]

Original airdate: October 21, 2013

Host Andrew Younghusband introduces each of the returning drivers through a review of their performances during the final road test in their original appearances. At the end of the episode, he briefly outlines the challenges that they will face and restates his personal belief that Angelina is Canada's Worst Driver Ever, though says that he is willing to be proven wrong.

Episode 1: They're Back![edit]

Original airdate: October 28, 2013

• The Drive to Rehab: This season, the journey to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre starts from Thorold Auto Parts and Recycling in Thorold, Ontario, with the nine returning drivers heading back to rehab using a provided set of instructions, a journey that Andrew notes is an hour-long drive. The contestants depart in the following order: Michael, Dale, Shelby, Henrietta, Sly, Kevin, Shirley and Chris (who volunteers to drive Angelina to rehab, as she was too hung over from spending the previous night drinking heavily). Except for Chris and Henrietta, everyone makes a large number of moving violations on the way to rehab and the contestants arrive in the following order: Shelby (who, in stark contrast to his slow driving from Canada's Worst Driver 3, actually broke the speed limit more than once), Michael (who ran a stop sign only minutes into his drive and continued to demonstrate his habit of holding his breath in tunnels, though his driving was most certainly not helped by Yolanda's nagging), Dale (who kept stopping at green lights and then hit the barrier when parking up), Henrietta (who drove 100 km (62 mi), the longest drive in years), Sly (who ran two stop signs due to not even knowing what they're supposed to look like, causing Andrew to re-iterate his belief that Sly was really the worst driver from his season and should give up driving completely), Shirley (who, despite the confident predictions of Janis and Andrew that she will do well this season, made a careless mistake, nearly driving into an occupied intersection, having to be stopped from doing so by Janis), Kevin (who failed to compensate for his limited vision and nearly collided with a truck; upon reaching rehab, he tells Andrew that should he be named the worst-ever, he will surrender his driver's license and sell his car) and Chris (who had to stop so Angelina could get out and vomit).
  • First to Arrive: Shelby was the third to leave, but the first to arrive.
  • Last to Arrive: Chris was the last.
• Camaro Challenge: Basic Assessment: After revealing that this year's recurring challenge car will be a Camaro SS (painted in a flag-inspired livery, similar to the 2009 Dodge Challenger RT used in Canada's Worst Driver 7), Andrew walks through the basic assessment that each driver will undertake. The challenge itself is basically the same as the previous season, albeit with the first two sections flipped around; firstly reversing through a course of wheel rims, followed by a U-turn in a section of concrete barriers and finally a slalom between foam people at 50 km/h. Angelina is first up and gets off to a predictably bad start, knocking over a set of wheel rims before Andrew can even finish his introductory speech. Despite Christine's best efforts to guide her, she knocks over nearly every set of wheel rims, dents and scrapes the Camaro in the U-turn and then her wedge shoes get stuck on the accelerator in the slalom, causing her to drive at an inconsistent speed and hit most of the foam people. Dale's run is near-identical to Angelina's, as she never uses her mirrors in the reverse segment, causes even more damage to the car's bodywork in the U-turn and goes significantly under-speed in the slalom. Kevin does even worse than the previous two drivers, not using his mirrors once in the reverse section (which takes him over 20 minutes to complete), nearly tears off the Camaro's front bumper in the U-turn and then goes completely off the course during the slalom. Henrietta does a little better than the previous drivers in the first two segments, albeit with extensive coaching from Andrew and her husband, Andy, but goes under-speed in the slalom and hits several foam people. Chris has by far the best run of the day, not knocking down a single wheel rim, only experiencing a very low-speed collision in the U-turn and then executing the slalom flawlessly. Sly's main issue in the reversing section, surprisingly, turns out to be being over-cautious; he completes it while only knocking a few rims down, but takes more than half an hour to do. His run rapidly falls apart in the U-turn, however, as he rips off the Camaro's rear bumper, then drives with only one hand on the wheel in the slalom, going far too wide and completely missing the required turns. Michael does quite well in the reverse section, only hitting three rims, but then seriously bumps and scrapes the car in the U-turn, before trying to take the slalom at 80 km/h and violently spinning off-course, which reduces Yolanda to tears. Shelby, in a more familiar turn of events, is the slowest performer of the day, taking over 40 minutes to complete the reversing course (though he hits fewer rims than many of the other drivers). After that, he can't even complete the U-turn and so is allowed to bypass to the slalom, where his repeated under-steering causes him to fail. Shirley initially struggles in the reversing course due to trouble aligning herself correctly, but soon picks it up, then executes the U-turn flawlessly, but like Shelby, under-steers on the slalom and fails, though is still the only driver besides Chris to successfully complete any of the segments.
  • Best Performer: Chris and Shirley were the only two people who passed at least one segment of this challenge, but Chris doing clearly better.
  • Worst Performer: Kevin did the worst, going off course during the slalom and not using his mirrors.

The drivers then have their initial meeting with the experts. Michael asks Philippe to go over the footage of his slalom spin-out with him and Philippe tells him his mistake was driving too fast and not looking where he wanted to go, instead directly staring at the foam people. Sly is also called out for making the same mistake in his run. Henrietta admits that since Andy retired shortly after Canada's Worst Driver 2 aired, he usually drives the couple everywhere and she doesn't usually drive more than a dozen times per year. Shelby thinks he might be Canada's Worst Driver Ever; Andrew tells him that he probably isn't that bad, but that he could still benefit from more rehab (Shelby also expresses shock that Angelina really is as bad as her reputation suggests). The remaining drivers all deny that they may be Canada's Worst Driver Ever. Due to the exceptionally awful performances by most of the drivers, the experts agree to graduate one person immediately so as to give the remainder their full attention and very quickly decide on Chris. However, Cam raises the issue that Henrietta would not realistically benefit from rehab, since she drives so rarely and that they would be better served sending her home, graduating Chris and focusing on the remaining seven. Ultimately, Andrew gives Henrietta her license back, after which Andy drives her away. Andrew then further surprises the drivers by announcing that Chris, clearly the most skilled of the group, goes from being the first-ever worst driver to the first graduate.

Note: This episode did not display an opening title screen or broadcast the opening animation.

Episode 2: Where's Your Blind Spot?[edit]

Original airdate: November 4, 2013

• Running the Rails: This challenge, previously run in Canada's Worst Driver 6, places the drivers at the wheel of a RAV4 and requires them to approach a short track made up of two rails, drive onto it and follow the rails to the end and then reverse off it. The drivers have only one chance and falling off and being unable to continue will result in an immediate fail. Michael is the first to take the challenge, though Yolanda is unable to accompany him, as she has a congenital hip defect which has been exacerbated by her being involved in car crashes. Michael completes the forward part without much difficulty, but then gets dangerously close to the end of the track and drives completely off it after accidentally putting the RAV4 in first gear instead of reverse, though Andrew still notes that he seems reasonably aware of where his wheels are. Dale doesn't even manage to get fully on the track before falling off and fails. Kevin, despite Lenny's coaching, only gets halfway up the track and falls off after accidentally steering into the side of the track he was about to fall off of. Angelina refuses Christine's advice to adjust her mirrors and proves so unaware of where her wheels are that she takes six attempts to get onto the rails and then falls off immediately. Unlike Dale, however, she is able to back out and retry, though, on her next attempt, falls off halfway and fails. Shirley executes the challenge flawlessly, despite Janis' constant panicking (which causes Shirley to call her 'worse than Angelina,' a statement which greatly offends Janis). Shelby does well on the forward section, but his failure to adjust his mirrors (Elerick deliberately neglecting to tell him to do so) causes him to fall off halfway through reversing. Sly constantly attempts to solicit Fred's advice in the challenge, but Fred refuses to give him any. Sly eventually gets to the end, but is mere inches from falling off. Sensing the inevitable, Fred gets out of the car and seconds later, Sly falls off, failing.
  • Best Performer: Shirley, as she had the only pass in the challenge.
  • Worst Performer: Dale, who fell off the rails and got stuck almost immediately. Angelina also failed to get the car on the rails, but was able to make additional attempts before getting completely stuck, unlike Dale.
• Road Signs: Tim tests the seven drivers on their road sign knowledge, a test which it's noted all the drivers have previously been through. Of the ten signs tested, Shirley got 8/10, which was both the highest score overall and the biggest improvement over the original appearance of any driver, considering she only got 1/10 two years ago due to outdated knowledge. Sly, Shelby, Kevin and Michael all get at least half right, though their exact scores are not revealed. Dale and Angelina post the joint-lowest scores, with only 2/10.
• Crazy Eights: This test, last run in Canada's Worst Driver 6, pits two drivers at a time against each other in a pair of Suzuki Sidekicks driving in a figure-eight course of wheel rims, with a combination of S-turns and accurate reversing required to get through the course. Shelby and Shirley make up the first heat and though Shirley needs Andrew to refresh her memory on how to perform an S-turn, both get through the course flawlessly. Dale and Michael are next-up and while Michael also makes it through without any trouble at all, Dale hits 19 objects and fails. The Suzuki Sidekicks are then swapped out for two Pontiac Fieros. Kevin and Angelina make up the next heat and Kevin continues to demonstrate his problem of only ever looking forward and rarely turning his head, which causes him to run over several wheel rims and fail. Yet again, Angelina has the worst run and backs completely off the course and into a field. She attempts to give up after this, but Andrew forces her to continue and Angelina's repeated complaining causes the experts to conclude that she's emotionally immature. During the challenge, Angelina reveals that her cousin suffered brain injuries in a car crash, causing memory loss which rendered her unable to even remember who Angelina was, leaving Andrew further astonished by her cavalier attitude toward driving. Sly takes the last run alone due to the lack of another driver and, in a repeat of the initial test, is extremely slow, taking 97 minutes to get through the course.
  • Best Performer: Michael and Shelby, who both completed the challenge flawlessly without needing any advice. Shirley also passed, though needed a little help from Andrew at first.
  • Worst Performer: Angelina, who left the track altogether during her run.
• Camaro Challenge: The Shoulder Check Challenge: In one of the show's most frequent challenges, the drivers each have to approach a split lane at 70 km/h, and then check left and right over their shoulder to see which lane (designated by a green marker) they must turn into. Each driver has two runs. Angelina is first-up and on her first run drives at 100 km/h and closes her eyes, crashing straight through the central barrier, splitting the Camaro's front bumper in half and damaging its radiator. After the Camaro is repaired, Angelina takes another attempt and nearly gets it right, but understeers and clips the barrier. Kevin understeers on his first turn, also clipping the barrier and on his second run, he steers too early and hits the lane markers; as he and Andrew note, however, even this result is an improvement on the previous year, when he tried to cheat. Shelby gets the challenge exactly right on the first go, as does Shirley. On his first run, Sly can't even make it to the end of the straight before driving through the lane markers, due to him turning his whole body rather than just his head. He then hits the lane marker again on his second run, this time by steering too soon. On his first run, Michael drives too slowly (at just 60 km/h) and slows down further toward the end of the straight. Andrew asks Yolanda for her honest opinion and she launches into a tirade against Michael, which Andrew and the experts feel is an overreaction and theorize is caused by pent-in anger at the driving-related injuries she suffered in the past. On his second go, Michael passes with ease. Dale seems to get the technique right on her first go, but inexplicably turns into the lane she's told not to turn into. On her second go, she only checks over one shoulder and clips the central barrier, causing her to fail.
  • Best Performer: Shelby and Shirley, as they both passed on their first attempt.
  • Worst Performer: Angelina, who failed both her runs and damaged the Camaro so badly that the challenge had to be paused while it was repaired.

