Characters / Canada's Worst Handyman

Warning! Spoilers ahead unmarked! Note also that the cast is listed in-order in each season, starting with the worst handyman, followed by the runner-up, and then the remaining contestants sorted alphabetically by their first name^note (And, during the one season where it happened, in turn followed by the contestant who experienced a Non-Gameplay Elimination). You have been warned.

Season 1

Keith Cole

Nominator: David Hawe (Friend)

• Arch-Enemy: He and Robin got off on a very bad footing after he took her criticisms of his work to heart, causing Andrew to force him to clear the air with her.
• Bystander Syndrome: The main reason why he was named the worst. He took close to two dozen cigarette breaks during the course of the all-important final challenge.
• Camp Gay: He lampshades his sexual preferences a few times during the course of the season.

Darryl Andrews

Nominator: Sara Graziano (Wife)

• Henpecked Husband: Sara never let up in her verbally abusive treatment of him. Unusually, she actually got on pretty well with both Merle and Jeannie when they switched up the nominators one episode, showing that whatever her problem was, it was with Darryl rather than a general personality issue.
• The Unfair Sex: Zig-zagged; for most of the season Andrew and the experts sympathized with Darryl over Sara's treatment of him, but still put the blame for his failures entirely on him. When it came to the final episode, however, Darryl avoided being named the worst in no small part because Sara's attitude made him a worse handyman (in contrast, Keith was even worse despite having Hypercompetent Sidekick David as his nominator).

Barry Davis

Nominator: Scott Hutton (Neighbour)

• The Generic Guy: Aside from being named the worst in the first episode, he probably stood out the least of any of this season's candidates, to the point where he was never considered as the worst or most improved in any of the remaining episodes.

Jeannie MacCulloch

Nominator: Laurence Headley (Friend)

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Had the title been awarded purely on the basis of the challenges in the first five episodes, Jeannie would probably have taken home the inaugural Canada's Worst Handyman trophy. This season, however, only the episode-long challenge in the final episode counted, and Jeannie did respectably well in that, saving her from the title.
• Ignored Expert: A downplayed example with Laurence, who while not being as knowledgable as David when it came to handiwork, clearly knew a lot more than Jeannie, but was never listened to.
• The Silent Bob: Laurence was easily the season's least vocal nominator, and probably second-only to Silent Bob from Season 5 as the least vocal nominator overall.

Merle Auger

Nominator: Shelly Willier (Common-Law Wife)

• Brilliant, but Lazy: He was probably the most genuinely adept handyman from this season; his main failing was that he preferred to take easy solutions (usually involving duct tape) to problems.
• Ironic Name: By complete coincidence (he missed the challenge it was used in after cutting himself badly enough that he needed to go to the hospital for stitches), Merle Auger was the only one of the candidates not to use or even see an auger.
• Running Gag: His obsession with duct tape, to the point where Andrew was openly lampshading it by the second half of the season.
• Sarcasm-Blind: When Andrew jokingly suggested that he assemble his chair cushions from duct tape in the fifth episode, Merle took him literally, all-but-guaranteeing he would be the episode's worst (though he actually took that title mostly because he injured himself).

Season 2

Terry Cress

Nominator: Harvey Houle (Friend; Episodes 1-4), Angie Cress (Wife; Episodes 5-8)

• Awesome, but Impractical: His shed was decent (if not as good as Candace's or Jaime's) in most aspects, but he built it far too large, leading to disaster in the final episode.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Of all the people to get the title of Canada's Worst Handyman, Terry was probably the "least worst" of the bunch, and did prove reasonably competent when Harvey kept him on-track. However, Angie tried to make Terry motivate and organize himself when she took over as nominator, which caused the quality of his work to drop off a cliff.
• Didn't Think This Through: All the season's candidates except for Candace were guilty of this when it came to the size of their sheds, making them too big to be taken out of the workshop, but Terry's was by far the worst in this regard, causing him to chop it into three pieces to get it out. To add insult to injury, he realizes after the fact that he only really needed to cut it into two pieces.
• What Were You Thinking?: Harvey reacts this way over the phone when Terry reveals that he destroyed his shed to get it out of the workshop.

