Characters / The Amazing Race Canada 7

The Amazing Race character index
United States original: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8: Family Edition | 9 | 10 | 11: All-Stars | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18: Unfinished Business | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24: All-Stars | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31: Reality Showdown | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35
Asia: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
China Rush and China: China Rush 1 | 2 | 3 | China 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Australia: 1 | 2 | 3: Australia v New Zealand | 4 | 5 | 6: Around the World | 7: Celebrity Edition
Canada: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6: Heroes Edition | 7 | 8 | 9

The seventh installment of The Amazing Race Canada. The season focused on finding competitors who were "people that want to share a story that is a new lease on life. Or a second chance if you will." Notably, the season allowed viewers vote for a team from a previous season to return: Jet & Dave, Brent & Sean, or Frankie & Amy. The eventual winners were revealed to be Jet & Dave.

Unlike the installments of the race since the second season, the seventh season will not include legs where the racers will travel internationally and also featured a record number of penalties taken in the fifth leg, when the majority of the racers gave up on the clamming challenge.

The season fixed several of the problems that plagued the previous season. Most notably they had better task variety and brought a more lively and fun cast with the first use of actual villains since season 4. The version also began branching off from the original by adding its own twists such as Canada's Choice as the One Way, both to great success. However, not all was perfect with the season. While they did have good task variety, they sacrificed quite a bit of the difficulty that made previous seasons so enjoyable. This was most prevalent in their mental challenges which past seasons 1-5 had worked so hard to make challenging. Also the editing was very one-sided showing rather obvious favorites by the editors. They culminated (for the lack of a better word) when one team copied an answer from another team and the editors portrayed it as Moral Event Horizon even though in the American version, that move is usually portrayed as the other team's fault for not guarding their answer. The editing also gave the winners such an overly positive edit that it was painfully obvious they were going to win by the finale. Also, for the first time since Season 1, racers did not leave Canada leaving a monochrome course feel. Lastly, while the cast and final 3 were well-liked, the series of events leading up to how the final 3 was decided meant every team in the final three relied on a large amount of luck to get there in the first place.

Anthony Johnson & James Makokis

Married couple. While they were found in the middle of the pack in their early legs, they found their stride at the midpoint of the race and managed to stay near the top of the pack, winning two legs along the way. They kept away from the drama and negativity caused by other teams, instead, they maintained positive and supportive attitudes. They were rarely seen frustrated and became fan favourites, particularly after finishing the clam digging challenge with Thinesh and Aarthy. During the final leg in Muskoka, they landed the lead early on and never let go of it. While the other teams were right behind them through most of the tasks, they held on to first place and won the race.