Angelina has a lengthy discussion with the judges and admits that she is no longer on anti-depressants due to her original psychiatrist having retired and her being unable to find another in Sudbury. Shyamala tells Angelina that while she can't prescribe drugs, she can help her deal with her issues and Angelina agrees to as many therapy sessions as it'll take. Along with Angelina, Sly, Dale and Kevin all admit that there's no way they'll be graduating this episode, as they didn't pass a single challenge between them. This leaves Michael, Shelby and Shirley, who each had some degree of success in each challenge this episode, as the pool of potential graduates. Despite all three wanting to graduate, the judges decide that there is no need whatsoever for a discussion; Shirley, who was regarded as the most capable driver of the group (apart from Chris) even before rehab and the only driver who fully passed every challenge this episode, becomes the next graduate, with Andrew describing her as 'inspirational' and saying that his only regret is that she can't be around longer.

Note: This episode did not display an opening title screen or broadcast the opening animation.

Episode 3: Splish-Splash![edit]

Original airdate: November 11, 2013

• Limo Figure-Eight Challenge: For the second time in as many episodes, the drivers are required to reverse around a figure-eight course. This time, however, they are given the much harder task of reversing an 8 m (26 ft) long Lincoln Town Carlimousine around the course. The driver and their nominator will sit in the driver's compartment and the other five drivers will sit in the passenger section, while the other nominators will watch from outside. Angelina volunteers to go first, apparently accepting before she begins the challenge that she's going to fail; she consequently doesn't make a serious effort and hits a whopping 36 objects. As if that's not enough, thinking this is the Distracted Driving Challenge, she answers a phone call from her boyfriend, leading Michael to immediately point out how ridiculous that is, an opinion that even Sly, a habitual distracted driver in his own right, agrees with (and remember, Sly promised during his original final drive two years ago that he would never use his cell phone while driving again). This, combined with her repeated temper tantrums, causes the experts to suggest that she should perhaps be expelled from rehab and referred to a psychiatric clinic. Michael gets off to a shaky start due to only using his passenger-side mirror, knocking over five objects in the opening turn, but, on being reminded to use all the mirrors on the car, quickly gets it together and doesn't hit another object. Kevin has to be coached extensively by Lenny during his run, but quickly starts to makes full use of his mirrors and, much to the shock of everyone, posts the best run on this challenge, hitting just two objects. Dale gets extensively advised by Andrew, Danny and Michael during her run, but is still unable to apply their advice and ends up hitting 22 items. Despite his success in the previous episode, Shelby fares rather poorly in this challenge, failing to adequately use his mirrors and not taking into account the limo's front-end swing; despite finishing with the fastest time, he consequently hits 16 items, causing Andrew to tell him that reversing is obviously still a major issue for him. Sly continues to demonstrate a severe lack of spatial awareness on top of his slow reversing speed, which makes him so slow that everybody leaves the challenge area, including eventually Fred, leaving Sly to complete the course alone. Sly ultimately hits 24 objects and takes over ten minutes longer than anyone else to complete the challenge, a performance Andrew brands arguably even worse than Angelina's (and remember, Angelina didn't even make a serious effort, answering a phone call during her run).
  • Fastest Performer: Shelby performed the fastest at 16:46.
  • Slowest Performer: Angelina performed the slowest at 33:15.
  • Best Performer: Kevin, who hit only two things during his run.
  • Worst Performer: Even though Angelina hit more things than anyone else and took a phone call from her boyfriend during her run, Sly was so slow that everyone except for Andrew and the camera crew walked out.
• Camaro Challenge: Swerve and Avoid: In what Andrew points out is one of the most critical skills taught on the show, the drivers must avoid a foam car which will appear in one of two lanes, by swerving into the free lane. Each driver has two turns and must carry out the manoeuvre at 70 km/h. This year, the timing to successfully execute the challenge is so tight that Andrew almost fails his demonstration, getting into the correct lane with just inches to spare. Kevin is first-up and on his first attempt, he hits the brake, partly going through the central barrier and then into the adjoining field. He makes the same mistake again on his second run and fails. Shelby makes the same mistake on his initial run (and also drives too fast, at 100 km/h), but on his second attempt he correctly executes the manoeuvre and passes. Dale, who has to be reminded by Danny to take the course at 70 km/h, not 70 mph, chooses a lane before the car even appears during her first run, resulting in her turning into its lane and hitting it dead-on. On her second run, she appears to pass the challenge, but on close inspection, it turns out that she turned fractionally before the car was visible, meaning that she actually failed. Since Sly's run two years ago was considered to be the worst in the show's history, he's told to carry out his first run at just 40 km/h, but not told that no car will appear. Much to the disbelief of Andrew, Fred and the experts, Sly doesn't brake or turn into a lane and just carries on and smashes through the central barrier. On his second, full-speed run, Sly drives too fast—at around 90 km/h-- and starts turning before the car even appears, crashing into it, a result that leaves Andrew and Fred more convinced than ever that Sly is totally unfit to drive. As a result of his spin-out on the Basic Assessment Challenge, Yolanda is still refusing to accompany Michael in the high-speed challenges and so, Andrew takes her place; Yolanda's worries prove well-founded, as Michael continues to demonstrate the target fixation that caused that spin-out, crashing directly into the car on his first run. On his second run, he makes the same mistake and corrects for it somewhat, but still clips the central barrier, leaving Michael visibly angry with himself. Angelina shows up to the challenge hung over again, but insists on doing it anyway; on her first run, she drifts to one side and fails to react when the car appears and crashes through the central barrier. She drifts to one side again on her second run, hitting some lane markers, then successfully gets into the right lane, but hits more lane markers and ends up in the field. Despite this, Angelina and Christine inexplicably try to claim that she passed the challenge, causing Andrew to lash out mostly at Christine, who he accuses of failing to make a serious effort to get Angelina to improve.
  • Best Performer: Shelby, who was the only driver to pass.
  • Worst Performer: Sly, for showing a total lack of common sense by driving straight through the central barrier on his 'fake run'. Of the drivers who had two actual runs, Angelina and Kevin both did the worst, by spinning off-track on at least 1 attempt.
• The Water-Tank Challenge: For this, one of the show's most notoriously tricky challenges, the drivers each have to drive at 40 km/h through an obstacle course with a 100 litres (26 US gal) tank of water mounted on the car's roof. The car used is a Ford Tauruswagon, painted in a water-inspired livery. Any sharp acceleration or braking will result in the water draining from the tank onto the driver and their nominator. As usual, even Andrew doesn't avoid a soaking, losing only 16 litres (4.2 US gal) of water in all (he deliberately accelerates and stops sharply at the end as well). Sly is first-up and his acceleration and braking are erratic throughout the challenge, resulting in him losing 65 litres (17 US gal). Dale doesn't fare much better and loses 55 litres (15 US gal), mostly through not properly using her mirrors. Michael keeps driving too fast, but still has what turns out to be the best run in this challenge, losing 50 litres (13 US gal), making him the only driver other than Andrew to keep at least half the water in the tank. Kevin doesn't take the challenge seriously and keeps braking sharply, resulting in him losing 80 litres (21 US gal). Shelby knocks over a foam person in his run, then backs over it and the shock of hitting the ground on the other side of the person fractures the tank, resulting in all 100 litres (26 US gal) draining into the driver's compartment. Angelina doesn't participate in the challenge, instead getting a private therapy session from Shyamala. Despite the concerns of the experts that she shouldn't be in rehab, Angelina is able to talk Shyamala out of expelling her and it's agreed that she may continue on the show for now.
  • Best Performer: Michael kept half of the water in the tank, more than anyone else.
  • Worst Performer: Shelby technically did the worst, losing all his water after a freak accident; Kevin did the worst of the remaining drivers, losing the most water and not making a real effort.

The experts tell Dale that she actually failed her second run on the Swerve and Avoid and Dale admits she truly believed she saw the foam car, which Shyamala feels could be a sign of a more serious overall problem. None of the drivers want to graduate, but the experts decide to draw up a shortlist anyway. Despite it being noted that Michael and Kevin did well in the Limo Figure-Eight Challenge (and Michael also had the best run in the Water-Tank Challenge), Cam persuades the others that the Swerve and Avoid is such an important skill that anyone who failed it should automatically be barred from graduating this episode, which makes Shelby the only nominee by default as he was the only one to pass the challenge. In the end, Andrew tells Shelby that he has been the best performer until now and that the experts could have seen a case for him graduating this episode, but since he said he didn't want to, he'll stay in rehab and so will everyone else.

Note: This episode did not display an opening title screen or broadcast the opening animation.

Episode 4: Easy as 1-2-3[edit]

