TORONTO – All over Canada, there are men and women who can handle a hammer and nail the way a professional hockey player can handle a stick and a puck. Give them a sheet of plywood and they can turn it into a treasure chest.
But a wooden golf bag?
That’s what one of the contestants brought forward during auditions for “Canada’s Handyman Challenge.” The series premieres Jan. 10 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV.
The golf bag isn’t the only unusual thing proudly presented on the series.
“All of us were shocked,” says Scott McGillivray (“Income Property”), who joined Mike Holmes (“Holmes on Homes,” “Holmes Inspection”) and Bryan Baeumler (“Disaster DIY,” “Leave it to Bryan”) on the judging panel.
“I saw Mike and Bryan’s jaws hit the floor a few times.”
Contestants in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax lined up to audition for the series. They were all asked to show off something they had made themselves from one sheet of plywood.
“It’s an old tried and true format that’s worked in the past,” says McGillivray, who has previously joined Holmes as a judge on the “All American Handyman Challenge.”
“Here’s sheet of plywood, make what you can.”
Participants in the Canadian challenge, however, were invited to show off their proudest piece from the past made under the one sheet rule.
“We wanted them to have free reign,” says McGillivray. “Take as long as you want, no rules, just one sheet of plywood.”
On the Vancouver leg of the auditions, one handyman walked in with the wooden golf bag.
Generally, the Vancouver folks were more artistic, says McGillivray. People in Halifax tended to bring more practical stuff. They were building their own furniture – it wasn’t even a challenge for them, he says.
There weren’t a lot of women in the handyman challenge, says McGillivray, “but the ones who tried out, man, they were not afraid of the boys, that’s for sure.”
All in all, McGillivray says the handyman talent pool across Canada runs deep. Contestants had to compete in other challenges and the ten best in each region were chosen. More tasks were assigned and the top four in each area were determined. The final dozen then competed to see who would win bragging rights as the top handyman in the country.
McGillivray, a Toronto native who is a trained carpenter and a contractor as well as a real estate investor, was featured in “From the Ground Up with Debbie Travis.” He says each judge had his own criteria in evaluating the participants.
“I really looked at what they made. Is it functional? Can I use it for what it’s built for or is it just a piece of art?”
The other judges had their own take on the challenge. “Mike was really scrutinizing the details of what they did. He really wants to pull everything apart. Bryan – I don’t know what Bryan is looking for.”
Trash talk among the judges is all part of the TV fun.
“Mike and I go at it,” says McGillivray, 33, who will occasionally refer to his older judgemate Holmes as “Pops.”
“We don’t see eye to eye too much.”
Maybe HGTV’s next reality competition series should be “When Contractors Attack.”
McGillivray is currently working on the fifth and sixth seasons of his other series, “Income Property.”
“It’s been an excellent journey so far,” says McGillivray, who helps people set up income suites in the basements of their homes.
“We’ve helped a lot of people so far. I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘I want an income suite in my home and I don’t even have a basement!'”
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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.
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