• Born Lucky: It's combination of James having lived on Vancouver Island in the past and suddenly cluing in that goats eat carrots that lets them leave the last roadblock on the fifth leg just moments after arriving.
  • In general the course almost seemed tailor made for them, every leg they would come across a task in which they had recent experience in allowing them to breeze through the tasks without even trying that hard.
• Break the Haughty: Their reaction to arriving in sixth place on the second leg, admitting that they felt humbled by their performance that day.
• Brick Joke: In the final leg, Anthony makes a Call-Back the fifth leg when he jokes how their float-plan is landing on the water.
  Anthony: The best landing is definitely on water. Smooth as a butter clam.
• Chekhov's Hobby:
  • They plant potatoes all the time, which helped them with the tree planting detour in the second leg. Peeling potatoes all the time also helps them in the eighth leg.
  • Anthony builds models, which helped them through the model train roadblock in the second leg.
  • Anthony's knowledge of Japanese flower arranging seems to help him out during the ikebana roadblock in the third leg.
  • Anthony happens to like painting, so it helps them during the emu egg painting detour in the eighth leg
  • Zigzagged in the ninth leg - despite having experience throwing axes, they're both thrown off by Dave's lie that he was an axe-throwing champion. They later beat Lauren and Joanne at the same challenge.
  • Averted in the penultimate leg. They played hockey as kids, but it helps them very little in the sledge hockey detour.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • James figured his experience riding an ATV and other standard transmission vehicles would help with the motorcross roadblock in the second leg.
  • James has fished in the past, which seemed to help during the ice fishing roadblock in the fourth leg.
  • Before even attempting the spelunking word scramble roadblock, he figures out the answer is the location "Goats on Roof" because he lived on Vancouver Island in the past and knew about the location.
  • Anthony's renovation experience helps them out several times in the race. In the sixth leg, Anthony figures they'll be able to complete the mine roadblock quickly, since he recently learned to install ventilation curtains during the renovation of their house; they finished the task first and won the leg. In the final leg, they need to build a Muskoka chair - it turns out, Anthony builds them all the time for his mom.
  • Averted in the eighth leg, for James during the mock press conference roadblock. While he's good at memorizing due to his experience in medical school, he struggles a lot with memorizing the French version of the speech and the responses in Japanese, German, and Italian that he needs to give to the journalists.
  • Anthony used to work in the coffee industry, so he's developed an excellent palette for tasting and smelling. He wound up being the first person to accurately identify all the herbs in the jams in the first roadblock in the penultimate leg.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Anthony has too much fun with the Dora backpack in the fifth leg, and even makes references to Dora the Explorer.
  • Anthony couldn't resist playing with the moose plush toy at the drone flying detour in the ninth leg.
• Distracted by the Sexy: James, seeing how cute Anthony looks in a wet suit during the ice water swim roadblock in the fourth leg.
• Down to the Last Play: They lost to Sarah and Sam in a foot race to the mat in the eighth leg. Averted because it was a non-elimination leg.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • Averted. After seeing Dave cheat all season, James and Lauren warn Anthony to cover up his answers in herb jam identifying roadblock in the tenth leg.
  • In the final leg, Anthony missed drilling a screw during the Muskoka chair construction task. He was able to find the mistake quickly, but given it was the final leg, it could have been enough to let the other two teams get ahead.
• Foreshadowing: Anthony guesses that the remaining items in their Dora backpack in the fifth leg are relevant as they went into the last roadblock of the leg - carrots and the whiteboard for an eleven-letter word scramble. It's enough for James (along with knowing local places from living on Vancouver Island) to figure out the answer is "Goats on Roof" before they even reach the challenge.
• Gentle Giant: Anthony. While both of them rarely lose their cool, Anthony also tends to be more patient and have a fondness for cute things.
• Harsher in Hindsight: James struggling with memorizing the French version of the speech he needed to deliver for the roadblock in the eighth leg - after the race, he revealed that he kept remembering how his father had endured violence and slurs after being forced to attend an integrated school that forced his father to only speak in French.
• Hidden Depths: James is a medical doctor. During the math challenge in the seventh leg, Anthony reveals that he's a Harvard graduate.
• Honor Before Reason: Since Aarthy and Thinesh helped them through the clamming challenge even after they finished, James doesn't hesitate to give the answer to the spelunking word scramble to Aarthy in the fifth leg. After getting through the fifth leg together, they all insisted on stepping on the mat together, which tied them both teams for second place.
• Informed Ability: Despite Anthony being good with technology, they struggle with the drone flying detour in the ninth leg.
• Keet: Definitely one of the most energetic gay teams in race history, rivaling that of Tyler and Korey. They rarely lose their cool, and seem to be on the race to have a good time.
• Tantrum Throwing: In the penultimate leg, James ends up throwing the sledge hockey sticks on the ice in frustration. Anthony reveals that he usually lets James vent, because he knows that James will calm down and refocus afterward.
• Tempting Fate: Anthony thinks Jon is going to a bobblehead in the antique store in the third leg, James doesn't think so. They're kind of thrilled when it turns out Anthony was right.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: They came in last on a frustrating eighth leg, but it was a continue racing leg.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Kelly Osbourne when Anthony finds a bobblehead of her and a young Wayne Gretzky when they find a portrait of him in the antique store in the third leg.
  • Anthony sings "Backpack! Backpack!" and admits he just had to have a "Dora moment" when they reach the clue featuring Dora and the Lost City of Gold
• Strategy Versus Tactics:
  • Being last place at the diamond roadblock after Trish finished, they elect to use the Express Pass they got from Dave and Irina to get moving.
  • With the majority of the teams sick of Dave and Irina's arrogance after taking another penalty in the fifth leg to get ahead, nearly all the remaining teams (Aarthy & Thinesh; Sarah & Sam; Anthony & James; Trish & Amy; and Marie & Meaghan) decide to team up to close the 2 hour gap at the clam digging task. They were one of the three teams that completed the task without taking a penalty.
• Twofer Token Minority: Both Anthony and James are indigenous and identify as Two Spirit.

Sarah Wells & Sam Effah

Teammates. Sarah is an Olympic hurdler and Sam is sprinter; both are aiming to compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Despite their slow start, they were a consistent team were usually finished at the top of the pack. While their athlete abilities let them dominate in physical challenges, they often struggled with mental tasks. In the finale, they were beaten to the float-plane sign-up board by Anthony and James, which let them take the lead. While they were able to stay on the heels of Anthony and James throughout the last leg, they weren't able to pull ahead and finished in second.

