Canada's Worst Handyman 4 was the fourth season of the Canadian reality TV show Canada's Worst Handyman, which aired on the Discovery Channel. As with previous years, five people, nominated by their family or friends, enter the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre to improve their handyman skills. This year, the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre is located at the Pow Wow Point Lodge, a 100-year-old country retreat near Huntsville, Ontario,Handymen put to the test at local resort where each contestant competes in challenges meant to improve their do-it-yourself skills, including one where all the contestants must work together as a group. At the end of each episode, host Andrew Younghusband and two judges determine the most improved and the worst contestant in each episode: the most improved being rewarded with the responsibility in leading the next episode's group challenges, while the worst being punished with a further one-on-one tutorial with Andrew. At the end of the last episode, the worst of the five contestants is named Canada's Worst Handyman. This is the first season in which Canadian Tire is the primary sponsor. Furthermore, unlike previous seasons, contestants will not be given the materials or tools that they need: instead, they must purchase them from a Canadian Tire store near the rehab centre while keeping under budget. The overall theme to this season is the question of what is considered "good enough," in addition to working outdoors in the cold winter (Canada's Worst Handyman has been filmed in the winter since the second season, but was held primarily indoors in previous seasons).
Experts Gail Prosser-Craig is the owner of "Women Who Build Stuff," a renovation company exclusively staffed by women. Her company's projects can be seen all over the Greater Toronto Area. She replaces Jo Alcorn, who served as the series' interior designer in the previous season. Geoff Woodmansey is back for his second season as general contractor. As the owner of his own construction company, he has had over 25 years of experience under his belt, working in some of Toronto's most exclusive neighborhoods.
Contestants Johnnie Bachusky, from Red Deer, Alberta, is a columnist with the Red Deer Express newspaper and book author (mainly on ghost towns in and around Alberta) who, as a handyman, has a fear of following directions—so much so that his wife, Darlis, does everything around the house, similar to that of Marnie Vinet from the previous season. Angie Budgell, from Minto, New Brunswick, is a stay-at-home mom whose high spirits and attitude are in stark contrast to her clumsiness. Her husband and nominator, Roy, is a perfectionist who simply wants things done properly. Brian McDonald, from Sarnia, Ontario, is a Canadian Coast Guard officer whose family of five must constantly put up with his "Do Not Use" labels all over his house, all from do-it-yourself projects—a habit his wife and nominator, Veronica, brought him to the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre to end. Brian Pugh, a retired stockbroker from Ottawa, Ontario, claims to be "dyslexic" when it comes to directions, buying by two or three times the materials he actually needs for his projects. His son, Brennan, nominated him to bring his spending and skills under control. Eric Thibeault, a registered nurse from Gatineau, Quebec, is easily excitable, but carries with him a hot temper. His childhood buddy, Marc Buzzell, brought him to the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre to bring it under control. However, partway through the fifth episode, the producers decided that Marc was too much of a distraction for Eric to work or learn effectively and thus, replaced him with Eric's wife, Michelle Lacroix.
Synopsis Contestant(with hard hat colour) Nominator 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Johnnie Darlis IMP WORST IN IN M/W IN CWH Angie Roy IN IMP WORST IN IN IMP IN Brian M. Veronica IN IN IMP IN IN IN IN Eric Marc/Michelle IN IN IN IN IN WORST IN Brian P. Brennan WORST IN WORST EXPL
CWH – The contestant is Canada's Worst Handyman. WORST – The contestant is the worst of the episode. IN – The contestant was considered for the worst for this episode. M/W – The contestant was named both the most improved and the worst for this episode. IMP – The contestant is the most improved of the episode. EXPL – The contestant was expelled from the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre and is out of the running for Canada's Worst Handyman.
