Canada's Worst Driver Ever

*Canada's Worst Driver Ever*
Canada's Worst Driver Ever
No. of episodes	8
Release
Original network	Discovery Channel Canada
Original release	October 21 –; December 16, 2013
Season chronology
	← Previous; Season 8 Next →; Season 10

Canada's Worst Driver Ever is the ninth season of the Canada's Worst Driver series, which airs on Discovery Channel. This season brings 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]

Contestants

This season has the largest roster of drivers so far, with nine former contestants returning. However, it also has the least amount of graduates so far with only four. Six of them also have their original nominators returning and two (Dale and, initially, Michael) have different ones, while Chris doesn't have a nominator with him at all. The only season from which no driver returned is Canada's Worst Driver 4.

Shelby D'Souza, 37, 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 of that season, he is now a much better driver. He drives a black Chevrolet Avalanche.
Christopher "Chris" Ferguson, 39, from Malton, Ontario, was the first-ever person to be awarded the dishonour of being named Canada's Worst Driver in Canada's Worst Driver 1. 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 run on the show. He drives a white Pontiac G6.
Henrietta Gallant, 68, 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 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 years since, both of them fear that it may be too late for her to learn what she needs to (at the age of 68, Henrietta is also the show's oldest-ever contestant). She drives a blue Chevrolet Impala.
Sly Grosjean, 42, from Red Deer, Alberta, narrowly avoided being named the worst driver 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 (an opinion which Andrew himself hinted he shared in that season's finale), and points to Sly's continued use of handheld gadgets while driving as proof that he learned nothing from his original appearance on the show. He drives a silver Jeep Patriot.
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 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 FAQ special in 2012. Angelina is determined to prove Andrew wrong, but her best friend, Christine Latondress Andrews has seen little 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 season's actual worst, Lance Morin. Her disregarding the experts' recommendation that she quit driving has caused a rift between Dale and her original nominator, nephew John Pitton, and so she has been forced to call on another nephew, Danny Pitton to accompany her to rehab. 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 being named the worst after a terrible road test performance. Since then she has continued to improve her driving, and she and daughter Janis Wall are determined to prove that she simply had a bad day when she was named the worst in her season. She drives a grey Kia Rio5.
Kevin Simmons, 26, from Burnaby, British Columbia, 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 give up driving for good. He drives a white Ford Crown Victoria.
Michael Telford, 47, 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. His nominator and longtime friend, Yolanda Kozak (who is also the wife of his original nominator, Eric Kozak, who was unable to return for health reasons) believes that Michael's driving is now even worse than before he originally went on the show, and that he will get involved in a fatal accident unless he returns to rehab. However, after learning that Yolanda was giving negative feedback, and Yolanda had been injured, the producers decide to send her home and bring back a recovered Eric Kozak. Michael drives a green Lincoln Continental.

Experts

This season retains the same line-up of experts as Canada's Worst Driver 8:

Cam Woolley returning for his eighth year, 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-serving expert on the panel, Cam is already familiar with every returning driver except for Chris.
Philippe Letourneau returning for his seventh year on the show, is a professional race car coach who holds the philosophy that the car is ultimately nothing without the driver.
Shyamala Kiru returns for her third season as the relationship therapist.
Tim Danter is in his second season as the show's head driving instructor.

Synopsis

Contestant	1	2	3^[1]	4	5^[2]	6	7	8^[3]
Kevin Simmons	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	CWDE
Dale Pitton	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	LEFT	RUNNER-UP
Sly Grosjean	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FAIL
Michael Telford	IN	IN	IN	NOM	IN	IN	IN	OUT
Shelby D'Souza	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	OUT
Angelina Marcantognini	IN	IN	IN	PSYCH
Shirley Sampson	IN	OUT
Chris Ferguson	OUT
Henrietta Gallant	DISQ

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 or second-worst driver, 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 reversing challenge.

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

Episode 0: Remember...

