Canada's Worst Driver 11 Explained
Canada's Worst Driver 11 is the eleventh season of the Canadian reality 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, however, nine people (because Shmuel Hoffman and his younger brother, Sholom, nominated each other and, thus, entered rehab together) entered the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to improve their driving skills. The focus of this season was on High-Speed Driving. This year, the Driver Rehabilitation Centre is located at the Dunnville Airport in Dunnville, Ontario for the sixth straight season. The initial drive started in Cayuga, Ontario and the final road test occurred in Hamilton, Ontario.
Experts
- 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. He is the traffic expert on CP24 in Toronto and had a 25-year career as a traffic sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police.
- Philippe Létourneau is a veteran high-speed driving instructor who counts BMW and Ferrari among his clients. Since joining the show in the third season, 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.
- 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 the seventh season, as the stresses in driving and everyday life seem to always be on the increase.
- Tim Danter is the show's head driving instructor, a position he has held since joining the show in the eighth season. In this position, he not only gives the drivers help and instructions for challenges, but gives them further lessons off-screen. With Tim returning for his fourth season (breaking a three-way tie with original head driving instructor Scott Marshall and his predecessor, Peter Mellor), that officially makes him the longest-tenured head instructor in Canada's Worst Driver history.
Contestants
This season features nine contestants, up from the eight featured in the tenth season:[1]
- Renee Boily, 26, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a mother who suffers from severe nerves and anxiety to the extent that she constantly drives well below the speed limit, avoids highways at all costs and even refuses to drive her five-year-old son, Ryder, anywhere. Her cousin, Jacque Ehm, has brought her to rehab to get her help. She drives a beige Pontiac Sunfire and drove a red Chevrolet Cobalt to the rehab centre.
- Tina Cook, 46, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, is a mother and grandmother who, by her own admission, is also a perpetually road-raging driver, something evidenced by the profanity-filled stickers which adorn her car. She is nominated by Ashley Cook, one of her six children, out of concern that her behaviour will eventually get her banned from driving, into a serious accident or both. She drives a black Chevrolet Silverado with decals.
- Cameron Donavin, 23 and licensed for four years, from Calgary, Alberta, is a radio newsreader who has done relatively little driving since getting his license. However, the radio station he works at is moving 10km (10miles) away to the outskirts of the city and his friend and nominator, Kristopher Jay, feels that Cameron still doesn't have the confidence or skill needed to be a regular road commuter. He drives a white Pontiac Sunfire and drove a silver Chevrolet Cobalt to the rehab centre.
- Shmuel Hoffman, 30 and licensed for six months and Sholom Hoffman, 26 and licensed for eight months, from Calgary, Alberta, are brothers who still live together and recently earned their driving licenses but have different issues, with Shmuel being prone to road rage and Sholom being easily distracted. The two brothers nominated each other and were considered equally poor drivers by the producers, making them the first pair of contestants to also act as nominators for each other. Shmuel drives a red Chevrolet Silverado and Sholom drives a black Chevrolet Spark and both drove a dark red Pontiac Montana SV6 to the rehab centre.
- Jillian Matthews, 24 and licensed for five years, from The Goulds, Newfoundland and Labrador, had her confidence in her driving wrecked after getting involved in two accidents in the same day in 2011 and required repeated "practice runs" with her fiancé, Mitchell Kieley, just to be able to drive to her new job, resulting in Mitchell bringing her to rehab to help her regain her confidence. She drives a black Mitsubishi Lancer and drove a black Volkswagen Jetta to the rehab centre.
- Alexander "Alex" Morrison, 25, from Markham, Ontario (near Toronto), takes a very relaxed approach to driving, including not paying attention to the speed limit or other road users and using his knees to steer the car while he eats and drinks. This approach has left his friend, Elysha Daya, genuinely afraid for her life whenever she gets in the car with him. He drives a white Toyota Solara.
- Jordan Paddon, 25 and licensed for eight years, from Scarborough (Toronto), Ontario, has two of the most common major faults seen from drivers on this show—he acts like a bully on the road, constantly cutting off other drivers and pedestrians, while also spending a lot of time distracted by doing his make-up. His mother, Lorraine Paddon, knows that with these habits it'll be a case of when, not if, he eventually gets into serious trouble. He drives a black Hyundai Santa Fe.
- Polly Sargeant, 61 and licensed for 41 years, from Perth, Ontario (near Ottawa), may be the oldest driver this season, but frequently spends more time doing her make-up and nails than focusing on the road, a flaw more often seen with the show's younger contestants. On top of that, she still remains ignorant about many driving laws and lacks experience driving in the city, which has resulted in her son-in-law, Jeff, nominating her for the sake of her many grandchildren, who she often gives car rides to. She drives a black GMC Terrain Denali.
Synopsis
| Contestant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|
| Jillian Matthews | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | CWD |
| Polly Sargeant | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | RUNNER-UP |
| Sholom Hoffman | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | 2ND RUNNER-UP |
| Renee Boily | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Jordan Paddon | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Shmuel Hoffman | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Cameron Donavin | IN | IN | OUT | |
| Tina Cook | IN | OUT | |
| Alex Morrison | IN | OUT | | |
The contestant became Canada's Worst Driver.
The contestant was runner-up for Canada's Worst Driver.
The contestant was on the panel's shortlist.
The contestant was not the worst or second-worst driver, but failed to graduate from rehab.
The contestant graduated.
Notes and References
- http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/tv/discovery/canadas-worst-driver/ Canada's Worst Driver 11: press release