Episode 1: Wilderness Lodge Original airdate: May 4, 2009 The contestants arrive at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, a 100-year-old lodge in the Muskokas. Having arrived at "Canada's Worst Lodge," the handymen and their nominators pick out their rooms: Johnnie in red, Brian M. in pink, Eric in blue and Brian P. in yellow. Angie, left without a room on the second floor of the building with the other four, is given the green room on the ground floor. However, each contestant discovers that the doors have been barricaded with barrels, which only need a gentle but sustained push to move aside. Nevertheless, Johnnie and both Brians use hard body checks to get in, damaging their doors. Inside each room lies a binder, detailing the 23 challenges they will do and the materials they need for each. Shopping: At the local Canadian Tire store, the contestants have two hours and $4,000 to locate and purchase the 269 items that will be needed for their 23 challenges ahead. While Johnnie frets about finding vice grips (despite it being one of the first things that he puts in his cart), Eric proceeds calmly. Brian P., however, manages to only buy just over half of the items needed (149/269), including only buying 3.5-inch framing nails (intending to cut them shorter as needed) instead of nails and screws of all sizes. Though heavily assisted by their nominators, Brian M. (211/269), Angie (200/269) and Johnnie (174/269) also finish, but miss out on a significant number of items (though Angie is well under budget due to having found many of her items on sale). Eric fails to purchase only eight items. Home Challenge: The traditional home challenge, done by each nominee before entering rehab, is to build an object 60 cm tall that will support their own weight from a sheet of plywood and several pieces of lumber. Johnnie intended to build a table using the plywood as his top, but settles on a piece of lumber with four legs side-by-side. It does not hold his weight. Brian P. manages to waste his lumber, accidentally destroying one piece while trying to "cut" it by stamping on it, using most of the remaining pieces to needlessly reinforce the plywood, and then wasting another piece by cutting it into small blocks and nailing them together. This leaves him with just one piece to build the legs and he fails as the resulting table is too short. Angie also builds a table, but accidentally nails a piece of lumber to the table while upside-down and has to spend some time removing it. While her effort ends up being the best of the five, the table is still very crooked and of questionable quality. Brian M. decides on a table with "linear tripod" legs, which does support his weight, though is considered a failure because of how unstable it would be. Eric eschews the plywood entirely and simply builds scaffolding from the lumber; not only does this require both Eric and Marc to climb on at the same time in order to balance it, the scaffold collapses almost immediately under the weight of the two men. Needless to say, Eric fails. Shelving: Meeting the experts for the first time, the experts show the handymen how to build shelves for their closet so that they can put away their tools. Prior to the challenge, however, Angie and Eric agree to switch rooms (Angie now has the blue and Eric the green room), as Angie dislikes the downstairs room. Johnnie and Brian M. manage to finish correctly without involving their nominators. Eric measures meticulously, but fails as he failed to account for his slanted floor, leaving his shelves unlevel. Angie also fails, from having cut her shelving boards too long and measuring levelness by eye. Brian P. fails to finish in the allotted time, due to not even touching his power tools. Group Challenge: The Bar Table: The contestants gather together to build a bar table in the style of an existing 100-year-old desk. Brian P. quickly takes charge and insists on overbuilding his bar table (with eight legs instead of four, each made of 4x4 posts, as well as largely redundant supports). After some input from the others, the table quickly goes up and passes the test.
In the final evaluation, Johnnie admits that he is not a master of organization, as his purchased supplies are still all over the floor instead of being in his closet. However, by virtue of passing his first challenge despite knowing nothing about handiwork, he is given the golden helmet for the most improved for the episode. Angie is applauded for quickly organizing her room (she credits it to her maternal instincts due to being a mother of four). Brian M. apologizes for damaging his door, while Eric is led into his former room, as he had damaged the radiator in Angie's bathroom, which would have caused a lethal electrical hazard were the power connected, causing Geoff to nominate him as the episode's worst. However, Gail and Andrew decide that the worst in the episode is Brian P.: before the first challenge, Brian P. had demolished his bathroom sink to get a head start on the next episode's demolition challenge, but had caused a water leak that is starting to drip into the common area on the floor below (Gail also notes that he had not attempted to use any of his new tools, relying on what he knew coming into rehab). As Brian P. hangs his head in shame underneath the fireplace's "Not Good Enough" banner, he solicits Brian M.'s help in securing it in place. As his extra punishment, Brian P. must repair the leak. During this time, he regales Andrew of his past as a stock broker, where he was given the nickname of "Brain" by his peers for his skills in the market, but the nickname of "Brain Damaged" by his wife for his skills (or lack thereof) in handiwork.
Episode 2: Down the Drain Original airdate: May 11, 2009 Demolition: The second day of rehab begins with the handymen demolishing the bathroom. This includes removing the sink and vanity, the toilet and the shower fixtures. Angie opts to smash her toilet apart after giving up with dealing with two rusted bolts attaching the toilet to the floor and pressures Johnnie to do the same. Angie also smashes her shower fixtures apart with a sledgehammer. Johnnie also smashes apart a light socket, a mirror and his sink, but admits smashing the fixtures apart may have helped him overcome his fear of tools. Brian M. removes his toilet without draining the tank or removing the tank from the seat, causing water to leak down to the floor below. Brian P. saws off the shutoff to his sink, as well as most of his shower fixtures. Eric is the only contestant to finish correctly, having opted to remove the toilet before the sink (unlike the others). The Workbench: The traditional workbench challenge this year is to assemble the workbench they had purchased; this causes Brian P. to immediately fail, as he did not buy one (though curiously, he did buy an electric razor). He had intended to build one, but did not do so during this challenge. Brian M. manages to pass after fighting with the instructions, while Angie's anger manages to force her husband Roy off the job. Eric mistakenly disassembles one of the parts needed to assemble the workbench, while Johnnie's workbench remains incomplete after becoming frustrated.