Original airdate: October 21, 2013

Host Andrew Younghusband introduces each of the returning drivers through a review of their performances in their original appearances. At the end of the episode, he briefly outlines the challenges that they will face. He also 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!

Original airdate: October 28, 2013

The Drive to Rehab: As always, the first challenge for the drivers is to drive themselves to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. Typically, many moving violations and other faults are committed along the way. Michael runs a stop sign only minutes into his drive, and continues to demonstrate his habit of holding his breath in tunnels, though his driving was not helped by Yolanda’s nagging. Shelby, in stark contrast to his slow driving in Canada’s Worst Driver 3 actually breaks the speed limit more than once, though otherwise makes it to rehab without incident. Dale keeps stopping at green lights, and then hits the barrier when parking up. Sly runs 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. Kevin fails to compensate for his limited vision and nearly collides with a truck; upon reaching rehab, he tells Andrew that should he be named Canada’s Worst Driver Ever, he will surrender his driver’s licence and sell his car. Shirley, despite the confident predictions of Janis and Andrew that she will do well this season, makes a careless mistake and nearly drives into an occupied intersection, having to be stopped from doing so by Janis. Among all of these errors, a special dishonour is earned by Angelina, who becomes the show’s first-ever driver not to even be able to attempt to make the drive to rehab, as she spent the previous night drinking heavily and is visibly hung over, leading to Chris volunteering to drive Angelina and Christine to rehab. Chris’s own drive goes completely without incident, only having to stop once so that Angelina can vomit. Henrietta’s drive also goes much smoother than she or Andrew had predicted, though she was still nervous throughout.
Camaro Challenge: Basic Assessment: After revealing that this year’s recurring challenge car will be a Camaro SS (painted in a flag-inspired livery), Andrew walks through the basic assessment that each driver will undertake. The challenge itself is basically the same as the one from Canada’s Worst Driver 8, 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 apart from Chris to successfully complete any of the segments..

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 and focusing on the remainder. Ultimately, Andrew gives Henrietta her licence back, after which Andy drives her away. Andrew then further surprises the drivers by announcing that Chris, clearly the most skilled of the group, will be the first graduate.

Episode 2: Where's Your Blind Spot?

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's 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.
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. Shirley got 8 out of 10, which was both the highest score overall, and the biggest improvement over the original appearance of any driver. The four men, Sly, Shelby, Kevin and Michael all get at least half of the signs right, though their exact scores are not revealed. Dale and Angelina post the joint-lowest scores, with 2 out of 10.
Crazy Eights: This test, which was also 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 viewing judges 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.
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. 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's 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.

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 the Sudbury area. Shymala 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 he only regrets that she can't be around for longer.

Episode 3: Splish-Splash!

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 a Lincoln Town Car limousine 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. 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 36 objects during her run. On top of that, she answers a phone call from her boyfriend in the middle of the test; Michael immediately points out how ridiculous this is, an opinion that even Sly, a habitual distracted driver, agrees with. 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 5 objects in the opening turn, but on being reminded to use all the mirrors on the car, he 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 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; 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 the other nominators eventually leave the challenge area, then the other drivers, and then even Fred, leaving Sly to complete the course alone with Andrew. Sly ultimately hits 24 objects and takes over ten minutes longer than anyone else to complete the challenge, a performance which Andrew brands arguably even worse than Angelina's.
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 at the Canada's Worst Driver 7 Swerve and Avoid was considered to be the worst in the show's history for this particular challenge, he's told to carry out his first run at just 40 km/h, but not told that on that run, 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. This result leaves Andrew and Fred more convinced than ever that Sly is totally unfit to drive. As a result of his spin-out on the initial test, Yolanda is still refusing to accompany Michael in the high-speed challenges, and so Andrew takes her place; Yolanda's worries prove well-founded, and 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.
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-litre tank of water mounted on the car's roof. The car used is a Ford Taurus wagon, 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 16 litres 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. Dale doesn't fare much better and loses 55 litres, 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 (also making him the only drive beside 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. 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 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.