• Born Lucky: Having zero experience reading coordinates on maps, they went looking for help... and unwittingly wound up at the Aurora Geosciences Ltd building in Yellowknife, which is full of geologists and geophysicists who were willing to teach them how to read longitude and latitude. And when they realized they didn't have enough money to pay for their cab, they went back to Aurora Geosciences and found their new friends were generous enough to give them the money they needed to pay their driver.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Sam figures being an athlete will benefit their ability to complete the lacrosse roadblock in the sixth leg, because his coordination should help even if he's never played lacrosse. Sarah admits to being cut from every team sport she tried out for in high school, including lacrosse. They still managed to complete the roadblock with relate ease, with Sam adding that with Sarah's aim, she "may have a future in lacrosse."
  • Averted in the seventh leg. They think Sam's reaction time will help them with the stopwatch during the physics problem in the seventh leg. After getting increasingly lower times and failing to get an acceptable answer to the math equation, Sarah realizes that Sam is stopping the watch too soon. When they let Sarah use the stopwatch, they're able to get a time that lets them calculate a solution that's within the acceptable range of results to satisfy the task judge.
  • Subverted in the eighth leg, when Sam delivers delivers the speech for the mock press conference. While he does a lot of public speaking, he usually doesn't memorize his speeches beforehand.
  • As athletes, they have little trouble with the pick-lit game in the detour for the eighth leg, since it is very similar to baseball and they both have good hand-eye-coordination.
  • Averted in the penultimate leg. Their athletic ability doesn't let them finish the sledge hockey detour as quickly as they hope.
  • Averted for Sarah in the final leg. She's an Olympic hurdler and normally has no issue with jumping over things, but the dikes in the cranberry bog leave her struggling to scramble up when she falls into one. She points it's because hurdles are in fixed spots, while the dikes are not where or at the height she expects them to be.
• The Determinator: Sarah is terrified of both being cold and water, but she forced herself into completing the ice water swim in the fourth leg.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Sarah was visibly impressed with how good Thinesh looked in a suit during the mock press conference roadblock in the eighth leg.
• Dumb Jock:
  • Both are Olympic athletes who struggled with the latitude and longitude task.
  • They also struggle with solving the physics problem in the seventh leg.
• Failed a Spot Check: A small one for Sam in the final leg - he realizes pretty quickly that the drill to build the Muskoka chair isn't working because he forgot to put the drill bit in.
• Honor Before Reason: Sarah gives Aarthy and Thinesh the answer to the ROM stamp task in the ninth leg out of the reasons that they are friends, even though they are fighting to stay out of last place. She apologizes to a chagrined Sam later, admitting she had being doing it out of friendship.
• Hope Spot: By the last task of the final leg, they were neck in neck with Anthony and James and finished the irrigation assembly task at the cranberry bog at the same time. It looked like it was either team's race, especially since James and Anthony anticipated that they wouldn't be able to beat Sarah and Sam if it came down to a footrace to the mat, but it looked like Anthony and James caught a faster taxi out of the task.
• No Sense of Direction: In La Malbaie, Quebec, they struggled throughout the eighth leg to get to their destinations, in part because it was a rural town of mostly French speaking residents. They haven't hesitated to ask for directions as soon as they realize they might be lost.
• Read the Freaking Clue: Sam was focused on memorizing the lines for The Lion King dubbing challenge, so he was stunned to find that he only needed to read and get the timing right once he got to the recording booth.
• Paper Destruction of Anger: After a day of missing opportunities to get ahead during the seventh leg, Sarah winds up ripping up a clue paper in frustration
• Strategy Versus Tactics: With the majority of the teams sick of Dave and Irina's arrogance after taking another penalty in the fifth leg to get ahead, nearly all the remaining teams (Aarthy & Thinesh; Sarah & Sam; Anthony & James; Trish & Amy; and Marie & Meaghan) decide to team up to close the 2 hour gap at the clam digging task. They were one of the only teams that succeeded without taking a penalty and were bumped up to first place, with praise from Jon for not giving up.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Sarah mentions she's afraid of being cold at the beginning of the fourth leg. Cue having to swim in ice cold water in the roadblock.
  • Sam brings up he's afraid of heights when he gets on the seaplane to Vancouver Island. At the first roadblock, he's stuck either bungee jumping or swinging off a high bridge during the roadblock for the fifth leg. He elects to go on the swing and isn't happy he has to do it again when he and Sarah fail to list the Nanaimo bar ingredients the first time. He's still not thrilled with heights in the final leg, when they're in the float plane and when he has to do the hydroflying task.
  • For the race, they decided to choose a word to help them focus throughout the day (they picked "brave" in the sixth leg, "believe" for the eighth leg, and "strength" in the tenth leg). They chose the word "persistence" for the seventh leg, which wound up being a frustrating leg for them due to setbacks preventing them from getting ahead.
• Trying Not to Cry: In the penultimate leg, Sarah struggled badly with the herb jam tasting roadblock and was in a state of near tears from the stress of being the last person at the roadblock.
• This is a Race: Their reason for putting Gilles and Sean down for the double one way was to keep some space behind them.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sarah's afraid of being cold and water, so she's in tears when she has to swim in ice cold water in the fourth leg. Sam's weakness is a fear of heights, and puts in a lot of screaming when he's swinging down a bridge in the fifth leg. In the final leg, he still seems uncomfortable with heights when he's doing the hydroflying task.

Lauren Lavoie & Joanne Lavoie

Sisters. As the first team ever from Saskatchewan, the sisters were thrilled to represent their province, especially when they got to the sixth leg. During the race, they were usually at the back of the pack and often narrowly avoided elimination due to other teams making more critical mistakes than they did. While they were never a dominant team, they were persevering and never quit, and Joanne kept them both up with her constantly positive outlook and extremely enthusiastic attitude towards everything they encountered. In the final leg, they were setback by Lauren losing the clue paper with the location of the sign-up board for the float-plane to Muskoka, leaving them in third place. Though they managed to catch up to the other teams throughout the final leg, they weren't able to get ahead and finished third.