Original airdate: November 18, 2013

• Three-Point Turn: This challenge, being run in its Canada's Worst Driver 6 incarnation, requires the drivers to drive a Suzuki Sidekick along a thin road onto a small island, which is surrounded by a moat, turn the car around in no more than three steps and drive back out. Any driver who gets stuck in the moat will immediately fail. Sly is the first to take the challenge, but is completely unable to apply Andrew's advice to think of his route as a triangle and quickly backs into the moat. This, combined with him not thinking to put the car in four-wheel drive, causes him to fail. A similar thing happens on Angelina's run, as she backs into the moat early on, then throws a tantrum and lashes out at both the car and Christine, causing the experts to once again question her ability to continue on the show. Michael takes his run without anyone else in the car, as Yolanda told the show's producers she is now no longer willing to accompany Michael in any challenges whatsoever. She subsequently goes so far as to actually heckle Michael during his run. Despite this, he nearly gets it right on his first run, which ends up being a five-point turn and on his second run, he successfully carries out the turn. Dale doesn't even manage to get onto the island and drives into the moat within seconds of starting the challenge, getting stuck even though Michael left the car in four-wheel drive (which Dale confuses with front-end swing when Andrew tries to tell her what it does). Shelby fails his run for the same reason, much to Andrew's shock and dismay. Kevin has the best performance on the challenge, getting a three-point turn on his first go and, shockingly, the congratulations of both Lenny and Andrew.
  • Best Performer: Kevin was the only driver who passed on his first attempt.
  • Worst Performer: Dale and Shelby, who both got stuck almost immediately.
• The Trailer Challenge: For this year's incarnation of the test, the drivers each have to drive a Ford F-250 pickup towing a caravan through a course of cars and wheel rims, before reversing the caravan into a parking space. Again, Sly is the first to take the challenge and knocks over a lot of rims during the first part of the course. However, he can't figure out what to do in the reversing section and his run ends up being halted after he attempts to get out of the truck and check his position while the truck and caravan are still moving. Dale is constantly reminded by Andrew before and during her run to take turns wide to compensate for the narrower turns the caravan will take, but fails to apply his advice and causes a lot of damage during the forward section. Whether she parked up the caravan is not shown, but her run was a clear failure based on the damage caused. Shelby does even worse and during the forward section, he ends up tearing a massive hole in the caravan's body; needless to say, he fails. Michael, accompanied by Andrew in his run, gets through the forward section without hitting a single thing. However, he overthinks the reversing section (something which he tended to do in Canada's Worst Driver 2) and eventually gives up after being unable to get the caravan in the parking spot. Kevin continues his run of good challenges, not hitting a single thing in either direction and becoming the only driver to pass this challenge. Last-up is Angelina, who causes numerous dents and scrapes to the caravan in the forward section, before completely mentally crashing in the reversing section; she ultimately gives up after coming dangerously close to hitting Andrew. As Angelina storms off in tears, Christine, herself close to tears, tells Andrew that Angelina's mental health has deteriorated sharply in the four years since her original appearance on the show and that the reason she doesn't appear to push Angelina harder is due to the lack of any other positive reinforcement in her life, rather than Christine not caring about Angelina's bad driving.
  • Best Performer: Kevin, who had the only pass in the challenge.
  • Worst Performer: Shelby, who committed a mistake so dangerous that his run was immediately halted.
• Camaro Challenge: The Eye of the Needle: In this, one of the few challenges that has been done since the beginning of the series, the drivers are given two chances to navigate a series of five arches at 80 km/h. During his demonstration, Andrew notes that, by far, the most common failing in this challenge is drivers placing themselves in the middle of the arches, causing hits on the passenger side. During his first run, Shelby drives too fast—at 100 km/h-- and hits four of the five arches; conversely, on his second run, he's allowed to drop his speed to 50 km/h, but immediately hits the first arch, causing both Shelby and Andrew to wonder whether he might actually be Canada's Worst Driver Ever after all. Angelina, who is hung over yet again, insists on wearing heels for the challenge and after she hits the first arch, she goes completely off-course, stopping halfway down the track. Andrew insists that she wait until the crew can find her some flat driving shoes before she takes her next run, which causes her to angrily throw her heels at Andrew. The challenge continues in the meantime and, despite Andrew's dire predictions, Dale passes her first challenge of the season; she skidded on the second arch, but was able to regain control of the car, maintain her speed and get through the rest of the course safely. In his first run, Sly hits the first arch, then locks up the brakes and crashes through the second arch before coming to a stop and then smashes off the Camaro's passenger-side wing mirror on the next arch; Andrew brands this the worst Eye of the Needle run in the entire history of the show. Sly has to wait for the show's mechanics to fit a replacement mirror for his second run and immediately smashes it again on the first arch, causing him to fail. Kevin is unable to continue his run of strong challenges, as he hits three of the five arches on his first run and despite taking his second run at a reduced speed of 60 km/h, he hits every arch and smashes the third passenger side mirror of the day. Michael, once again accompanied by Andrew, drops his speed to 60 km/h for the second and third arches, but gets back up to full speed for the fourth and fifth arches, which Andrew decides is good enough to be deemed a pass. Despite this, Yolanda furiously confronts Andrew, telling him that Michael should have failed because he didn't maintain 80 km/h throughout the run, leaving Andrew shocked, Michael dismayed and the experts believing Yolanda should be removed as Michael's nominator. Finally, with a set of flat shoes provided by the show, Angelina takes her second run; however, she closes her eyes and quickly loses control and ultimately ends up smashing every arch. After getting out of the car, Angelina angrily lashes out at Andrew and Christine for an extended period before bursting into tears. As Andrew drives the two away from the course, Angelina undergoes a complete meltdown, lamenting her life situation and the lack of any medical or emotional support (which, as revealed by Christine during the previous challenge, has caused her to resort to alcoholism and stealing prescription anti-depressants from other people) and Andrew sadly concludes that there's nothing the Driver Rehabilitation Centre can do for her.
  • Best Performer: Michael, who passed the challenge with minimal drama. Dale also passed, but locked up the Camaro's wheels and skidded uncontrollably for a good portion of the challenge.
  • Worst Performer: Angelina, who destroyed the entire course and then suffered a nervous breakdown at the end of the challenge.

After the challenge ends, Shyamala takes Angelina aside and gently tells her that, one way or another, her time on the show is over. Angelina is further told that she has been booked a 60-day stay at a specialist psychiatric clinic and is initially indignant about this, but ultimately accepts the offer, in part due to the strong implication that she will simply be expelled from rehab if she refuses the treatment, which would have made her the third contestant to be expelled from rehab (after Colin Sheppard in Canada's Worst Driver 2 and Scott Schurink in Canada's Worst Driver 6) and the second by the experts. Angelina thus leaves the show in a taxi, as a tearful Christine waves her goodbye. However, Angelina's departure is not the only issue facing the judges, as it's also clear that Yolanda's excessive negativity and unrealistic expectations are proving detrimental to Michael's learning. Andrew tells Michael that Eric's health has sufficiently improved for him to take over from Yolanda as nominator, while Yolanda's has been failing due to pulled muscles sustained in the first episode; Michael tells the judges that while he'd be grateful to have Eric around again, he also thinks that allowing him to graduate this episode would resolve the issue without requiring Eric to be brought to rehab. Kevin is the only other driver who shows any desire to graduate, though he quickly retracts his request and says that he'd benefit more from staying in rehab (a decision Kevin would later regret); the remaining drivers all admit they don't deserve to graduate. Ultimately, the experts decide to deny Michael's request to graduate and all five stay in rehab. Andrew closes out the episode by saying that Angelina isn't really Canada's Worst Driver Ever and that, unfortunately, her problems go far beyond a simple lack of skill at the wheel. Before the credits, the show listed details of support available for those suffering depression and other mental health issues.

Note: This episode did not display an opening title screen or broadcast the opening animation.

Episode 5: They Shoot! They Score![edit]

Original airdate: November 25, 2013

• The Trough: As in nearly every incarnation of this classic challenge, the objective is to drive a RAV4 through a course made up of overturned concrete Jersey barriers, with wide turns again being paramount to success. If a driver gets stuck, they will have to restart the course, though in an attempt to discourage the drivers from being overly hasty, this time they each have a set number of four attempts rather than a half-hour period in which to get through the challenge. Prior to the challenge, Kevin sends a letter to Andrew and the experts, apologizing for his conduct in the previous season (especially referring to the notion of giving up his license as being 'stupid') and vowing to start taking responsibility for his driving, which the experts appreciate. He's given the chance to back up his claims by going first in the challenge, but fails to adjust his mirrors prior to his first run and consequently falls off quickly. On his second run, he adjusts the mirrors, but does it improperly and fails again. He adjusts his mirrors properly for the third run, but forgets to actually use them and quickly fails again. On his fourth and final run, he manages to get halfway down the track, but falls off and fails. During a discussion with Shyamala prior to his run, Sly reveals that the likely cause for his appalling spatial awareness is a head injury he sustained as a teenager. Despite both Andrew and Fred being nervous during the run (in no small part due to Sly severely damaging the RAV4 he used for the challenge in Canada's Worst Driver 7) and him failing the first two runs due to not adjusting the mirrors, Sly passes the challenge on his third attempt, though admits his success may have been down to luck as much as anything else. Michael, now with the returning Eric by his side again, is the third driver in a row to fail his first run due to not adjusting the mirrors, though he quickly gets the hang of the challenge and passes on his third attempt. Dale has the worst performance on this challenge, never making it more than a third of the way down the course and showing such a lack of awareness of where her wheels are that Danny has to tell her every time she's fallen off. By contrast, Shelby has the best run, as he remembers to adjust his mirrors, immediately realizes his mistake when he falls off during his first attempt and passes with ease on the second go.
  • Best Performer: Shelby, who completed the challenge faster than anyone else.
  • Worst Performer: Dale, who never got very far up the trough and needed Danny to tell her whenever she'd gotten stuck.
• Car Hockey: In a variation of a challenge previously run in Canada's Worst Driver 5, the drivers each have to push an oversized hockey puck (as opposed to the shopping cart used previously) from a red line down a short track using a Honda Prelude and shoot the 'puck' at a goal while remembering to stop the car before a blue line. Incredibly, none of the drivers score a single goal on any of their attempts; Kevin only gets one puck all the way down the track and sends it wide, Dale goes so slow that her pucks never reach the goal, Shelby doesn't get any of his pucks down the track, Michael only gets one to the scoring area and goes too slow to get it to the goal and Sly only gets two into the scoring area, which prove to be way off-target. Andrew then announces a 'sudden death' round and gives the drivers additional instructions on how to score, but Michael, Sly, Shelby and Dale all fail before Kevin finally scores, winning the challenge.
  • Best Performer: Kevin, as the winner of the 'sudden death' round.
  • Worst Performer: Dale and Shelby, since they never once got a puck into the scoring area, which Michael and Sly at least managed despite not scoring.
• The Longest Reversing Challenge Ever: Despite its name, this challenge is actually somewhat shorter than its Canada's Worst Driver 8 forerunner, at 800 m (2,600 ft) instead of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). However, the objective of having to reverse down a long course (this time in a Trans Am) while hitting as few obstacles as possible still remains. Dale is completely unable to keep the Trans Am in a straight line and ends up hitting 36 objects, mostly on the passenger side. On his run, Kevin constantly ignores Lenny's advice to look out the back window and spends most of the challenge looking forward, hitting a substantial number of items. Since Kevin's a fan of Trans Ams, Andrew offer to allow him to drive it through the course forward, on the condition that he do it at no more than 40 km/h and stop immediately should he hit anything. However, Kevin drives at 60 km/h, fails to stop after smashing the passenger-side wing mirror and then drives through the wheel rims that make up the course's opening section, causing him to puncture his front passenger tire. Despite this, Kevin tries to claim that his performance would have been worthy of a pass had the experiment been an actual challenge, leaving the experts completely perturbed and causing both Andrew and Lenny to rail at him. Michael uses the Honda Prelude for his run and has trouble due to his insistence on only using his mirrors. While Andrew tries to advise Michael to look out the car's back window and Michael does try to do so, he dismisses this idea as being 'too unfamiliar' to him and hits many objects, though still ends up posting the best run, hitting 15 objects. For Sly's run in the now-repaired Trans Am, Fred decides not to accompany him, knowing that Sly will just spend the challenge soliciting Fred's advice if he's present. This proves Fred right, as it leads to a predictably terrible performance in which Sly only looks out the back window once in his entire run (and even then due to Andrew specifically telling him to do so) and veers wildly about the course. While Sly's final total of 37 hits isn't the most of the day (Shelby ultimately ends up hitting 43 objects during his run), the experts unanimously agree his performance to be the worst in any reversing-related challenge they've ever seen (and remember, Kevin punctured his front passenger tire during his run).
  • Fastest Performer: Michael performed the fastest at 13:49.
  • Slowest Performer: Dale performed the slowest at 21:07.
  • Best Performer: Even though the experts considered Michael's performance very poor, he still hit fewer things than anyone else.
  • Worst Performer: Even though Kevin destroyed much of the course going forward and Shelby hit the most objects with 43 (mainly the result of him carelessly flooring the gas halfway through what had been a decent run), Sly was the worst due to his exceptionally dreadful reversing and lack of observational skills.

After the challenge, Kevin sends another letter to the experts, again apologizing for his actions and vowing to improve. However, this time, the experts don't buy it for a minute and demand to know Kevin's motives in sending them the two letters. Despite his performance in the episode, Kevin feels that he has learned enough to graduate, but the experts tell him that, based simply on his dreadful performance in the previous challenge, he has officially blown whatever goodwill he earned in the previous two episodes and that they are now less inclined to graduate him than they ever had been during that span. Dale, Shelby and Sly once again admit that they shouldn't graduate and while Michael says that he wants to graduate, he doesn't think he really deserves to. As the drivers assemble for what would have been the graduation ceremony, Andrew says that the overall standard of driving in this episode was the worst in the entire history of the show. For the second episode in a row, Michael is the only nominee, but even then, Andrew says that the experts refused to even contemplate graduating him given that he only did especially well in the first challenge, leaving Michael visibly exasperated. For the first time in the show's history, three consecutive episodes pass without a single graduation.