Ruth Summersides

Nominator: Michelle Pine (Daughter)

• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. In most regards she was probably the season's worst handyman, but the experts refused to name her the worst since she did genuinely work hard — even if it almost never paid off — and cared about what she was doing, unlike Terry.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Averted. She was the show's shortest-ever contestant, but only avoided being named the worst because of Terry's colossal lapse in judgement in the final episode.

Candace Landmark

Nominator: Justin Landmark (Husband)

• Babies Make Everything Better: She's trying to become a better handyman for the sake of the son she was pregnant with during filming. Also in a more literal sense, as she was unable to participate in many of the challenges due to her pregnancy, meaning that Justin had to do them instead.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Justin was a construction worker by profession, playing a large part (along with Candace's actually bothering to pay attention to the required specifications) in Candace having the best shed of the group.

Jaime Garcia

Nominator: Sheilla Stengler (Mother-In-Law)

• Crazy Enough to Work: His plan to cut his shed in two, wheel the two halves out, then reassemble it outside of the workshop actually worked out.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Sheilla really wasn't very supportive of Jaime for most of the season, though she did improve in this regard as the season progressed.
• Tempting Fate: Proudly declared that he had the best shed — which, in fairness, he did in most regards — only to find he'd made it far too large to get it out of the workshop.

Jeff Gignac

Nominator: Fred Johnson (Friend)

• This Is Gonna Suck: Despite his shed being one of only two (the other being Candace's) that came out of the workshop without much trouble, he genuinely thought he would be named Canada's Worst Handyman. The experts quickly reassured him that, while he still had much to learn, he was far from the season's worst.

Season 3

Joe "The Bullet" Barbaro

Nominator: Rita Barbaro (Sister)

• The All-Solving Hammer: In a rather literal application of this trope, Joe has a tendency to employ a hammer to do things a hammer should not do, like driving screws or (in one instance) "cutting" drywall.
• Arch-Enemy: With Dez in the first couple of episodes, then Tex for the remainder of the season, mostly because they just didn't seem to like each other.
• Failed a Spot Check: While assembling a chair in the final episode, he failed to notice that the front legs were on upside-down. Granted, he didn't actually put them on like that (Charmaine did during an attempt to help him), but he didn't notice until Andrew pointed it out to him.
• In-Universe Nickname: Unlike Tex and Dez, who were Only Known by Their Nickname, Joe was referred to as both "Joe" and "The Bullet" in roughly equal proportions.
• Medal of Dishonor: He was the only contestant in the show's history to be named the episode's worst on three occasions — four if you include being named Canada's Worst Handyman.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: His physical strength really didn't translate into anything meaningful when it came to getting handiwork done, to the point where he's widely considered a strong contender for the worst of all of Canada's Worst Handymen.
• Stay in the Kitchen: A bizarre subversion; he referred to any kind of job he wasn't good at as "women's work", despite this including things like flooring and electrical work, things that aren't usually thought of as the preserve of women.

Terry "Tex" Neaves

Nominator: Tara Martin (Common-Law Wife)

• Running Gag: Much like how Season 1's Merle was obsessed with cutting corners by using duct tape, Tex tried to do this by constantly using the brad nailer instead of screws.

Casey Vinet

Nominator: Marnie Vinet (Wife)

• Henpecked Husband: Played with; in terms of verbal abuse, Dez actually took more than he did, but Casey kept backing out of the way and letting Marnie do all the work.
• History Repeats: Much like Season 1's Darryl, he avoided being named the worst because the experts conceded that Marnie had kept pushing him out of the way and doing all the work herself.

Charmaine Flank

Nominator: Tina Flank (Daughter)

• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. While she was never going to be named the worst just because Joe was that bad, Tex was named the runner-up rather than her precisely because she tried to do the jobs in the way the experts showed her, while Tex kept taking short-cuts.
• Women Are Wiser: Not so much in terms of her work, which was perhaps the weakest of the season aside from Joe's, but she maintained the most professional attitude of all the season's nominees and was by far the most effective foreman in any of the group challenges.

Desmond "Dez" Nanassy

Nominator: Jennie Grievers (Wife)

• Henpecked Husband: He took probably the most abuse from his nominator of any of this season's candidates, though unlike Casey, he stood his ground and insisted on getting the work done.
• Sanity Ball: While he and Jennie made for a pretty dysfunctional team, in the group challenges Dez usually held this.