• Affectionate Nickname: Lauren usually calls her sister "Joey"
• Born Lucky: At Santa's Village in the final leg, Lauren finds an elf with a red and yellow candy cane on the first try, out of the many, many other elves she could have asked.
• Chekhov's Hobby: In the final leg, Joanne says that Lauren is the "ready-made furniture queen" because she builds a lot of ready to assemble furniture, which helps them get through the Muskoka chair construction task quickly.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Joanne and Lauren are both competitive swimmers, so Joanne was able to get through the ice water swim in the fourth leg very quickly and without using the guide rope.
  • Subverted in the eighth leg, during the mock press conference roadblock. Joanne is usually good a memorizing, but the cameras and silence when she pauses during her speech distracts her. She figures out she can focus on Dave's head (because it's a large object that isn't moving), which gets her through the speech.
  • Lauren is an art teacher, so she didn't have trouble with the emu egg painting option for the detour in the eighth leg.
  • Zig-zagged in the ninth leg, despite playing Air Hockey back home, it took them 2 tries before they could get a win.
  • Lauren's experience as a teacher and knowledge of poetry may have helped them figure out the order of the lyrics for last roadblock in the penultimate leg.
  • Averted in the final leg. Joanne is a yoga instructor and has good balance, but she points out she rarely needs to balance 15 feet in the air when she's doing the hydroflying task.
• Drives Like Crazy: Inverted, in the tenth leg. Joanne is so careful at backing up the truck in the last roadblock that Lauren frustratedly says that Joanne drives like an old granny.
• Failed a Spot Check: A critical one in the final leg - Lauren drops the clue paper that tells them they need to go to the executive terminal to sign-up for a float-plane to Muskoka, forcing them to turn back to the airport to find someone who can look up the location based on the details they can remember. Joanne makes sure they don't repeat it later in the leg, when she catches a clue paper they drop when they got into another taxi later.
• Failing a Taxi: They're the last to get a taxi out of the airport in the fourth leg. They decided it was bad karma.
• FanGirls: It turns out Lauren is a huge fan of Jet & Dave - they inspired her to compete in the race.
• Foreshadowing: On the eighth leg, Aarthy and Irina comment on the train from Kitchener to La Malbaie that the sisters are the least likely to get in to the final leg, so they aren't real contenders compared to the other four teams. Cue the sisters getting second place, while the other teams are struggled a lot.
• Genki Girl: Joanne gets excited about almost everything. She's usually been looking at the bright side of a situation or giggling on their way to a new challenge. Her reaction to getting second place on the eighth leg is just to scream excitedly.
• Good with Numbers: Joanne studied kinesiology in university and was familiar with physics equations, but she still struggled with the math challenge to solve for the distance a tennis ball was falling in the seventh leg. Averted with Lauren, who is a teacher but does not specialize in math. It took Lauren's comments about how they couldn't reconcile with the mathematical units (that time was being measured in seconds, and constant for gravity was meters per second) for Joanne to realize that she couldn't solve the problem because the constant for gravity actually uses meters per second squared as the units.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Lauren, during the herb jam tasting roadblock in the penultimate leg.
  Lauren: I'm in a jam, seriously.
• Motor Mouth: Joanne doesn't know when to keep quiet. It doesn't help that Lauren doesn't want everyone to discover that they put Trish and Amy through the double one way in the third leg.
• No Sense of Direction: Getting lost on Vancouver Island resulting in arriving at the clam digging task last, and their decision to immediately take the penalty after learning the other teams had struggled at the task for at least two hours while Dave and Irina had already taken a penalty.
• Sibling Team
• Strategy Versus Tactics: After learning most of the other teams were struggling with the clam digging task in the fifth leg and that Dave and Irina had already taken a penalty, they decided upon arrival to just take the penalty instead of attempting the task. Jon was not impressed at all with all the surviving penalty takers in the fifth leg.
• Tempting Fate: In the last leg, Joanne comments that she wishes she could see Jon as they're flying to Muskoka. Their first challenge when they land? It's a trivia board game hosted by Jon Montgomery.
• This is a Race: Their reason for using the double one way on Amy and Trish. Now if only Joanne wouldn't be so loud about it...
• Underdogs Never Lose: Because they've been usually at the back of the pack, the other teams have decided the sisters aren't going to be contenders for the final leg. On the other hand, they've never been last and pulled off a second place finish in the eighth leg.

Dave Leduc & Irina Terehova

Married couple. Right out of the gate they proved themselves as a threat, winning the most legs (four) and staying in the top 3 for most of the race (excluding leg 5 when they took a penalty). They were also known for their overconfident attitude which made them enemies with all the remaining teams. After Aarthy & Thinesh's elimination, they looked ready to lock themselves a spot in the finale, but they struggled at the Apple side of the detour, where they couldn't identify which apple was which. This proved costly as they couldn't catch up to Lauren & Joanne and they were the final team eliminated, finishing in 4th.