Episode 6: Slip and Slide[edit]

Original airdate: December 2, 2013

• Camaro Challenge: Reverse Flick: The drivers are each given five attempts to reverse the Camaro into a turning area surrounded by wooden boxes and foam blocks, at which point they will be required to quickly spin the car 180° while remaining within the area. Kevin takes the challenge first and on his first four attempts, he doesn't even make it into the turning area, crashing through the entry lane markers on every turn. On his fifth attempt, he nearly goes through the lane markers again, but is able to stop and correct himself; subsequently, he successfully executes the manoeuvre and passes, shocking Lenny half to death. It's a similar story for Michael, as he also repeatedly drives through the lane markers and fails to get into the turning area. On his fifth attempt, he nearly gets the technique right, but unlike Kevin before him, accidentally hits the accelerator instead of the brake and reverses far off-course into the adjoining field. Despite having to be reminded by Andrew to adjust his seat (following on from the much taller Michael), Shelby carries out the Reverse Flick flawlessly on his first attempt and passes with ease. On her first run, Dale drives extremely slowly and backs into a lane marker. The stress of this causes her to completely forget the lesson she was taught (in turn causing the experts to again worry that her memory seems abnormally poor) and so, Andrew decides to accompany her on her second run. Despite being advised by both Andrew and Danny, she again reverses into the lane marker and then gives up. In his first two attempts, Sly veers to one side and drives far too fast, crashing through the outer wall of the turning area on both occasions. On his third attempt, however, he manages to successfully spin the car around and pass, though he admits to not really knowing how he did it.
  • Best Performer: Shelby, who passed on his first attempt with no difficulty.
  • Worst Performer: Dale, who gave up after only two runs. Of the drivers who did take all five runs, Michael did the worst by hitting the gas instead of the brake and losing control during his final run.
• School Bus Parallel Park: In this particular incarnation of the parallel parking challenge featured every year on the show, the drivers have ten attempts of no more than 30 seconds each, for a total of 5:00, to reverse an 11 m (36 ft) school bus (technically a skoolie) into a 15 m (49 ft) tight space between two cars, while not hitting anything and being no more than 30 cm (12 in) away from the curb. Michael, Dale, Sly and Kevin combine to fail 40 consecutive attempts due to constantly hitting the curb and the other vehicles and none of them ever come close to parking the bus in the right position. Shelby, who previously attempted this challenge in Canada's Worst Driver 3, fares the best, eventually getting the bus parked up correctly on his final attempt, but still backs into the car behind the bus, albeit at a relatively low speed. Shelby points out to Andrew that this type of parallel parking would be legal in Europe, earning him a 'European Pass.'
  • Best Performer: Shelby, who had the only pass in the challenge.
  • Worst Performer: Sly and Kevin, who repeatedly hit the cars in front of them or behind the space hard enough to noticeably damage them, as none of there 10 attempts came remotely well.
• Camaro Challenge: Icy Corner: The objective of this challenge is to approach a simulated icy corner at 50 km/h, brake sharply to slow the car down and gradually release the brake to negotiate the corner without skidding. Each driver has five runs. Before his first, Kevin reveals to Andrew that he uses a walkie-talkie in his car to get directions from Lenny and, despite acknowledging it as a factor in the accident he suffered the previous year, still defends it as being a good idea, much to Andrew's exasperation. Kevin subsequently has to be guided throughout the challenge, as Lenny calls out his speed and tells him when to brake on every run, but Kevin fails each time due to driving too fast and/or braking too late, along with not looking where he wants to go. Bizarrely, Dale remembers that she passed the challenge in Canada's Worst Driver 6, but completely forgets that Philippe taught her a lesson on how to complete the challenge minutes beforehand, much to Andrew's concern. She fails her first two runs due to braking too late and on the third, she successfully completes the challenge, but the experts refuse to acknowledge this as a pass since Danny guided her during every step of the run. Michael passes with ease on his first go, correctly remembering to look where he wants to go. In each of his runs, Shelby locks up the brakes and fails to look where he wants to go; on top of that, he goes too slowly in his final run, failing all five. Sly drives far too fast—at 70 km/h-- in his first three runs and fails each time. Prior to his fourth, Andrew and Fred decide to tell him about this, but he still drives slightly too fast on his remaining two runs, failing them both.
  • Best Performer: Michael, who had the only pass after Dale's was disallowed.
  • Worst Performer: Kevin and Sly, both of whom sped and hit the brakes at the wrong time in each of their runs and consequently failed. Shelby also failed all his runs, but at least took them at the correct speed.

Kevin thinks he deserves to graduate, but the experts and Lenny quickly shoot him down, telling him that one comparatively good challenge result isn't worthy of graduating. Shelby and Michael both say they'd like to graduate, but are uncertain whether or not they should actually do so. Meanwhile, Dale and Sly are told that the experts don't believe they will ever improve and should give up driving sooner rather than later, but they are both adamant they will continue to drive even if named Canada's Worst Driver Ever. Once again, Shelby and Michael are the nominees. While Cam favours Michael for doing well in the Icy Corner challenge, the one he feels is most likely to save a life in the real world, the other experts all agree that Michael's mistake on his final Reverse Flick run (hitting the accelerator instead of the brake) was such a severe error that he should be barred from graduating. Therefore, Shelby becomes only the third graduate of the season and the first of the runners-up to successfully graduate. As Shelby and Elerick drive away, Michael, who officially joins Canada's Worst Driver 4 'winner' Ashley van Ham as the only contestants in Canada's Worst Driver history with the most nominations in a single season without graduating, is left increasingly despondent and wondering whether he'll ever graduate.

Note: This episode did not display an opening title screen or broadcast the opening animation.

Episode 7: What Happened?[edit]

Original airdate: December 9, 2013

• Camaro Challenge: Handbrake J-Turn: For this challenge, which has been run in every season except Canada's Worst Driver 7, the drivers are required to make a handbrake turn in a confined space, avoid hitting a foam figurine which features the face of their nominator and drive out of the space. Each driver will have three runs. The Camaro has also been outfitted with a 'cutter handbrake,' due to the car's original handbrake having broken during a test run the previous day, and the cutter brake being the only replacement immediately available. During the challenge, Cam pointed out that using the handbrake J-turn on public roads would be illegal as it would be considered a stunt manoeuver. Sly passes the challenge at his first attempt, much to the surprise of both Fred and Andrew, who both concede that, for the first time ever, he actually passed a challenge through grasping the technique rather than just getting lucky. Michael also passes on his first go, though comes close to hitting the boxes on the outside of the turning area. Kevin, while seeming to broadly understand the technique, fails all three runs due to staying on the gas for too long and also leaving it too late to brake, which is ironic, since this 1 of the 2 challenges Kevin passed in Season 8, during his poor track record season. Dale, who takes the challenge in a Honda Civic rather than the Camaro, fails her first two runs due to hitting the footbrake instead of pulling the handbrake. She attempts to give up after that, but Andrew persuades to carry on and attempt a final run; her instinct to give up proves well-founded, as while she remembers to use the handbrake on her final attempt, she doesn't steer enough and crashes through the barrier, failing again.
  • Best Performer: Michael and Sly, who both passed on their first attempts.
  • Worst Performer: Dale, who tried to give up and never came close to passing.
• The Cross: This challenge, last run in Canada's Worst Driver 6, places the drivers at the wheel of a Crown Victoria and requires them to turn the car all the way around a cross-shaped area bordered by concrete blocks. Kevin is first and his run proves relatively unimpressive, taking nearly 28 minutes to get through the cross and causing numerous bumps and scrapes to the car. Dale, who is now openly admitting she doesn't want to continue on the show for much longer, fails to make a serious effort in the challenge and causes even more damage to the car than Kevin did, taking 38 minutes to complete the challenge. Somehow, Sly proves even worse than Dale—if that's even possible—and takes the longest time yet (51 minutes) and hitting the car more than twice as many times as Kevin. Michael, the only contestant who never did The Cross in Canada's Worst Driver 2 (as this challenge was first done in Canada's Worst Driver 3), is the fastest in this challenge, completing it in 18 minutes, but causes more damage to the car than Kevin did, albeit less than either Sly or Dale did.
  • Fastest Performer: Michael performed the fastest at 17:42.
  • Slowest Performer: Sly performed the slowest at 51:11.
  • Best Performer: Even though Michael completed the fastest, Kevin had the fewest hits with 29, including four scrapes.
  • Worst Performer: Even though Dale failed to make a serious effort, Sly not only had more hits than anyone else with 73, but also changed direction a whopping 142 times.
• Limousine Slalom: In a new variation on the show's many slalom challenges, the drivers are required to negotiate a slalom of foam people in the Lincoln Town Carlimousine used for the Figure-Eight Challenge earlier in the season. Each driver will have three attempts and must drive at 70 km/h in their runs. Michael, despite discussing the basic physics behind the challenge at length with Andrew, fails all three runs due to him completely releasing the accelerator while turning, which makes the limo's front-end too heavy to properly negotiate the slalom, eventually culminating in him driving into the adjoining field in his final run (something every other driver would do at least once in this challenge). Dale proves the worst performer on this challenge, going far off the track in her first run after hitting the gas rather than the brake when she left the track, then spins out on her second attempt. Andrew asks Dale to remember the techniques Shyamala taught her earlier in the season to help her keep her calm under pressure and remember the lessons, but Dale admits that she didn't actually pay any attention in their therapy session, much to the clear annoyance of Andrew and the experts. On her final attempt, Dale once again goes violently off the track, with the limo careening sideways for several dozen feet into the adjoining field. Like Michael before him, Kevin fails all three of his attempts due to gripping the steering wheel incorrectly and understeering on each of his turns. Finally, Sly ends up ensuring a 100% failure rate in this challenge; like Dale before him, he goes far off the track on his first and third attempts and hits most of the dummies on all three efforts.
  • Best Performer: None of the drivers came remotely close to passing the challenge.
  • Worst Performer: Even though all four drivers were practically as bad as each other, Dale was called out for her lackadaisical attitude.

