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When Syl Grosjean’s vehicle was in the garage for repairs, his wife’s grandmother-in-law let the couple borrow her car — with one stipulation. Under no circumstance was Grosjean to drive it.
“I think she might be taking the show too seriously,” says the 40-year-old who appears on Season 7 of “Canada’s Worst Driver.”
The reality show puts eight of the country’s worst wheelmen and women through a barrage of obstacle courses and other driving tests to determine who truly is Canada’s Worst Driver. It airs on Discovery Channel Mondays at 8 p.m.
The Lethbridge resident was nominated for Discovery’s No. 1 series by his brother-in-law Fred Hillyer of Stirling. According to the show’s press release, Hillyer believes Grosjean has difficulty with directions and relies too heavily on his phone’s GPS system to get the job done.
“He was watching and a character reminded him of me so he called and said he wanted to nominate me for this show,” Grosjean said during a recent interview in a coffee shop, the outline of his cellphone clearly visible in his T-shirt’s front pocket.
“I didn’t think I was that dangerous of a driver. Honestly, through the beginning of this experience, before being on the show, I wondered how in the world I’d get on the show.”
The collision-free Grosjean says he’s been a licensed driver since 1994 whose driver’s abstract is blank with the exception of a single speeding ticket issued in 1996 “back when the Jets were leaving Winnipeg.”
“I didn’t think too much of it,” he said of the nomination.
Then, while working a job as a delivery driver, he received a phonecall from the show’s producers a few weeks later.
“Ironically, I was doing a delivery when they called,” he says, quickly adding he pulled over before answering his phone.
He travelled to Calgary for an audition that included driving the “dreaded” Deerfoot Trail.
“I almost consider it to be a speedway,” he said of one of Calgary’s busiest highways. “A big issue is I get nervous in high-pressure situations but I think what may have clinched it was my parallel parking. I was terrible with it. I couldn’t do it. People were honking. It was quite entertaining.
“The only other thing interesting is my use of my cell to navigate.”
Producers found Grosjean interesting enough to choose Grosjean as a participant in the show’s seventh season. Jodi Cook, manager of communications for Discovery Channel, says in an email that the show has seen a steady increase in the nominations every year. There were “in the ballpark of 900 this season,” for the gear-grinding, bumper-busting seventh season.
The father of two spent two 10-day spans in Ontario in June and July taping the show along with seven other participants hailing from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Of course, his GPS-enabled cellphone also makes an appearance. In the show’s first episode that aired on Oct. 24, Grosjean uses the GPS on his cellphone instead of following the written directions given for the hour-long drive from a parking garage in St. Catherines, Ont. to Dunville Airport, the site of the Driver Rehabilitation Centre.
“I still use my GPS but looking up at it was a problem,” he admits, raising his cellphone from the table to eye level in front of his face. “You always think you can multi-task but when you’re distracted driving you’re pushing your luck. You’re playing Russian roulette if you do it when driving.”
Each episode features tried-and-tested challenges with a Canadian-themed twist, plus speed performance fundamentals designed to push the drivers to their limits and teach them crucial safe driving skills. Each driver must master basic training and more advanced techniques for dealing with Canada’s trickiest driving situations before earning the right to merge back onto Canada’s roadways.
Taping is complete but Grosjean remains mum on whether he or either of the two Calgarians is the unlucky driver left at the side of the road, owning the dubious title of Canada’s Worst Driver. The finale — and pronouncement of the “Worst” — airs on Dec. 12.
“Alberta always has a high number of nominations,” says Cook. “But there’s really no scientific or statistical reasoning for this.”
Grosjean is not the first southern Albertan to appear on the program, either. Ashley van Ham of Medicine Hat was granted the dubious honour of being named Canada’s Worst Driver in Season 4. The then-21-year-old came to driver’s rehab as an aggressive and distracted driver who was known to curl her hair while behind the wheel. She was nominated by her husband, who spent more than $15,000 in out-of-pocket vehicle repairs.
Heather Reynolds, also of Medicine Hat, nearly captured the unenviable crown of Canada’s Worst Driver in the first season of the series. In the end, Reynolds, then 59 and licensed for 30 years, was deemed the third worst driver of the eight.
Cook says Season 7 has an average weekly reach — looking at all airings of the week — of three-million viewers.
“Driving — specifically BAD driving — is something that everyone can relate to,” she says. “We see it everyday, talk about it with friends and family . . . and when it comes down to it, no one really thinks that they are a bad driver. So you watch the show, and see the participants set up on challenges to test their skills and think, ‘I could do that, no problem . . . or could I?’ Those challenges aren’t as easy as they seem and there’s real science and skill to getting it right. We hear from viewers all the time that not only are they entertained, but they learn things — sitting in their living rooms — that will make them safer drivers.”
Grosjean appreciates the skills he picked up, skills that aren’t taught in basic driving school, he says.
“At the beginning, everyone wonders what they’re doing there but then they humble themselves and learn.”
The show has paved the way to make him a better driver, he believes. For example, he’s put the brakes on his habit of distracted driving.
“It’s opened my eyes and I realize how lucky I am that I haven’t had anything bad happen.”
Overall, the experience was a smooth ride and the viewer feedback is positive. He’s currently working as a greeter at the southside Walmart where shoppers recognize him on a nearly daily basis, ask to pose for photos and, on one occasion, signed an autograph.
“There are questions to (my wife) Christine, ‘You let him drive your kids around?’ I think it’s more in jest but I guess when you’re on ‘Canada’s Worst Driver,’ it gives you a bit of a label but I don’t think people need to be running the other way when they see me.”
Results of Episode 5, which was shown Nov. 21, were unavailable at press time. Episode 6 airs on Nov. 28. |