• Affectionate Nickname: Dave insisted on calling Irina his "queen" after she described herself as a princess during the fourth leg, and later kneels down and waves his arms when she solves the physics problem in the seventh leg, easily acquiescing when Irina tells him to her "queen".
• All of the Other Reindeer: Given his and Irina's behavior in the race so far, Trish, Joanne, and Sarah were not willing to help Dave when he was struggling at the word puzzle from the spelunking roadblock in the fifth leg.
• Bear Hug: Dave, to the surprised task judge, after the detour for the eighth leg.
• Cheaters Never Prosper:
  • Trish and Amy beat Dave and Irina to arrive first at the mat in the fifth leg after he cheated by looking at her whiteboard, so at least Trish counts that as a victory of sorts.
  • Their elimination in the penultimate leg means that after a season of underhanded tactics, they didn't get to win the race.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Dave knew how to look the markings on the diamonds from shopping for diamonds for his wife.
• Chekhov's Skill: Averted in the eighth leg. They thought being the only team fluent in French would benefit them when they got to rural Quebec, but despite the varying levels of French affecting between the other teams, their fluency didn't benefit them particularly. And Irina being multilingual didn't benefit very much during the mock press conference challenge because she was cracking under the pressure from her fear of public speaking.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Dave gets very distracted by a large pig after completing the detour in the sixth leg, stopping to pet it a few times while Irina has to tell him he's wasting time.
  • Irina admits that the little robots in the robot detour in the seventh leg are cute, but she's visibly impatient when Dave does a fancy handshake with the larger robot that is handing out the next clue.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Dave doesn't hesitate to praise how good Irina looks when she puts on a red dress during their brief attempt at the square dancing half of the detour in the sixth leg.
• Dumb Jock:
  • Dave has been able to power through most tasks... but he and Irina gave up on figuring out how to read the coordinates in the latitude and longitude roadblock.
  • He also struggles with the word puzzle portion of the spelunking roadblock in the fifth leg.
  • He doesn't like math and is completely useless at the physics problem in the seventh leg.
• Failed a Spot Check: In the detour for the second leg, they began planting trees using Irina's footsteps as an ad hoc measuring method, not realizing there was a rope in their bag for measuring until they saw James and Anthony using a rope.
  • Inverted in the ninth leg, where Dave grabs the large sheet of paper their their answer at the ROM stamp task and pretends to eat it so nobody else can read their answer.
• Failing a Taxi: Their cab drivers kept leaving them during the fourth leg. They just would steal someone else's.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Dave, on the way to the lacrosse roadblock in the sixth leg.
  Dave: Let's lacrosse our fingers! (Dave and Irina proceed to cross their fingers)
• Hidden Depths: After letting Dave do most of the work in the first sixth legs, Irina took the lead in the cooking Face Off and solved with physics problem relatively quickly in the seventh leg with no help from Dave. She points out that most people dismiss her because she's a model, but she actually studied at McGill University.
• Jerkass: Their behavior during the entire race.
  • It was really unnecessary to add sad faces next to all the remaining sign-up spots on the board in the ninth leg and rub it in everyone's faces by adding "again" next to their names in the first place slot. Anthony crossed them out and changed them to smiley faces because he couldn't stand the negativity anymore.
  • After being eliminated, Aarthy revealed that they've been edited to be appear nicer than they actually were towards the other racers.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Regardless of who's side you're on with the whiteboard incident, Dave was right that Trish shouldn't have left her whiteboard unattended with the answer written down if she didn't want anyone to steal her answer. By this point she should've known with Dave's competitive personality he would've done that.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with Dave Schram.
• The Load:
  • Irina describes herself as "fragile" and "a princess" and didn't like dealing with the arctic cold in the fourth leg. Dave decides to use their Express Pass in the same leg so she doesn't have to complete the ice water swim roadblock.
  • In the fifth leg, Irina lets Dave do all the work digging for clams, saying she doesn't like hard work or digging in mud.
  • In the sixth leg, she acknowledges that Dave's going to do most of the work during the ventilation curtain installation roadblock in the mine, while her job is to hand him small tools and complains.
  • Averted in the seventh leg, when her cooking skills and ability to solve math equations lets them win the Face Off and complete the final task in the leg.
  • Somewhat averted in the eighth leg, during the pick-lit detour. They're relying on Dave to get all the points, but he keeps missing every shot. Irina winds up getting their first points before Dave figures out that the game relies on good timing and not physical strength.
• Manly Tears: Dave actually teared up a little when Marie and Meaghan were eliminated as all the other racers who incurred penalties went to hug them.
• The Masochism Tango: They describe their arguing during the eighth leg is just another way of expressing how much they love each other.
• Mocking Sing-Song: Irina, when Aarthy calls her behavior disrespectful in the sixth leg, when all the teams discover Dave cheated in the previous leg.
• Motor Mouth: Dave points out that it's difficult to communicate with Irina during the robot detour in the seventh leg, because she keeps talking when he's trying to get clarification on the directions she's giving.
• Nervous Wreck: Irina tends to crack under pressure and is prone to giving up when she has to do tasks alone.
• Never My Fault: Dave cheats by stealing Trish's answer in the fifth leg, and then complains to Irina that it was Trish's fault, and they both complain that all the other teams want to eliminate them for "winning", while overlooking Aarthy and Thinesh, who had also won two legs at that point.
  • Playing the Victim Card: They pulls this out this at the start of the sixth leg, when they confront the other racers to stay that they're being unfair for trying to work together to eliminate them in the fifth leg.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught:
  • Dave can't solve the word puzzle for the spelunking roadblock, so he just takes a picture of Trish's un-erased whiteboard when she's getting her answer checked. He doesn't care when Trish does catch him and blames her for being careless with leaving her board exposed.
  • In the ninth leg, he claims to be an axe-throwing champion and reveals it's a lie in the confessionals, but it's enough to throw off James and Anthony, who both have actual experience throwing axes before.
• Pride: Dave seems especially arrogant, and they both look down on the other racers - their quotes for the second and third episode titles: "Our Competition's Not That Smart" (Irina) and "We'll Let the Peasants Fight for Last Place" (Dave). Dave seems to have the ability to back it up... for now. In the fifth leg, Dave didn't hesitate to brag that they used the Express Pass to skip the polar dip and took the penalty because they couldn't read the maps. And Irina, ticked off that nearly all the other teams are against them, calls all the other teams "peasants" as they waited out their penalty at the pit stop at the fifth leg.
• Psychological Combat: Dave's favourite technique is to trash talk and/or lie about something in order undermine the confidence of other racers.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: They're seen kissing after almost every challenge.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Irina really doesn't like being in second place (or basically anything less than first place), and it seems to visibly stress her out whenever the possibility they're not going to be first comes up.
  • Averted in the eighth leg. After bickering from getting lost, Irina struggling with the mock press conference roadblock, and Dave not getting the pick-lit game for the detour right away, they're actually content with third place.
• Shout-Out: In the antique store during the third leg, Dave managed to grab a portrait of The Beatles (for John Lennon) and a John Cena action figure during their search for Jon (Montgomery).
• Sore Loser: Irina, after Aarthy and Thinesh beat them to the mat in the second leg, claiming that she and Dave don't need a trip to Madrid because they've already been there. She and Dave looked even less impressed when Jon handed a surprise third Express Pass to Thinesh and Aarthy for winning the second leg, after she and Dave won two on the first leg. Aarthy even referenced the trope name when talking about them at the start of Leg 3, and says it to Irina's face in the sixth leg.
• Strategy Versus Tactics:
  • In the fourth leg, they use their Express Pass so Irina won't have to swim in ice water, but can't figure out how to read coordinates the latitude and longitude roadblock that followed. They took the penalty thinking they had enough of a lead that it won't matter, but they were still dropped to third when Aarthy and Thinesh and Meaghan and Marie checked in ahead of them.
  • Given their third place in the fourth leg, they decided to take another penalty in the fifth leg instead of completing the clam digging task. While they survived, it dropped them to fifth place since three teams successfully finished the task and Trish and Amy arrived before them. Jon was not impressed at all with all the surviving penalty takers in the fifth leg.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: A combination of their arrogance and winning two legs made them everyone's target in the fifth leg.
• Tempting Fate:
  • They were so sure that they'd get first place again for the fourth time in the eighth leg. They wound up third.
  • At the start of the penultimate leg, they said that they'd get back-to-back first place finish, and then win the race. They got eliminated instead.
• Trash Talk: Both of them, but Irina particularly.
• This is a Race: They have no qualms about stealing cabs twice from two different teams in the fourth leg.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Dave expected his strength would get them through the pick-lit detour in the eighth leg, but repeatedly found he missed every attempt to hit the object. Irina ended up getting their first points, after which Dave realized the game more about timing than pure strength.
• Villain Respect: Dave looks impressed with what appeared to be a minor injury on Trish's hand when she describes to him how she beat Sam to the sign-up board in the seventh leg, despite her previous animosity towards him for stealing her whiteboard answer in the fifth leg and stealing her taxi in the fourth leg.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: According to Irina, she's terrified of public speaking, which makes the mock press conference roadblock in the eighth leg, combined with her tendency to crack under pressure, extremely difficult for her.