In the customary meeting with the experts, Sly immediately admits that despite a rare challenge pass, he's destined for the final. Kevin initially wants to graduate, but quickly withdraws his request upon Andrew pointing out that he failed every single challenge this episode. Michael admits he didn't do especially well this episode, though doesn't think he's Canada's Worst Driver Ever. Dale, however, fails to show up for her meeting with the experts and upon further investigation by the production team, it turns out that immediately after the Slalom Challenge, she checked out of the drivers' hotel and caught a cab ride home. Much later, Dale returns sporting a heavily bandaged left hand and reveals that she has severed a tendon in one of her fingers. The experts ask how it happened and Dale initially claims not to remember, but, on further questioning, reveals that upon returning home, she found that her husband, John (one of the six people who nominated Dale three years earlier), was not there and, in frustration, broke the front door window in an attempt to get in the house, severely cutting her hand and severing the tendon in the process. Dale attempts to claim that her actions weren't really a big deal, but Andrew points out that she attempted to quit the show, resulting in Dale giving the experts a rambling, incomprehensible speech about 'personal realities' and how she sometimes exists in a different world to everyone else, causing the experts to point out that, aside from the obvious problem of her hand injury—which will take months to heal—making it impossible for her to continue, it now becomes painfully clear that Dale is not mentally competent to drive and they unanimously recommend that she give up driving, an idea Dale scoffs at and says that she will continue to drive until she is no longer physically able to. Because of her attempting to quit and refusing to take responsibility for her actions, the experts decide not to even afford Dale a medical-based departure—they afforded one for Angelina—and instead simply expel her from rehab, with Cam even implying an intention to contact the Ontario Ministry of Transport and ask that Dale's driver's license be put up for review. At what would have been the penultimate graduation ceremony, Andrew shocks the drivers by appearing to destroy Dale's driver's license, but reveals that what he actually destroyed was just a copy and hands the real license over to Danny, who agrees to drive Dale back home, setting the stage for an all-male finale (the first-ever instance of such in the show's history and the second to have three people of the same gender after Canada's Worst Driver 4), as Andrew announces that either Kevin, Michael or Sly will be Canada's Worst Driver Ever. During the preview at the end of the show, it was revealed that Dale had returned for the final graduation ceremony, leaving viewers to question whether Cam carried out his threat of contacting the Ontario Ministry of Transport to ask them for a review of Dale's license or if Dale is named Canada's Worst Driver Ever.

Episode 8: The Envelope, Please![edit]

Michael Telford

Original airdate: December 16, 2013

• The Reverse Gauntlet: In a challenge which combines elements of the Longest Reversing Challenge Ever and the Slalom, the drivers are tasked with reversing a 1960 Lincoln Premiere down a narrow straight bordered by cars and concrete blocks, then perform a reverse slalom around a set of foam figurines, before driving the car back to the start forward. Each driver has ten attempts and must complete the course in under a minute. Sly takes six attempts just to get out of the initial straight and fares no better in the slalom section, going completely off the track twice. During the course of his runs, the car's battery dies and has to be replaced, before the engine totally breaks down on his ninth run. With the engine deemed unfixable in the time available, a Ford F-250 truck is brought in for the remainder of the challenge. Much to the surprise of Andrew and the nominators, Michael fares even worse than Sly (if that's even possible), getting out of the initial straight section on two occasions, mostly due to his continued refusal to use the technique of looking out of the back window while reversing. Kevin initially fares little better than the other two men, but starts to get the hang of the challenge and, on his seventh run, nearly gets it right, but takes a little too long to finish. On his next attempt, he successfully passes with a full 12 seconds to spare, six seconds faster than it took Andrew to demonstrate. Since Sly had one attempt left, he's allowed to take it in the truck and immediately fails by violently hitting the first vehicle bordering the initial straight.
  • Best Performer: Kevin, who was the only one of the three to pass.
  • Worst Performer: Michael and Sly, who both failed to come close to passing, albeit Michael had looked the worse of the two until Sly's 'colossal fail' (in Andrew's words) on his last run.
• Camaro Challenge: The Mega-Challenge: For what Andrew claims to be the show's most demanding Mega-Challenge yet, the drivers will each begin with a combined Eye of the Needle and Slalom, which ends in an Icy Corner that they have to safely negotiate. The drivers then have to navigate a forward section of wheel rims, then turn the car around in a space enclosed by concrete barriers, before ending the challenge with a reverse-flick. Sly goes first and hits nearly every arch and foam person in the initial section, then fails the Icy Corner. He then hits a lot of wheel rims in the forward section, dents and scrapes the Camaro in the concrete turning space and knocks over even more wheel rims in the reversing section. After getting wedged on some rims, he gets out to remove them, but accidentally leaves the Camaro in reverse, resulting in it taking off without him and not stopping until it gets wedged on more rims. Finally, Sly attempts the reverse flick far too late and understeers, ensuring a total failure in every aspect of the challenge. Kevin gets off to a great start and performs both the Eye of the Needle/Slalom combo and the Icy Corner flawlessly, causing Andrew to congratulate him just before he begins the wheel rim section. His congratulations prove premature, however, as Kevin starts knocking down the rims and his mounting stress causes the run to rapidly fall apart, with Kevin again heavily scraping the car while turning it around, knocking down even more wheel rims in reverse and then getting the reverse flick spectacularly wrong and destroying the left-hand side of the turning area. Michael has the final run and gets the initial straight right without hitting any arches or foam people, but then fails the Icy Corner. Like Kevin, his mounting stress then causes him to start knocking down the wheel rims; he at least turns the Camaro around without hitting anything, but continues to knock down rims in the reverse section and then fails the reverse flick when he turns the steering wheel the wrong way, leaving Michael visibly angry with himself.
  • Best Performer: Kevin, who completed everything up until the Icy Corner flawlessly.
  • Worst Performer: Sly, who didn't successfully complete a single part of the challenge.
• Road Test: As in the previous two seasons, the final road test takes place in Hamilton, Ontario, this time in a Corvette, with the beginning and ending in the Hamilton City Hall Municipal Service Centre parking lot at the intersection of Hunter Street West and Park Street South. Michael is first up and his run initially goes well, driving confidently, following directions and even negotiating some confusing intersections. However, he messes up mid-drive by running two red lights in quick succession (the intersection of James Street North and Cannon Street and the intersection of King Street West and Hess Street North), but otherwise, his run goes very smoothly and he handles the highway drive with no trouble at all, although Michael ends up feeling disappointed about the two moving violations that would only cost him $650 had he been caught, a far cry from the six moving violations he committed during his Toronto drive seven years ago, a drive that, again, took just over three hours to complete. To Andrew's shock, Sly's drive goes even better and other than excessive shoulder-checking, he doesn't make a single mistake on the drive, a far cry from when he stopped in the middle of an intersection trying to read the crossing street signs two years ago. However, much like his previous final drive, Sly only half-heartedly promises not to eat or use handheld gadgets while in the car, causing Andrew to ponder whether he should still be named Canada's Worst Driver Ever. Despite him performing the best in the two prior challenges, Kevin's run proves to be by far the worst; within the opening minutes, he turns left from the middle lane onto Caroline Street South, then does it again in the middle of Main Street East onto Hughson Street South and, to Andrew's shock, tries to deny having done it. He then commits a serious offense by passing a stopped police car on Arkledun Avenue without changing lanes (something Cam notes is usually an instant $490 fine, demerit points and possibly jail) and as the drive continues, he scrapes the Corvette's bumper while turning around, makes several illegal lane changes, runs a red light and then stops in the middle of the intersection of King Street West and Summers Lane, resulting in his 13th moving violation. Andrew twice has to prevent Kevin from turning left onto the MacNab Street Bus Terminal from the middle lane of King Street West and onto King Street East from the middle lane of Hughson Street South (which would have caused him to collide with a bus and a car, respectively) and after the second such incident, Kevin pulls over into the parking lot of the Pioneer gas station on King Street West, phones Lenny and seems to concede he's Canada's Worst Driver Ever and suggests giving up driving. Lenny tells him to finish the drive (proving not to be the voice of reason Andrew hoped), but Andrew tells Kevin that should he commit any more ticketable offenses, the drive will be stopped immediately. Sure enough, Kevin does just that when he subsequently turns from Main Street West onto James Street South and into an oncoming traffic lane and fails to realize this until Andrew points it out, leading to him stopping just yards short of a collision with a car coming from the other direction; this is the final straw for Andrew, who calls a halt to the drive and takes Kevin to the Impark parking lot on James Street North and King William Street himself, as it's the closest parking lot around. Kevin becomes completely despondent, snaps at Andrew and then breaks down in tears when calling Lenny on the phone again. Andrew notes that with Sly's drive being flawless and Michael having done relatively well on his, despite running two red lights (and barring a miracle), Kevin's status as Canada's Worst Driver Ever is now all but assured.
  • Best Performer: Sly, who didn't commit a single ticketable offense during his drive.
  • Worst Performer: Kevin, whose driving was so dangerous that Andrew was eventually forced to stop the drive after he nearly collided head-on with another car.

In his final meeting with the judges, Kevin gives a rather unconvincing answer when asked if he intends to follow through with his promise of quitting driving, prompting the experts to call in Lenny, who in turn reveals that Kevin told him he would only temporarily give up driving and take lessons to improve his skills, leaving the experts disconcerted by Kevin's actions and Lenny is shown a video of Kevin's final drive to show just how unfit to drive he is. Michael is convinced that he is not the worst, while Sly admits that, despite his road test performance, he honestly doesn't believe he is a better driver than Kevin or Michael. In the final discussion as to who is the worst, Shyamala and Philippe make a shocking suggestion—that despite having been expelled the previous episode, Dale should still be named Canada's Worst Driver Ever, for not even participating in the final challenges and road test and her unstable behaviour during both her stints in rehab. Andrew and Cam believe that Kevin is worse, however, with Cam noting that he had a serious accident between this season and last and that, for all her faults (and Lord knows how many faults Dale has had), Dale hasn't had any such serious accidents in recent years, leaving Tim with the deciding vote. As Kevin, Michael and Sly assemble for the trophy presentation, a car pulls up and Dale gets out. Andrew begins by announcing that Michael is the final graduate and returns his driver's license to him. As Michael and Eric drive away, Andrew's voiceover notes that while he still has a lot of improving to do, Michael is clearly a much better driver now than in his original appearance on the show and definitely not Canada's Worst Driver Ever. History then repeats itself, as Sly's strong final drive manages to override his horrible track record in the contest and saves him from being named the worst (as previously happened in Canada's Worst Driver 7). Due to his poor overall performance and the fact that he ultimately showed no improvement over his previous appearance on the show, however, Andrew asks Fred to drive Sly home, while recommending that Sly only drive when absolutely necessary from now on. Despite believing she will be named the worst, history repeats itself for Dale as well, as she avoids the title due to the experts feeling she was a little more aware of the dangers of driving than Kevin and Cam predicting that her license will soon be revoked anyway. Kevin, therefore, is named the outright worst this time and Andrew presents him with the trophy, then lights a road flare and asks Kevin to use it to destroy his license. Kevin initially refuses to do so, but Lenny forces him to go through with it and the license is completely burned away by the flare, after which Lenny drives Kevin away. In an ending voiceover, Andrew reveals that while Kevin hasn't driven since the show was filmed, he has acquired a new car.

References[edit]

1. ^CANADA’S WORST DRIVER EVER – Season 9 – Premieres October 2

External links[edit]

• Canada's Worst Driver on IMDb

Canada's Worst Driver 3 was the third season of the Canadianreality TV show Canada's Worst Driver, which aired on the Discovery Channel. As with previous years, eight people, nominated by their family or friends, enter the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to improve their driving skills. This year, the Driver Rehabilitation Centre is located at the Edgar Adult Occupation Centre in the ghost town of Edgar, Ontario. Unlike the two previous seasons, however, when the focus was on Winter Driving and Summer Driving, respectively, the focus of this season was on Extreme Driving, in the hope that knowledge of these techniques (which is not normally taught to driving students) will help them become more confident and competent at the wheel. Also, for the second year in a row, the Driver Rehabilitation Program is one week shorter (this is due to Billie-Jean Leslie graduating in the fifth episode). Also unlike the two previous seasons, the contestants' driver's licenses are confiscated instead of their keys. The initial drive started in Orillia, Ontario and the final road test occurred in Barrie, Ontario.