Season 4

Johnnie Bachusky

Nominator: Darlis Bachusky (Wife)

• Catchphrase: He had a habit of saying "It's an abomination" when it came to his work. Which, considering how few tasks he successfully completed, happened quite often.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He had longer hair than any of the female contestants or nominators from the season, including his own wife.
• Graceful Loser: When asked if he's Canada's Worst Handyman, Johnnie wholeheartedly agrees, saying in a confessional that it's "a no-brainer" to name him the worst. And when Johnnie is named the worst, he's unsuprised and accepts the result.
• History Repeats: An example not from this show, but from Canada's Worst Driver, where the "winner" of that show's fourth season ended up with the title largely by default after the actual worst contestant (Donna in CWD4, Brian P. in this season) experienced a Non-Gameplay Elimination in the fourth episode.

Brian Macdonald

Nominator: Veronica Macdonald (Wife)

• Brilliant, but Lazy: The reason why he avoided being named the worst — as Gail pointed out, Brian could be somewhat capable when lead properly, but Johnnie was simply incompetent.
• Catchphrase: Whenever he got flustered, he started yelling "I don't know!" over and over again.
• One-Steve Limit: During the time when both Brians were on the show, he was referred to as Brian M., but after Brian P.'s ejection, he became simply Brian.

Angie Budgell

Nominator: Roy Budgell (Husband)

• Dumb Blonde: An odd subversion; in terms of overall skill she was one of, if not the best contestant ever to appear on the show, but she did show some very bizarre lapses in judgement at times.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: For most of the season she did well, if not overwhelmingly better than the other contestants. Then she really came into her own in the final two episodes, to the point of having passed every challenge^note (Well, nearly every challenge; her antler rack was initially deemed a pass, but then totally fell apart when a Boy Scout pulled on it in the final episode) by the end of the final episode, causing Andrew to name her the show's best-ever contestant, since surpassed only by Season 5's Matt.

Eric Thibeault

Nominator: Marc Buzzell (Friend; Episodes 1-5), Michelle Lacroix (Wife; Episodes 6-7)

• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite doing consistently good work while on the show, he was one of very few candidates never to be named the most improved (likely due in part to Brian P.'s ejection in the fourth episode), and thus never get a chance to lead a group challenge.
• Only Friend: He was the only person among the candidates who seemed to get along well with Brian P., and while he was one of the ones calling for Brian P.'s removal from the show, he did at least let him stand next to him before his ejection.
• "Stop Having Fun" Guys: In-universe; the show thought he and Marc were enjoying the experience and goofing around too much, and so sent Marc home and replaced him with Michelle.
• Tempting Fate: Claimed more than once than "instructions are for low I.Q. people" — and while he actually got away with ignoring the instructions better than most handymen on the show do, it resulted in his share of mishaps.

Brian Pugh

Nominator: Brennan Pugh (Son)

• Epic Fail: During his time on the show he passed zero challenges, and it was very rare that his efforts in any given task weren't the worst of the group. About the best that things got for him were that he did okay as the de facto foreman in the first group challenge, and that his antler rack (the last challenge he completed before his ejection) was one of the comparatively better ones, only failing because the antlers dropped a little when Andrew hung a coat on them.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Despite being the show's youngest-ever handyman or nominator, Brennan actually proved pretty competent, and far more capable at handiwork than his father.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: The only contestant in the show's history that this happened to.^note Albeit it did happen to the Purple Team on the show's Spiritual Successor, Blood, Sweat & Tools. After the fourth group challenge, an off-camera argument between him and Brian M. escalated to the point where all the other contestants (including Eric, who had actually been on Brian P.'s side in the argument until it got out of hand) told the producers they weren't willing to remain on the show if Brian P. did.
• Un-person: After his ejection, he was never mentioned by name on the show again.

Season 5

Deen Flett

Nominator: Doug Flett (Brother)

• No OSHA Compliance: One of the main reasons why he was named the worst; he and Simon were about as bad as each other in most regards, but Deen kept injuring himself into the bargain.
• Tempting Fate: He declares he won't be named Canada's Worst Handyman because he was never named the worst in any prior episode... and promptly becomes the first person to be named Canada's Worst Handyman after never being named the worst in any prior episode.