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 limousine challenge (and Michael also had the best run in the Water-Tank Challenge), Cam persuades the other experts that the Swerve and Avoid is such an important skill that anyone who failed it should automatically be barred from graduating this episode - which, since Shelby was the only one to pass the challenge, makes him the only nominee by default.

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 graduate, he'll stay in rehab, and so will everyone else.

Episode 4: Easy as 1-2-3

Original airdate: November 18, 2013

Three-Point Turn: This challenge, which is 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 the car and Christine. This causes the experts to again question her ability to continue on the show. Michael takes his run without anyone else in the car, as Yolanda has 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 had 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 the congratulations of Lenny and Andrew.
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. He can't figure out what to do in the reversing section however, 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 she 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 back 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 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.
Camaro Challenge: The Eye of the Needle: In this, one of the few challenges that has been running since all the way back in Canada's Worst Driver 1, the drivers are required to navigate a series of five arches at 80 km/h. Each driver will be granted two attempts. 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, thus 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 and Michael dismayed. Finally, with a set of flat shoes provided by the show, Angelina takes her second run; she closes her eyes and quickly loses control, however, 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 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.

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. Angelina thus leaves the show in a taxi, as a tearful Christine waves her goodbye.

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 his original nominator, 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; 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.

Episode 5: They Shoot! They Score!

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 licence 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 Eric by his side once again, is the third driver in a row to fail his first run due to not adjusting the mirrors. He quickly gets the hang of the challenge, though, 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 realises his mistake when he falls off during his first attempt, and passes with ease on the second go.
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, not one of the drivers scores 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.
The Longest Reversing Challenge Ever: Despite its name, this challenge is actually somewhat shorter than its Canada's Worst Driver 8 forerunner, at 800m instead of 1,000m. 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 one of the tires. Despite this, Kevin tries to claim that his performance would have been worthy of a pass were this an actual challenge, 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 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 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, the experts unanimously agree his performance to be the worst in any reversing-related challenge they've ever seen. Shelby initially does well, getting through the first half of the course with only a few hits, but then completely loses control when he gets to a section made from garbage cans, and ultimately ends up hitting 43 objects, the highest total of the day.

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 he has blown the goodwill he earned in the previous two episodes, and that they are now less inclined to graduate him than they ever have been. 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 be 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

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 degrees 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 the challenge. It's a similar story in Michael's first four attempts, as he repeatedly drives through the lane markers and fails to get into the turning area. On his fifth and final attempt he nearly gets the technique right, but accidentally hits the accelerator instead of the brake and reverses far off-course into the adjoining field. Despite Shelby having to be reminded by Andrew to adjust his seat (following on from the much taller Michael), he 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.
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 thirty seconds each) to reverse a school bus (technically a skoolie) into a tight space between two cars, while not hitting anything and being no more than 30 cm away from the curb. Michael, Dale, Sly and Kevin fail all their 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 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, which gave him a "European Pass".
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 run, 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 in the previous year, he 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 run 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 run Andrew and Fred decide to tell him about this, but he still drives slightly too fast on his remaining two runs, failing them both.

Kevin thinks he deserves to graduate, but the experts and Lenny quickly shoot him down, telling him that one comparatively good challenge result (on the Reverse Flick) 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 both 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 so far, and the first of the runners-up to successfully graduate. As Shelby drives away with Elerick, Michael (who is now tied with Canada's Worst Driver 4 "winner" Ashley van Ham as getting the most nominations in a single season without graduating) is left increasingly despondent and wondering whether he'll ever graduate.

Episode 7: What Happened?

Original airdate: December 9th, 2013

Camaro Challenge: Handbrake J-Turn: For this challenge, which has run in nearly every season, 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 this time he actually passed the 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 of his runs due to staying on the gas for too long, and also leaving it too late to brake. 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; while she remembers to use the handbrake this time, she doesn't steer enough and crashes through the barrier, failing again.
The Cross: This challenge, which was 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, taking 38 minutes to complete the challenge. Somehow, Sly proves even worse than Dale, and takes the longest time yet (51 minutes) and hitting the car more than twice as many times as Kevin. Michael is the fastest in this challenge, completing it in 18 minutes, but causes more damage to the car than Kevin did, albeit less than Sly or Dale did.
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 Car limousine 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 of his 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 which every driver would do at least once in this challenge). Dale proves the worst performer on this challenge, and goes 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 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. 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 he goes far off the track on his first and third attempts, and hits most of the dummies on all three efforts.

