Canada’s Worst Driver…7

So it’s happening again; another season of Canada’s Worst Driver. This is season 7 and to be quite honest, after 7 seasons, has it run its course? I know there’s a following of this show across our great land as I still get recognized from my stint as a judge on the show for seasons one, two and three. But are we tired of seeing bad drivers showcased to make themselves look worse; both as a driver and as a person?

As the series continues each week, I’ll take a look at what the participants have done during each show and question their poor judgement and reward their good judgement. My goal is for each of you to look at them and compare your own driving and driving personalities to what you’ve seen. Maybe you need to change your own driving style too.

The first participant is Aaron Cheshire. He was in a near fatal crash that caused retrograde amnesia. He couldn’t remember his father or how to walk or….drive. He never lost his license, which confuses me because the medical officer should have taken it away from him. I commend Aaron for his urge to never give up and wanting to gain his confidence back again, but on national television? I know there are many reputable organizations out there that can help Aaron with his skill level. Can these challenges help him enough?

The next participant is Tab Parks. She’s the typical nervous driver; her anxiety grows each time she’s away from her driving comfort zone. Adding to this is her inability to understand basic traffic rules. Wouldn’t it be better for Tab if she studied the rules until she knew them and then took proper driver training? Doing challenges that CWD provides isn’t necessarily going to help her in the way she needs. That’s because she’s not only out of her comfort zone, she’s out of her province! She’s on CWD to gain confidence. We’ll see how well she does.

The third participant is Lauri Bencharski. Lauri does to herself what many other drivers across the driving world do to themselves when they drive; she distracts herself. Lauri is an animal lover so she takes her 2 dogs, cat and bird with her whenever she drives. If she truly is an animal lover, she would leave them at home. Not only are they a visual and mental distraction to the driver, if she had to suddenly stop or swerve to miss another road user, the animals could be seriously injured. I think I’m more concerned for the safety of the animals here than I am with Lauri.

The next participant for this season is Afiya Lassy. Afiya needs major help. She’ll run red lights on purpose, drive close to pedestrians to make them scatter and tends to hog the road. I’m not sure what would be better for Afiya; driver rehab or psychological rehab? Maybe if the shoe was on the other foot she may understand her driving is dangerous to not only the other road users, but to her and her passengers. She’s here to prove her friends wrong. See, I told you she needs psychological rehab!

Another participant is Sly Grosjean. Sly is addicted to modern technology related to driving. Since he has difficulty with directions, he completely relies on his GPS. Apparently he never has to think while driving. Logic and common sense don’t seem to be with this driver as he’ll blame his broken technology as opposed to accepting the blame himself…for anything. It’ll be interesting to see how he does on these challenges when electronic technology doesn’t come into play.

The sixth participant is Jon Parsons. Jon has a rush of adrenaline when it comes to driving at high speeds. This sounds familiar. During season two of Canada’s Worst Driver we had a driver who kept saying that “speeding is safer”. (Sorry Sean!) We have always had someone who seems to have a speeding issue on this series. I think the solution can be easy if Jon met up with a professional race driver who took him to the track and showed him the thrill it is to race there. Perhaps then racing on public roads wouldn’t have the same thrill.

Ben Reiman is the seventh participant this season on Canada’s Worst Driver. Ben and his wife can’t be in the vehicle together any longer. That’s because Ben doesn’t seem to grasp how to drive any longer. His lack of understanding means he should probably take a more detailed driver training program and not do these challenges that CWD asks of him. We’ll see how he progresses each week.

The last participant this season is Shirley Sampson. Shirley seems to have the total package…to become Canada’s Worst Driver! She can’t drive with traffic, doesn’t know basic rules and road signs, doesn’t who how to steer and when she gets confused; which seems like it a lot of the time; just stops her vehicle where ever she is in traffic. I’m curious to see how she does this season as well. My money is on her to get to the final three.

So there you have it; season 7 of Canada’s Worst Driver. As I’ve always said, including the three seasons I was a judge on the series, why someone would go on national television to showcase their poor driving and sometimes embarrassing personalities? Would you?