Aarthy Ketheeswaran & Thinesh Kumarakulasingam

Dating couple. After a sub-par first leg, they ran a much stronger race, which included winning 3 legs and staying in the top 3 for most of the race (baring leg 7 when they finishing 6th). They looked poised to make it to the finals but ran into trouble right away on leg 9 as a slow taxi cap cost them time pushing them to last. When they got to Thunder Bay, they couldn't catch a break. After losing the Face-Off to Lauren in Joanne, they were set back again when they discovered that the detour they chose was full and they had to go to the other task. At the cheese cutting and packing detour, it looked like they had a chance to get ahead of the sisters, but found that nearly half their packages were improperly sealed. Despite their best efforts, the sisters finished first, leaving Aarthy and Thinesh to be eliminated.

• Call It Karma: Aarthy doesn't like Dave and Irina's behavior, so she'll call it karma whenever Irina and Dave are beaten at something during the race.
• The Determinator:
  • Aarthy did not react well to how cold and deep the water was during the ice water swim roadblock, but she still pushed herself through it.
  • They refused to give up on the clamming challenge in the fifth leg, despite having the Express Pass at their disposal.
• Chekhov's Hobby:
  • Thinesh used to build model train tracks as a kid, which gave him and Aarthy the edge to finish the last roadblock and win the second leg.
  • Technically Thinesh's dad, but along with being good at memorizing, Thinesh mentions that his dad is very informed about politics and has run for city council before, which Thinesh decides will help him during the mock press conference roadblock in the eighth leg.
  • Thinesh also plays baseball, so he winds up being rather good at the pick-lit game during the detour in the eighth leg.
• Chekhov's Skill: Aarthy and Thinesh would like to thank their "grade three geography" for letting them ace the latitude and longitude roadblock in the fourth leg.
• Good with Numbers: Thinesh is seen doing most of the work solving the physics problem in the seventh leg.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • As the last two teams attempting to finish the grueling clam digging task in the fifth leg, Aarthy warns Anthony and James that if they take the penalty, she and Thinesh will be able to survive the leg by using their Express Pass while James and Anthony will not. When she and Thinesh do manage to complete the task, they stayed behind to help Anthony and James, even though they were risking last place as the only two teams left at the roadblock. After getting through the fifth leg together, they all insisted on stepping on the mat together, which tied them both teams for second place.
  • In their final leg, they decided that if they get to the bus sign up board ahead of Sarah and Sam, they'd let the latter team take the spot ahead of them out of fairness because Sarah had given them the answer at the ROM stamp task despite competing for last place.
• Hope Spot: It looked like they had a chance to overcome Lauren and Joanne at the cheese cutting and packing detour, especially when the sisters struggled with cutting cheese the right size and needed to fetch more wheels. But improperly sealing their cheese forced them to repackage almost half their wedges, which let the sisters finish first and beat them to the mat.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Aarthy comments that many Sri Lankan people were fishermen, and then adds that her and Thinesh's ancestors are probably laughing are their woeful performance digging clams in the fifth leg.
• Lethal Chef: During the seventh leg Face Off, Aarthy winds up burning the tortilla wraps. Thinesh reveals that entire time they've know each other, he's done all the cooking because Aarthy can't cook at all. She reveals in the eighth leg that she's never peeled potatoes before either.
• The Load: Aarthy, during the pick-lit detour in the eighth leg.
• Motor Mouth: She won't stop talking and taking her frustration out on Thinesh when they get lost on the way on the way to the pit stop in the eighth leg.
• Nervous Wreck: In the later legs, Aarthy really started to crack under the pressure and became prone to crying fromf frustration.
• No Sense of Direction: On the way to the pit stop during the eighth leg, they got lost twice.
• One Head Taller: Thinesh to Aarthy.
• Opposites Attract: Thinesh tends to stay calm in most situations, compared to Aarthy, who gets frustrated easily and tends to be more outspoken.
• Read the Freaking Clue: During the robot detour for the seventh leg, they decide that Aarthy will give directions while Thinesh sends orders to the robot from a different room. When a frustrated Aarthy keeps suggesting they switch since Thinesh is better at giving directions, he has to remind her multiple times that the clue specifically states that they cannot switch places once they begin the challenge.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: In the eighth leg, they were aware of the dangers of getting lost, but still took some time for Aarthy to convince Thinesh to ask for directions when they got lost the second time on their way to the pit stop.
• The Rival: To Irina and Dave, since Aarthy has been the most vocal about the former team's behavior and the fact that both teams were even in terms of legs won by the fifth leg.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Thinesh, during the mock press conference roadblock in the eighth leg. Aarthy and Sarah really noticed.
• Shout-Out: Aarthy randomly guesses that either Einstein or Galileo is responsibility for discovering gravity while Thinesh solves the physics problem in the seventh leg.
• Strategy Versus Tactics:
  • With the majority of the teams sick of Dave and Irina's arrogance after taking another penalty in the fifth leg to get ahead, nearly all the remaining teams (Aarthy & Thinesh; Sarah & Sam; Anthony & James; Trish & Amy; and Marie & Meaghan) decide to team up to close the 2 hour gap at the clam digging task. They were one of the three teams that accomplished the task without taking a penalty.
  • Despite having an Express Pass at their disposal, they kept putting off using it out of concern that they had no idea if it would be better to save it for a more difficult challenge later down the road. They manage to complete the seventh leg (and the last leg they would have been allowed to use the Express Pass) without ever using it.
• Trying Not to Cry: Aarthy's frustration at the clam digging roadblock in the fifth leg brings her to near tears. The maze detour in the sixth leg actually does bring her to tears from frustration and Thinesh's insistence not to use their Express Pass yet.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Aarthy is scared of swimming underwater, the ice cold water she's swimming in doesn't help alleviate her fears. She's not thrilled with heights either.