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 to rehab 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 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. This causes 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 seems clear that she is not mentally competent to drive, and they unanimously recommend that she give up driving; Dale scoffs at this idea however, 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 (as was the case with Angelina), and expel her from rehab, with Cam even implying an intention to contact the Ontario Ministry of Transport and ask that Dale's driving license be put up for review. At what would be the graduation ceremony, Andrew shocks the drivers by appearing to destroy Dale's driving 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. This, therefore, sets the stage for an all-male finale (the first-ever instance of such in the show's history), as Andrew announces that one of 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 graduation ceremony of the last episode, leaving audience members to question whether Cam had carried out his threat of contacting the Ontario Minister of Transport to ask them for a review of her license, or if Dale is named Canada's Worst Driver Ever.

Episode 8: The Envelope Please!

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 penultimate 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 did and only gets 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 too long to finish. On his next attempt he successfully passes with a full 14 seconds to spare. 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.
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.
The Road Test: As in the previous two seasons, the final road test takes place in Hamilton, Ontario, with the three finalists taking Andrew on a one-hour drive in a Corvette. Michael is first-up, and his run initially goes well, with Michael driving confidently, following directions and negotiating some confusing intersections. He messes up mid-drive by running two red lights in quick succession (one of which apparently through a confusion of Ontario and British Columbia traffic laws), but otherwise his run goes very smoothly, and he handles the highway drive with no trouble at all. 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. However, Sly only half-heartedly promises not to eat or use handheld gadgets while in the car, which causes 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 of the three; within the opening minutes of the drive, he turns left from the middle lane, then does it again in the middle of a busy street, and to Andrew's shock, he tries to deny having done it. He then commits a serious offence by passing a stopped police car without changing lanes (something Cam notes is usually an instant $490 fine), 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 an intersection. Andrew twice has to prevent Kevin from turning left from the central lane (which would have caused him to collide with a bus and a car, respectively), and after the second such incident, Kevin pulls over, phones Lenny and seems to concede he's Canada's Worst Driver Ever, and suggests he give up driving. Lenny tells him to finish the drive, but Andrew tells Kevin that should he commit any more ticketable offences, the drive will be stopped immediately. Sure enough, Kevin subsequently turns 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 back to the starting parking lot himself. 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 also having done relatively well on his, Kevin's status as Canada's Worst Driver Ever is now all but assured.

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. This prompts the experts to call in Lenny, who reveals that Kevin told him he would only temporarily give up driving and take lessons to improve his skills. Both the experts and Lenny are 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 for her unstable behaviour during both her stints in rehab. Cam still believes that Kevin is worse, however, noting that he had a serious accident between this season and last, and that for all her faults, Dale hasn't had any such serious accidents in recent years. Andrew sides with Cam, leaving Tim with the deciding vote.

As Kevin, Michael and Sly assemble for the trophy presentation, a car pulls up to the rehab centre, and Dale gets out and joins the three men. Andrew begins by announcing that Michael is the final graduate, and returns his driver's licence to him. As Michael drives away with Eric, Andrew's voiceover notes that while he still has a lot of improving to do, Michael is a better driver 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, Sly does not graduate, and Andrew asks Fred to drive him home, while recommending that Sly only drive when absolutely necessary from now on. Despite Dale believing she will be named the worst, she avoids this title due to the experts feeling she was a little more aware of the dangers of driving than Kevin, and Cam predicting that her licence 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 licence. Kevin initially refuses to do so, but Lenny forces him to go through with it, and the licence 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

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

External links

[1] CANADA’S WORST DRIVER EVER – Season 9 – Premieres October 2

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