Simon Larade

Nominator: Linda Larade (Wife; Episodes 1-4); Joey Larade (Son; Episodes 5-7)

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Enforced; he has problems with high blood pressure, and maintains this attitude to keep it in check.
• Lost in Translation: One of the challenges had him misread "pint" as "pinte" — the French word for a quarter-gallon, which is about the equivalent of two pints — and therefore mix mortar to half of the consistency it should have been.
• Put on a Bus: Due to having prior commitments, Linda told the show's staff beforehand that she could only stick around for the first half of the season, and thus was replaced by Simon's son Joey.

Angela Finseth

Nominator: Matt Hanley (Common-Law Husband)

• Dumb Blonde: Like Angie from the previous season, she showed some major lapses in judgement from time to time, but by and in large averted this trope by proving relatively competent at handiwork.
• Game-Breaking Injury: A rare positive example of this trope; as the result of her injuring her back in the final episode — as well as the mistakes she did make in the season being seen as totally the fault of her husband, Matt, and probably also the fact that Deen and Simon were both obviously far worse anyway — the experts agreed prior to the final inspections that she would not be considered for the title of Canada's Worst Handyman.
• The Millstone: Her husband Matt had zero interest in helping her, and proved actively detrimental to her efforts to learn, which eventually caused him to become the first-ever nominator to be named the worst of the episode.

Cory Goertzen

Nominator: Kim Pettigrew (Fiancee)

• Achilles' Heel: His temper; in most regards he was one of the more capable handymen of the season, but as he lost his handle on his temper his work got worse. Fortunately, he got it under control and rebounded well in the final episodes.

Matt Webb

Nominator: "Silent" Keith MacNeil (Friend)

• The Ace: Probably the best handyman in the show's history (albeit with close competition from Season 4's Angie), getting practically every job done to a very high standard and only getting named the worst once — and even that was more due to his injuring himself than his work actually being bad.
• The Silent Bob: Silent Keith. He only spoke twice on-camera during the whole season, shocking Andrew the first time he did it.

Season 6

Charlene Hunt

Nominator: Charmaine Hunt (Sister)

• Bystander Syndrome: The tone for her time on the show was set in the first group challenge, where she busied herself removing debris from the site, let the men handle all the actual work, and openly admitted what she was doing to Andrew.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Joe from Season 3; both were named the worst of their season, both were really bad at handiwork, and both had a habit of blowing off jobs they didn't like as being for the opposite sex (though she did mostly lose this habit as the season wore on, unlike Joe).
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Much like with Ruth back in Season 2, the experts both argued strongly that she should not be named the worst, as she cared about her work much more and put in more effort than Ajay did. Unlike in Ruth's case, however, Andrew persuaded them that her work was so much worse than Ajay's that her having the better attitude couldn't override the gulf in their abilities.
• Women Are Wiser: Averted; she was the only female contestant in her season, and was not only named the worst, but is considered up there with Joe and Johnnie when it comes to the worst of all of Canada's Worst Handymen.

Ajay Pal Singh

Nominator: Prabhjot Sarao (Wife)

• Catchphrase: "PRABHJOT!"
• Insane Troll Logic: He tried to create a drainage hole by attaching a drill bit to a jackhammer and letting it slowly pound its way through the floor. Unsurprisingly, he got named the episode's worst for that.
• Skewed Priorities: As a landlord, he insisted on doing work on his properties himself because it was cheaper than hiring a professional. Andrew pointed out the actual cost of repairing his botched work on top of what it would cost a professional to do the job, causing him to realize how wrong he was.

Dan Lafleur

Nominator: Natasha Lafleur (Wife)

• Achilles' Heel: He was a pretty mediocre handyman in general, but easily his biggest failing was not reading the instructions, which ended up being the main reason both of the times he was named the episode's worst.
• Always Someone Better: Or rather, Always Someone Worse. In most seasons he would have probably been named Canada's Worst Handyman, but Charlene and Ajay were that much worse in work quality and attitude respectively that he didn't even end up as runner-up, despite achieving the rare dishonour of being named the worst twice (the only other person to do that this season was Ajay).

Matt Young

Nominator: Kory Keogan (Friend)

• Achilles' Heel: His inexperience. Given the right situation he could be pretty competent, but as soon as he had to do something outside of his comfort zone, he quickly panicked.

Rob McFarlane

Nominator: Joe-Anne MacMillan (Common-Law Wife)

• No OSHA Compliance: In most regards he was the season's most competent handyman, with his major failing being that he tended to injure himself, and even Joe-Anne, pretty often.