Trish Omeri & Amy De Domenico

Friends. They struggled most of the race, mainly being in the back of the pack for most of it. After getting last in Saskatchewan thanks to the square dance, they needed a break. Despite the fact they were on the first bus to Kitchener, their speed bump put them behind the rest of the teams, then they choose the same Detour as all the other teams, giving them no chance to overpass anyone. After they lost the Face-off against Lauren & Joanne and had to take a 15-minute penalty, they managed to catch up to the sisters at the math challenge. However, they couldn't solve the equation fast enough and they were eliminated, finishing in 6th place.

• Action Moms: Memorize a list of Nanaimo bar ingredients in a minute and then launch yourself off a bridge? No problem for these moms.
• Born Lucky: As with previous teams in season 1 and season 2, they survived the race twice by ending up last on non-elimination legs.
• Chekhov's Skill: Both are stay-at-home moms who do lots of baking - including making Nanaimo bars, which made it a breeze for them to correctly name all the ingredients for every layer, even with only 60 seconds to memorize the list before one was had to bungee jump and the other swing off a bridge during the roadblock for the fifth leg, all on the first try.
• The Determinator:
  • Amy wasn't going to give up on finding a way to learn the song lyrics for the Celebrate detour, despite not being able to hear very well in order to complete it.
  • Trish is struggling with announcing the square dance instructions for the detour in the sixth leg partly due to stage fright, but pushes through instead of switching to the maze option. This ended up costing them the race as in the next leg, their speed bump put them behind everyone.
• Failed a Spot Check: Trish solved the word puzzle for the spelunking roadblock in the fifth leg, but didn't erase her board when she when to get a check, which let Dave steal the answer for himself.
• Fatal Family Photo: Averted - while the sixth leg featured a clue presented by their husbands, they were saved because it was a non-elimination leg.
• Foreshadowing: Trish comments about the whale tooth in their Dora backpack. They figure pretty quickly it's the last item they need to complete the whale skeleton for their speed bump in the fifth leg.
• Honor Before Reason: Despite leaving the ice water swim roadblock ahead of Anthony and James, Trish convinces Amy not to steal the former's cab when they discovered their cab driver didn't wait for them.
• Hope Spot: They were the last to arrive at the math challenge in the seventh leg, but found that Joanne and Lauren were still struggling to solve it. They almost had a chance get back at them for the One-Way from the third leg (and losing the Face Off in the current leg) and survive, but they couldn't solve the math problem before them.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: In Leg 3, Amy reveals after being One-Wayed that she has severe hearing issues and needs to wear hearing aids, which makes it difficult when she and Trish are forced to complete the Celebrate detour in the third leg because it requires learning to sing and dance. It was foreshadowed when they got out of the Edmonton airport and Trish was loudly calling for Amy to get in the cab when Amy wasn't listening.
• Informed Ability:
  • They're rather dismayed in the first leg to find that their ability to read maps is not as good as they thought.
  • In the third leg, Amy kept missing a small leaf on the far side of her flower container in the ikebana roadblock despite claiming to have a good attention to detail.
• No Sense of Direction
  • Subverted in the fourth leg - unlike a number of the other teams, they could read the coordinates on the maps for the latitude and longitude roadblock.
• Shout-Out: To Jon Montgomery himself - in the antique store in the third leg, they managed to find a magazine of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games with a photo of Jon inside. Unfortunately, it wasn't what they were supposed to find when the clue said "Find Jon."
• Strategy Versus Tactics: With the majority of the teams sick of Dave and Irina's arrogance after taking another penalty in the fifth leg to get ahead, nearly all the remaining teams (Aarthy & Thinesh; Sarah & Sam; Anthony & James; Trish & Amy; and Marie & Meaghan) decide to team up to close the 2 hour gap at the clam digging task. However, after seeing other teams leave, they decided to take the penalty. Jon was not impressed at all with all the surviving penalty takers in the fifth leg.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After a tough fourth leg, they were thrilled to find it was a non-elimination leg. They lucked out again on the sixth leg.