• 3Synopsis

Experts[edit]

Two experts return from Canada's Worst Driver 2, though Marcus Agyeman and Juliana Chiovitti, insurance broker and performance driving instructor, respectively, from the past season, are not among them.

• Cam Woolley is a traffic sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police who has seen the habits of Canadian drivers change drastically since 2000, with the most common offense having changed from DUI to distracted driving.
• Philippe Létourneau is a high-performance driving instructor with the Jim Russell Racing School, having been also featured on Discovery's Star Racer series. He is also a lead driving instructor for BMW Driver Training and the 'Ferrari Driving Experience' at the Mont Tremblant race track. Philippe has enjoyed a successful career with over 40 podium finishes in 120 race starts.
• Dr. Louisa Gembora is a psychologist who worked at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario before moving on to private practice in 1994. She drives a race car in her spare time.
• Scott Marshall is the show's head driving instructor, a position he has held since 2005.

Contestants[edit]

• Shelby D'Souza, 30 and licensed for four years, from Calgary, Alberta, is an overly cautious forklift operator, to the point in which he spends five seconds facing a green light before moving his car—and even then, he drives slowly. In sharp contrast to road rage, he is far too generous at the wheel and his younger brother, Elerick D'Souza, believes that he will be rear-ended in an accident soon before he can change his ways. He drives a beige Chevrolet Blazer and drove a beige Mazda Protege to the rehab centre.
• Thomas Hobbs, 21, from Lloydminster, Alberta, is an aspiring street racer who has claimed to have gone at over 240 km/h on a highway. Thomas is constantly taking risks behind the wheel, enjoying life on the fast line. He is nominated by his older sister, Lenora Hobbs, because she does not believe that he is in control of his car. He drives a gray GMC Sierra 2500 and drove a blue Ford Explorer to the rehab centre.
• Denice Koke, 33, from Cranbrook, British Columbia, is an emotional wreck at the wheel and believes that this is the reason that she is too reliant on nominator and husband, Henry Koke, a truck driver, for their family activities. She believes that this is interfering in her children's lives, especially her son, who had to be pulled out of a local hockey league because she was not confident driving him to games. She drives a red Dodge Grand Caravan.
• Jennifer Kritzer, 22, from Hamilton, Ontario, is extremely accident-prone, proudly admitting to being involved in a large number of hit-and-run accidents. She is nominated by her boyfriend, Jon Park. She drives a silver Ford Focus.
• Billie-Jean Leslie, 22, from Victoria, British Columbia, is a student and hairdresser who is more concentrated on looking good than looking at the road. She only uses her car's mirrors for applying makeup and has on numerous occasions changed clothes while at the wheel, all of which leading to 12 accidents in a year and four license suspensions in four years (her choice of footwear is also an issue). She is nominated by her cousin, Nicola Coulter. She drives a gray Mazda 323 and drove a beige Mitsubishi Lancer to the rehab centre.
• Marnie Maddison, 41, from Calgary, Alberta, is extremely nervous at the wheel and not confident in going anywhere other than her workplace, preferring to starve over driving to the grocery store. Because of this, she is on her eighth learner's permit and has never mustered the confidence to take a final road test. Worse yet, she has no one to turn to, as her boyfriend and nominator, Bruce Toye, is frequently out of town in his job as an airline pilot. She drives a silver Honda Civic and drove a silver Ford Taurus to the rehab centre.
• Edward 'Ed' Porter, 43, from Ottawa, Ontario, is a biologist who has an extreme road rage problem, which has torn apart his relationship with his nominator and ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Cecchi. He enters rehabilitation in an effort to address his road rage, which causes their children to vomit whenever he is driving, but also as a step towards reconciliation of their broken common-law relationship. He drives a black Saturn Ion and drove a green Ford Focus to the rehab centre.
• Jason Zhang, 42, from Vancouver, British Columbia, is a travel agent who, when driving has a case of 'extreme tunnel vision,' making him unable to see what's around or directly in front of him. Because of this, he relishes gridlock (due to it being slow) and always parks in the most expensive parking stalls to avoid others. He is nominated by his husband, Adrian Fehr. He drives a silver Honda Civic and drove a blue Ford Focus to the rehab centre.

Synopsis[edit]

(CWD) The contestant became Canada's Worst Driver.

(RUNNER-UP) The contestant was runner-up for Canada's Worst Driver.

(OUT) The contestant graduated.

(IN) The contestant was shortlisted for graduation.

Episode 1: Rock Bottom[edit]

Original airdate: October 29, 2007

• The Drive to Rehab: This season, the journey to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre starts from a granite quarry (signifying 'rock bottom') in Orillia, Ontario, with the eight contestants heading to rehab using a provided set of instructions, a journey that Andrew notes should take an average driver with good knowledge of directions like himself an hour to complete. The contestants first drive 40 km (25 mi) following a list of 20 turns to Carthew Bay General Store, a convenience store on Laskeshore Road East, take a map and follow the directions another 20 km (12 mi) to rehab, where the contestants will have their drivers' licenses confiscated. The contestants depart in the following order: Jason, Marnie, Shelby, Jennifer, Denice, Billie-Jean, Thomas and Ed. Jason gets off to a slow start (stopping and going on the road out of the quarry), narrowly missing his first stop sign, while Marnie is nervous because there may be left turns without 'flashers' (i.e. having to turn left while traffic in the opposite direction is going) and Shelby quickly gets himself lost. Jennifer and Denice are the next ones out. By the time Billie-Jean leaves, Jason has already reached the convenience store. Thomas is the next to leave and tries to get there as quickly as possible, even though he contends that it is not a race. He does manage to pass Billie-Jean and Jason (who had since fallen behind) in the effort to get ahead. Ed is the last person to leave the quarry. Everyone makes a large number of moving violations on the way to rehab and the contestants arrive in the following order: Thomas (who committed 67 speeding violations), Jason (who had fallen behind when Thomas passed him), Ed, Marnie (who drove 64 km (40 mi) off course), Shelby (who went 69 km (43 mi) off course and took over three hours), Billie-Jean (who looked in her rear-view mirror 14 times), Jennifer (who took over four hours and committed a long list of moving violations, enough to lose her license) and Denice (who made 85 self-deprecating comments).
  • First to Arrive: Thomas was the first to arrive.
  • Last to Arrive: Denice was the last.
• Reversing Race: In the first proper challenge, held at Barrie Speedway, Canada's Worst Drivers each take one lap around the track in stock cars while driving in reverse, in front of a racecar audience. Marnie races against Ed in the first heat, followed by Billie-Jean against Jason in the second heat, while Jennifer races against Thomas and Denice against Shelby. Though there were three disqualifications (Ed for fishtailing out of control on the first turn of the oval track, Marnie for completely letting go of the wheel and Jason after Adrian grabbed at the steering wheel), while Thomas finishes with the fastest time. Surprisingly, Jennifer, who has a fear of driving in reverse, finishes second, followed by Shelby, Billie-Jean and Denise, who overcame her desire to vomit while actually racing.
  • Fastest Performer: Thomas performed the fastest at :40.
  • Slowest Performer: Denice performed the slowest at :59, although Ed, Marnie and Jason were all disqualified for fishtailing out of control, completely letting go of the wheel and Adrian grabbing at the steering wheel, respectively.
• Skills Evaluation: In the second challenge, the drivers must reverse a Ford Mustang out of a garage (with little room for maneuvering), down a driveway, up and down a ramp, before heading forwards at 30 km/h in a giant slalom-like course, stopping so that their car straddles a red line painted at the ground. Following the slalom portion, the drivers must use precision driving to move slowly through an obstacle course before reversing and parking at a nearby parking space. Marnie is first to take the challenge, requiring 131 attempts (and a crew-assisted reset) merely to leave the driveway, while Denice hits 34 things and takes 57 minutes. Ed hits 54 things, although his driving wasn't helped by Elizabeth's screaming. Billie-Jean is the first to check her mirrors, although this does nothing to help, as she hits 46 things, mainly due to speeding. Thomas is next and, despite a strong start, hits 24 things, mainly due to the same reason Billie-Jean hit 46 things during her run—speeding. Jason has the biggest problem of all the drivers—a passenger who won't stop grabbing the wheel. Jennifer and Shelby fare arguably the worst in this challenge, as both completely destroy the precision driving portion of the course while attempting to stop after the slalom (being unable to brake)-- furthermore, Jennifer, who finished with 31 hits, had accelerated into the obstacles—something she has done at home and fled the scene, a felony which Andrew states is incriminating evidence and Sgt. Cam states is a criminal offense in all of Canada—while Shelby, who finished with 17 hits in two seconds and unable to complete the challenge, had been clocked under the required speed in the slalom.

Episode 2: Car Confidential[edit]

Original airdate: November 5, 2007

• Burning Out: After each contestant (except Thomas, who refused) was given a lesson on how to do burnouts and donuts by high-performance instructor Phillipe Létourneau, each contestant must maintain a ten-second burnout and then perform a full-circle wide donut around a foam figure before driving out of the area. By refusing the lesson, Thomas, who did the challenge successfully after five attempts, automatically failed the challenge. Jason and Marnie fail due to hitting the foam figure, while the surprises in the challenge were Shelby (who did it on his first try) and Denice (who, despite having spent an hour on the challenge and nearly breaking down every time, first from lapping instead of making donuts and later from nearly hitting concrete obstacles, managed to gain the confidence she needs, though she fails the challenge). Billie-Jean was also notable in taking an entire night to do the challenge, having made donuts while circling around the figure, but not a wide donut all the way around.
• Eye of the Needle: In this year's edition of the perennial traditional challenge, the drivers must go through a series of foam archways which are only half a lane wide (i.e. with only 20 cm (7.9 in) clearance on either side of the car) while having to maintain a speed of over 40 km/h. Unlike previous years, they are forced to retry the course if they hit an archway or fail to maintain speed, up to a maximum of five attempts. A number of contestants managed to finish in only two attempts (having barely missed the speed requirement the first time around), while Thomas (who boasted that he could maintain 60 km/h) took three attempts (his jerky deceleration having cut his speed under 40 km/h in his first two attempts), Shelby took four attempts because his first three were well under the limit. Marnie quits the challenge after four attempts, while Jason used up all five of his attempts. Ed, despite having revealed that he has a case of tunnel vision even when wearing glasses, also manages to successfully finish despite his doubts that the challenge was even possible.
• Broken Hearts: In this year's variation of the figure-eight challenge, the contestants pair off, both starting at one-end of a figure-eight course and having to reverse through it, where the midpoint and a spot at the other end of the figure-eight course are the only passing points. Unlike previous years, though, the loops are slightly elongated so as to create a heart shape. Thomas and Jennifer are the first pairing, while Jason and Shelby go second. Billie-Jean and Ed are third, while Denice and Marnie make up the final heat. Thomas is by far the best driver, being both the fastest and hitting the fewest obstacles (two), but his running mate gets her car stuck in between two car obstacles. Similarly, Shelby gets his car stuck, although he is courteous in allowing Jason to move right through the midway point when he pulls past the passing point (Shelby also finishes, but only through forcibly getting himself free). Although Ed focuses on finishing the challenge the best way possible, Elizabeth is frustrated at Ed's courteousness to Billie-Jean and is even more frustrated when he allows Billie-Jean to overtake him at the halfway point and finish faster. Denice and Marnie nearly break down over their significant others and Andrew steps in to force the nominators to switch cars slightly after the midway point. Because of this, though, the contestants end up hitting dramatically fewer obstacles, though Denice still hits 71 (57 with her husband at her side and 14 with Bruce in the passenger seat) and Marnie 78.