Meaghan Wright & Marie Wright

Twins. For the first four legs, they hovered in the middle of the back, but in Nanaimo they struggled as they were one of four teams to quit the clam searching challenge. They were the last ones to quit and they too far behind to catch up to the other teams who had also taken penalties, since Marie couldn't unscramble the letters at the spelunking roadblock fast enough. Any hope of them surviving went away when James figured out the phrase immediately and they were eliminated in 7th place

• Big "NO!": Meaghan, in response to seeing Marie fall during the motorcross roadblock in the second leg.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Meaghan considers that her previous experience working at the flower shop would help her during the ikebana roadblock in the third leg.
• Group Hug:
  • Meaghan, at pit stop on the third leg, with Jon and the pit stop greeter.
  • All the racers who incurred penalties, except Irina and Dave, hugged them when they were eliminated.
• The Perfectionist: In the third leg, Marie didn't want to try the song and dance until they had perfected it.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Marie just drops onto the Pit Stop map when they arrive at the end of the third leg.
• Sibling Team
• Strategy Versus Tactics: With the majority of the teams sick of Dave and Irina's arrogance after taking another penalty in the fifth leg to get ahead, nearly all the remaining teams (Aarthy & Thinesh; Sarah & Sam; Anthony & James; Trish & Amy; and Marie & Meaghan) decide to team up to close the 2 hour gap at the clam digging task. After seeing Trish and Amy take a penalty, they decided to take one as well. It did not pay off, as they were the last ones to take a penalty and the remaining two teams had incurred no penalties and finished the spelunking roadblock immediately upon arriving, the twins were eliminated.

Gilles Meron & Sean Meron

Grandfather and grandson. While setting out on the third leg in third place, they were quickly set back when they got off the plane last and were forced to complete the singing and dancing Celebrate detour. While they managed to catch up towards the end of the race, Gilles couldn't figure out that he needed to tidy up his workstation at the ikebana roadblock before Amy did, resulting in their elimination, finishing in 8th.

• Chekhov's Hobby:
  • Sean worked at a dairy farm before, so he tried to use that experience to keep the cows from being spooked in the ranching task.
  • Gilles built a lot of model trains, which let them finish the roadblock quickly and finish third in the second leg.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Averted. Sean thought his experience riding a motorcycle to work every day meant he would instantly know how to ride the motorbike in the motorcross roadblock in the second leg, but it turned out he needed to adapt to the different model.
  • Averted again with Gilles during the kayaking detour in the second leg. Gilles is a canoeing instructor, but it does little to help when the two kayaks are strapped together in opposite directions.
• Follow That Car: While Gilles tried to work out how to get to roadblock, Sean just decided to follow the other teams' cars.
• I Can't Dance: Gilles struggled to learn the dance steps for the Celebrate detour in the third leg.
• Informed Ability: Averted during the ikebana roadblock for Gilles. Despite his claim to attention to detail, Gilles kept overlooking that he needed to clean up his workstation.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Both of them, when they successfully completed the Celebrate detour.

Nekeita "Nicki" Lee & Aisha Bentham

Friends. After they cost a few placements in the first leg when they overlooked the Pit Stop location, putting them in the back of the pack, they spent the rest of the next leg unable to catch up with the other teams due to the lack of an equalizer. They nearly had a chance to survive after Lauren & Joanne struggled with the Roadblock, but on their way to the Pit Stop, they stopped to ask for directions, allowing the sisters to pass them and cause Nicki & Aisha to be eliminated in 9th.

• Chekhov's Skill: Averted. Aisha is an actor, but it still took her a few tries to complete The Lion King trailer voice over challenge.
• Failed a Spot Check: They arrived at the right location for the pit stop in the first leg, but walked completely past the mat, which allowed two teams to check in ahead of them.
• No Sense of Direction: In their last leg, they got lost on their way to the Pit Stop and stopped to ask for directions. This got them eliminated after Lauren & Joanne passed by them while looking for directions.
• Path of Most Resistance: For missing the location of the mat completely, they had to climb all the way back up a very steep hill.

Jet Black & Dave Schram

Best friends. Brought back to the race as Canada's Choice, the duo was determined to be worthy of the honour of being chosen by the fans. They decided to approach the race with a more serious attitude and had a target on their backs for returning. Despite starting off strong like the fans expected, they dropped from 2nd to last when the drove 80 kilometers in the wrong direction looking for the farm. They ultimately never made up the deficit cutting their chance at redemption short as they finished in 10th.

• And There Was Much Rejoicing: In Leg 2, everyone at the Roadblock site^note except Nicki & Aisha, Aarthy & Thinesh, and Gilles & Sean who all hadn't arrived yet celebrated after Anthony deduced the check in order in Leg 1 and realized that they were the first ones out.
• Call-Back: Seen in their intro shot where they ride tandem bicycle as they did in Season 1.
• Epic Fail: As Amazing Race Veterans, they not only neglected to get proper directions or a map, but they drove over 80 kilometers off course.
• Group Hug: One upon seeing Jon again, and another to say good bye to him.
• History Repeats: Kwame's superstitious fears came true - the first all-male team to arrive at the sign-up board puts themselves down at the first spot... and gets eliminated in the same leg.
• Large Ham: Jet
• Motor Mouth: Jet
• No Sense of Direction: Their downfall this time was not getting a map when they could have - Dave's advice became the episode title: "Canada Get More Maps"
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with Dave Leduc.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: You would think that as experienced in the Race as they were, they would have at least tried to use a proper map to get to the farm.
• Shout-Out: Jet comments that trying to find their way around Kamloops without a map was Risky Business
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Their previous experience in the race marked them to be eliminated by other teams, particularly Irina and Dave.
• Trash Talk: Anything to intimidate Irina, who trash talked right back.