At the end of the episode, the experts and Andrew were deadlocked as to who to graduate. Andrew and Scott preferred Billie-Jean, while Sgt. Cam and Phillipe preferred Denice. Dr. Gembora's first vote as a judge ends up being the deciding one, as she votes in Denice's favour and she becomes the first graduate of the third season.

Episode 3: Cool Bus[edit]

Ashley Dunne

Original airdate: November 12, 2007

• Cool Bus: In Canada, one cannot legally drive a school bus with a regular G Class license (in Ontario, a school bus requires a B Class License) unless the bus was not labeled as such and most of the seats were removed. In this challenge, after everyone is given lessons on parallel parking, the contestants must reverse the 'Cool Bus' down a street littered with cars and rims before parallel parking the bus on the left side of a hill. Jennifer nearly breaks down in the challenge, but ends up finishing the challenge with a perfect run (her time is not shown). Parallel parking is also not a problem for Thomas or Billie-Jean (the latter of whom learned to use her mirrors and, more amazingly, never parallel-parked before, having 'flirted' her way out of parallel parking in her driving test, as Nicola pointed out to Andrew), though both do hit obstacles, as does Ed and Marnie, with the former's nominator wanting to quit rehab, which would have either left Ed without a nominator for the remainder of rehab or led to Ed being expelled from rehab if Elizabeth cancelled their shared insurance policy by quitting. At the other end of the spectrum, Jason and Shelby had to have their courses modified so that all the obstacles were removed—Jason from frustration and wanting to quit rehab (which would have made him the first contestant in any Worst Driver series to quit and, as a result, leave without his license, which he does when he's ultimately named the worst) and Shelby (despite his dreams of driving a bus one day) from having moved only 10 feet after 30 minutes of driving the bus and causing over $12,000 in damages.
  • Fastest Performer: Jennifer performed the fastest, although her time was not shown.
  • Slowest Performer: Billie-Jean performed the slowest at 45:08.
  • Best Performer: Jennifer, Thomas and Billie-Jean were the only three people to pass this challenge, with Jennifer doing slightly better.
  • Worst Performer: Jason and Shelby were the worst, to the point both had the course modified so that all the obstacles were removed.
• Swerve and Avoid: The contestants are in a car that lacks anti-lock brakes for a simple accident avoidance course—they must accelerate to 50 km/h before crossing a yellow line, where they must engage the brakes. When they reach a fork in the road, both of which have obstacles, one will move aside. The drivers must then recover from the skid and drive through their opening to safety. The drivers have up to five attempts to finish this task. Billie-Jean gets this on her first try, while developing a habit (from the previous episode) of wearing flats (her 'driving shoes') instead of the stilettos she normally wears. Thomas, no stranger to swerving, also finishes on his first try. Marnie and Shelby take multiple tries to finish, as does Jason (a far cry from wanting to quit in the previous challenge), while Ed (due to his tunnel vision problem preventing him from seeing which exit had opened up) and Jennifer (out of frustration) do not finish at all.
  • Best Performer: Thomas and Billie-Jean were the only two people to pass this challenge, with Billie-Jean doing slightly better.
  • Worst Performer: Ed and Jennifer were the worst, due to his tunnel vision and her frustration, respectively.
• Road Signs: Scott gives a simple quiz on their knowledge of road signs. Thomas answers all 13 signs correctly, while Jason only manages four (while still believing he got 11).
• Canada's Worst Parking Lot: In the annual parking lot challenge, the seven contestants are given seven cars and must park in whatever parking stalls are available. However, any moving violation (including hitting other cars, parking so that the car is not between the lines or parking in no-parking zones) will result in the contestant penalized by being forced to drive out of the parking lot and take a penalty lap. As the challenge goes on, blocker cars (which include the Cool Bus) will also attempt to either serve as moving obstacles or park momentarily in one of the available stalls. As the challenge starts, Jason is the first to be penalized by inadvertently backing into Marnie out of the gate. Billie-Jean is the first to park (the only one to do so before any blockers appear), followed by Ed when Jason is forced to take a penalty lap when he hits a car while backing into a stall. When Ed is asked to take the role of a blocker, it allows Thomas to back into the stall he vacates, making him the third to park. Shelby (assisted by Billie-Jean and Nicola from outside the car) parks next and does so without taking penalty laps, while Jason finally finds a spot to parallel park. In the battle for the last spot, Marnie (having taken nine penalty laps already, two from simultaneously parking in a no parking stall while one tire was over the line) is in the best position to take it, but is forced to take a penalty lap when she hits a barrel, giving Jennifer the opening needed to steal the spot, leaving Marnie out of luck.

At the end of the episode, the judges were favoring Thomas for his skill level being far above the rest (but believing that Thomas has still learned nothing besides the consequences of his street racing from Sgt. Cam, in which life imprisonment is a distinct possibility), Billie-Jean for developing the habit of driving with flats instead of stilettos (and having dramatically improved results therein) and making use of mirrors and Marnie for improvements in confidence (despite few challenges being completed). At the end, Andrew, with a racing helmet and a pair of scissors, gives Thomas a choice to either take the racing helmet and be the second graduate or choose the scissors and be expelled (similar to Colin Sheppard from the previous season). Thomas makes the right choice, but instead of leaving in his car (as is the norm for all graduates), he is taken back to the Barrie Speedway, where he partakes (and wins) in his first race on a track. The experience from being at the track alone (let alone racing), according to him, is well worth the trip to rehab, as he vows to never street race again.

Episode 4: Skid Marks[edit]

Original airdate: November 19, 2007

• The Balance-Beam for Unbalanced Drivers: In one of the most heavily hyped challenges of the season, two cars, controlled by a contestant in one and their nominator in the other, must try to balance the cars out on a teeter-totter rig. The cars are miked up to each other to facilitate communication and a complex rail and chain system prevents the cars from hitting each other or go off the teeter-totter. Ed and Elizabeth, in a surprising show of patience, manage to balance out the fastest. Shelby and Billie-Jean also manage to balance out after a lot of work (humorously, Andrew was seated in Billie-Jean's car and was forced out in order to get the cars to balance out), as does Jennifer after watching Jon adjust and laughing in the meantime for half her run. Neither Jason (with Andrew seated in his car) nor Marnie (who didn't even realize her parking brake was still on until after 21 minutes) finish the challenge, as both pairs had given up after about an hour.
• Parking Cross: In a simple challenge, a car is situated within a small cross and the challenge is to park in the four arms of the cross, which can be done in at least 29 turns. Marnie is surprisingly the fastest at the run and Billie-Jean puts up another strong performance. Ed once again lets his aggression gets the best of him, while Jennifer nearly breaks down. Jason's biggest challenge is not to let Adrian get the best of him (which he clearly fails at, as of the 42 orders he received, 23 were wrong), while Shelby's run is none too spectacular.
  • Fastest Performer: Marnie performed the fastest at 13:11.
  • Slowest Performer: Jennifer performed the slowest at 46:52.
• Driving on Ice: To simulate the icy conditions of winter within the summer driving season, a hydraulic skid car is employed. The hydraulic car is set to raise one end of the car via remote control. After being given skid car instructions by 28-year veteran ice driving instructor John Powell, the contestants take on a simple challenge in the skid car: they must simply go downhill in the skid car in what is more or less a straightaway in park in front of a wall, being fully aware that the skid car may activate during the trip (the twist is, of course, that it will not activate at any point during the run). Marnie (who took the longest to learn in the lesson), confident in her belief that any skid on ice will result in a car crash, is completely surprised at the result—a perfect run, showing that she needn't drive in fear of an ice skid. The single run shoots her confidence through the roof. As for Jason (the only other driver whose run is shown), he believes that he would skid into the wall and thus accelerates into the wall to regain control, destroying the skid car.
• Riding a Bike: Scott has always compared driving to riding a bike. The fact that Shelby has had no experience in riding a bike leads Andrew to teach him. Although he struggles to ride with the training wheels off, after two hours and 18 minutes, Shelby has achieved his only other lifelong dream.
• Stick-Shift Driving: In this simple driving challenge, after being given a lesson on stick-shift driving by Scott, the contestants must take a standard transmission car and drive it up a straightaway (peppered with stops), perform a three-point turn and back down the same straightaway. Three of the remaining contestants have experience in driving stick-shift and for Marnie, it shows as she scores a near-perfect run (hitting obstacles only at the very last part of the return leg due to poor cornering). Ed and Billie-Jean are the other two, although Ed quickly gets into anger-trouble (elbowing Elizabeth at the turn) while Billie-Jean stalls her car as she makes the turn, starting off a dangerous chain reaction in her behaviour. Adrian also has experience in stick-shift, but it does not pass onto Jason as he hits obstacles and stalls the car repeatedly in his run, nearly breaking down on the return leg. Jennifer breaks down and needs a smoke break at the turn, while Shelby burns out his clutch in his car, forcing him to redo the challenge in a backup car (which was also used by four other contestants). He stalls the car 38 times in the new car and nearly burns out the clutch there as well.
  • Best Performer: Marnie nearly had a perfect run, hitting obstacles the end.
  • Worst Performer: Shelby did the worst, killing the clutch in the first car and nearly burning out the clutch in the second car.

Again, the judges are split at the end of the episode. Sgt. Cam and Andrew are both confident that Billie-Jean, having been passed over twice already, has shown repeatedly what it takes to graduate. However, Phillippe and Dr. Gembora prefer Marnie's dramatic improvement from the previous episode, leaving Scott to cast the deciding vote and while he would rather graduate both, he's pressured by Andrew into choosing one, so he casts the deciding vote for Marnie, resulting in Billie-Jean being passed over for the third straight episode on the grounds that someone else had a breakout performance.

Episode 5: Bumpy Road Ahead[edit]

Original airdate: November 26, 2007

• Handbrake J-Turn: After high-performance instructor Phillipe Létourneau gives everyone lessons on how to do a 180° handbrake skid turn from driving straight ahead at 40 km/h, the contestants must attempt to perform this maneuver within limited confines. Shelby does this on his second attempt, while for Ed, it takes six attempts, largely because he had used the footbrakes instead. For everyone else, this takes four attempts—Jason because of turning too soon or too late, Jennifer over using the footbrakes instead of the hand brake and Billie-Jean because of not looking where she wanted to go.
• S-Bend Race: In the Broken Hearts challenge, a frustrated Jennifer had asked for instructions on how to move the car laterally, but nevertheless got herself stuck. In this challenge, the method to do so, known as the S-bend, will be given to everyone. The contestants must use the S-bend to maneuver their car sideways towards a concrete barrier and then back towards their starting point. Contestants will be racing against each other and each car has paint rollers mounted so as to clearly see contact with the barriers on the three closed-off sides. Jason has the privilege of being the odd-man out, driving as Andrew demonstrates the challenge. He is also the fastest to finish at 12 minutes and is grateful for the show staff not allowing him to give up driving during the Cool Bus challenge. Shelby, racing against Jennifer is the slowest at the challenge, having taken 30 minutes to drive off of the starting position (because he turned forward and reversed the way he came, a move that had been done many times by Shelby before and had affectionately been given the name 'sawing the bow') and another 30 minutes to finish after doing this. He also had the most paint contacts with 12, a far cry from everyone else (Jason had none, while Jennifer had only one).
• Driving Off-Road: In this challenge, purposely built by Central Ontario 4×4 Club for this show, the drivers must take an off-road truck and drive through several off-road obstacles (such as a series of pits, a rock garden, and over branches), which includes a series of hairpin turns. At the end of the course, they must reverse through it back to the starting point. Ed is the first to go and, unlike previous challenges, keeps his cool as Elizabeth is screaming and makes an acceptable run. In another twist, the contestant will be in the passenger seat of the contestant following them (instead of their nominators, as with Elizabeth with Ed). Each contestant will also pass on a piece of safety advice when doing this challenge—driving the challenge with their thumbs up (as jerky movement will cause thumb injury). Ed (who was given the advice by Andrew) does this to Jason, whose run was acceptable, but Jason forgets the safety message as Shelby takes the wheel. Shelby has the worst (as in most reckless) run of the day (although Jason breaks the driver-side mirror in three places during his run, causing $360 in damages and resulting in 21 years of bad luck) and convinces Jennifer that her run is better than his (although her reverse run goes off-course on several occasions). Billie-Jean, going last, has the best run of the day, patient in both directions.
  • Best Performer: Billie-Jean's patience pays off in this challenge, finishing with the best run of the day.
  • Slowest Performer: Shelby did the worst statistically.
• The Water-Tank Challenge: In the annual tradition, the contestants must go through an obstacle course with a roof-mounted water tank filled with 200 litres (53 US gal) of water. If the contestants do not brake smoothly, the contents of the water tank will drain though a series of tubes leading to the occupants inside the car. This year's twist, however, is that at the end of the obstacle course is a high-speed portion: the drivers must slowly accelerate up to 30 km/h and slowly brake. Only Jason is prepared for the challenge (himself and Adrian having worn a shower cap), largely because he has to repeat the acceleration portion five times, either because of not keeping up speed or hitting a side barrier while accelerating, but still loses over 100 litres (26 US gal) of water, yet he still thinks he's graduating. Shelby loses the least amount of water (20 litres (5.3 US gal), but makes the serious mistake of leaving the car in drive while he exits the car to remove an obstacle that had lodged itself under the car. Billie-Jean's jerky driving causes her makeup to run, resulting in 40 litres (11 US gal) of water lost, while Jennifer, wearing waterproof mascara, regretted her choice of clothes (a set of white pants that had gone translucent when wet); however, she lost 45 litres (12 US gal) of water. Ed's run had Elizabeth screaming repeatedly whenever he got wet, but again, he maintained composure and lost only 25 litres (6.6 US gal) of water.

At the end of the show, only Dr. Gembora had the dissenting opinion on who was the most improved driver, as the rest had thought Shelby had improved the most. However, everyone agrees that this was not enough for Shelby to graduate, due to his horrible off-road challenge and his critical mistake in the water-tank challenge of leaving the car in drive. As a result, the choice to graduate was painfully obvious: Billie-Jean, shortlisted but passed over three times due to someone else having a breakout performance, gets her just reward as she graduates, having accomplished all her goals in rehab (this also marks the first time a contestant graduated in the fifth episode).

Episode 6: Unhappy Trails[edit]

Original airdate: December 3, 2007

At the start of the episode, Andrew reiterates that the driver rehabilitation program has had a number of success stories-- Manuel Tejeda (from Canada's Worst Driver) has not hit a thing since leaving rehab (amounting to over two years and 15,000 km (9,300 mi) of driving), while Jodi Slobodesky (from the previous season) is now in a job where driving well is paramount. Coincidentally, both had graduated in the second-to-last episode in their respective series. They were the only two drivers to graduate in the second-last episode of the previous two seasons, excluding Sean McConnell (as the second-last episode of Canada's Worst Driver 2 was, at the time, the only episode of Canada's Worst Driver in which two drivers graduated).

• Trailer Ride: In Ontario, drivers may carry a trailer with a maximum height of 13 feet 6 inches (4.11 m). In this challenge, after each contestant was given lessons in trailer driving, the contestants must drive such a trailer (in the form of a giant pylon) through a hairpin turn, up a hill and then parallel park the vehicle (or reverse down the hill) when an oncoming emergency vehicle approaches. When the emergency vehicle passes, the contestants must continue up the hill and park in reverse in a parking space. Shelby is the best of the bunch, even though it still took him 15 minutes to parallel park, largely because he tells Elerick to get out of the car when he needs help. The rest of the contestants take over 30 minutes each to parallel park and Jason destroys his own trailer as he makes his final park.
• Stopping: Andrew notes that Adrian is one of the most controlling husbands who have appeared on the show (compared to Allan Carson and Sam Slobodesky from the previous season), if not the most controlling. To show how much of an influence this can get on Jason (who wants to graduate in this episode in order to return home in time for his sister-in-law's wedding), Scott monitors the pair as they try to brake from 40 km/h, with and without Adrian at the passenger seat. The conclusion: Jason is better off without Adrian at the wheel.
• The Maze: In what's only the season's second navigation challenge, the contestants must navigate their car out of a maze. The contestants are given a map of the maze before the start of the challenge, and they are free to make copies of the maze on paper before they begin. Ed is the fastest out of the maze and with the fewest hits-– mainly as Elizabeth had copied the maze diagram and navigated their way out-– though at the end, Ed was heading out of the maze in reverse. Jason and Jennifer hit many things on their runs for different reasons (Adrian's involvement and Jennifer's ignorance of hits). Shelby mistrusts his meticulously drawn map and he gets stuck in the maze in the tightest of spaces—so much that when he finally makes it out, the car engine starts to overheat.
• The Slalom: After Phillippe gives instructions to everyone on how to do a slalom while maintaining 40 km/h (and their hands on the nine-and-three and why the traditional ten-and-two may cause injuries when combined with modern airbag technology), the contestants attempt to do the same thing—except that at the end of the course, there will be a flagbearer and if the flag is raised, the contestants are directed to not swerve around the obstacles until the flags are lowered. If they lose control of their car (either in swerving, hitting an obstacle or failing to maintain 40 km/h) or fail to obey the flag, they must reattempt the course again, up to a maximum of seven tries. Ed's peripheral vision issues prevent him from finishing this challenge, while Jason and Shelby fail in their seven attempts (Jason from failing to maintain speed, Shelby from impacts with the obstacles). Jennifer, believing that all hope was lost, manages to finish on her last attempt.

In the end, Jason and Shelby are quickly ruled out as graduates—Jason, because often he didn't know which way his wheels were positioned—and Shelby because of the belief that he, in fact, got worse. The judges are split again on who should graduate—Dr. Gembora and Scott choosing Ed and Sgt. Cam and Andrew choosing Jennifer—with Phillippe holding the swing vote. Phillippe is quick to decide that Ed, whose relationship with Elizabeth has gradually improved over the course of the challenges, should be the next graduate, not only ensuring that there will not be three men in the finale, but also sending Jennifer into the finale with Jason and Shelby, with Ed also admitting that he was not as good of a driver as he thought and that alone has helped the couple reconcile.

Episode 7: Road Tests[edit]

Original airdate: December 10, 2007

• Driving in a Straight Line: In the penultimate challenge, the drivers must drive in a straight line between two concrete barriers, and must reach 40 km/h at the end. All three contestants will be in the truck in each run. Shelby is the fastest to finish, relying on creeping slowly and then flooring to the finish. Jennifer struggles in her run, but takes advice from Shelby (to simply floor it) and completes the challenge. Jason, wanting to quit again, fails to finish after 70 minutes.
• The Mega-Challenge: Drivers must combine all of the skills that they have garnered in previous challenges for this challenge. There are four parts to the mega-challenge: in the first, the drivers must start with a peel-out into an abbreviated Eye of the Needle course, before proceeding to an accident avoidance portion. After this, they approach the giant pylon, where they must do a half-donut, before parking the car and changing to a standard transmission car for the second part, which consists of an off-road drive, complete with a hill and slowing/stopping portion. After this, the contestants switch to the third car for a precision driving course, which consists of driving forwards into a garage and making a tight turn out of a garage, before proceeding to finish the third portion of the mega-challenge in reverse. Finally, back in the original car, they must accelerate their car in a straight line up to 60 km/h before stopping right in front of the giant pylon. Jennifer is fastest to finish, but Shelby and Jason show the judges that they perhaps do not deserve to graduate.
• Road Test: Drivers must navigate a course involving 35 turns through Barrie, Ontario in a mock road test, which Andrew also stresses will be done in his own truck, a 1998 Mazda B4000 (which Andrew reveals during Jason's drive is 15 years old). Shelby and Jennifer finish with four moving violations each (though Andrew jokingly describes Jennifer turning right through two traffic lanes into a Tim Hortons parking lot on Bayfield Street as just 'being Canadian'), but Shelby travels far off course and takes 98 minutes to do a test that normally takes an hour. Jason had by far the worst performance: his fear of fast traffic meant that, when merging into Ontario Highway 400 (which Andrew pointed out as 'one of Canada's most dangerous highways'), he ground to a complete halt. Furthermore, he misses Andrew's direction to merge off the highway at Duckworth Street and is forced to drive all the way to Midhurst, Ontario to avoid driving all the way to Sudbury, Ontario and get back on track. Jason's habit of turning off the motor at every stop is also duly noted by Andrew, as he tries to stop Jason from damaging his car's starter.

At the end of the day, the choice for the final placement was unanimous: Jennifer is clearly not Canada's Worst Driver, while neither Shelby nor Jason deserved to graduate. Jason is visibly defeated and says that he's considering giving up driving, while Shelby admits being disappointed with his final performance, but adds that he intends to continue driving and try to improve on his own. Though the experts briefly ponder the possibility of naming Shelby as the worst in the hope that he will also give up driving (an option Jason is already considering), Andrew reminds them that the show is about deciding who is Canada's Worst Driver and the experts quickly agree that, overall, Jason is clearly a worse driver than Shelby. Jason is therefore named the worst and he accepts the decision, along with surrendering his driver's license in a clear case and also confirms that he will give up driving in the wake of the announcement. Because Adrian left the Rehabilitation Centre to make it to his sister's wedding last episode, Jason gets a ride home from Shelby in the Cool Bus. It is also noted by Andrew that now that Jason is no longer a driver at all, that technically makes Shelby 'Canada's Worst Driver.'

Episode 8: Why Accidents Happen: 101 Problems on Canadian Roads[edit]

Original airdate: December 17, 2007

In this season's recap finale, host Andrew Younghusband explains how and why accidents happen on the road and how the eight contestants are affected by this information. Among the 'top 101' problems being explored, only some 70 of which actually were aired and demonstrated by the drivers themselves: street racing (Thomas), road rage (Ed), loss of bodily functions (Denice), using a car as a change room (Billie-Jean), inability to understand driving phrases (Jason didn't know what 'acceleration' was, but did, however, stick to his vow to 'get out of the driver's seat'), driving philosophy (Marnie), generosity (Shelby) and hit and run (Jennifer).

External links[edit]

• Canada's Worst Driver on IMDb
• Canada's Worst Driver at TV.com