The eighth team to review is Kelly Xu (25) and Kate Pan (25), from Toronto. These best friends and business partners took a leap of faith in opening a fitness business aimed at International Chinese Students and they are the first female Asian team to compete in Amazing Race Canada. Kelly's fear of ghosts and haunted houses shouldn't be an issue but once again we have Kate with her fear of heights and fishy/birdy animals. Yeah, that's gonna be tested for sure. Their Team Motto is "Fit Fun Fabulous" but with their backpacks full of hair and makeup peripherals I'm a little concerned. It's not like they're running with their dad to carry the pack.
Team number nine gives us the mother and daughter team of Frankie Gassler (41) and Amy Gassler (25) from Aldergrove, B.C. who work s a hair stylist and barber respectively. This is another situation where the roles are reversed as Amy is the more mature one who will likely need to keep her mother in check during the race. Frankie is afraid of small spaces while Amy is afraid of heights and we all know that both of those are going to come up a lot during the season. Their Team Motto is “Don’t step on people to win, unless they get in your way” and that sounds a lot like the attitude that Wayne and I would have going into the race. We wouldn't aim to be the bad guys, but we'd have no problem with it.
The last team for season four, team number ten, is no stranger to reality television. It's Jillian MacLaughlin (30) and Emmett Blois (28) from Nova Scotia, whom I'm sure many of you will remember from Big Brother Canada where Jillian was the premiere season winner. They dated for awhile then eventually broke it off to remain friends but the race may find them rekindling their romance, or killing each other along the way. Both of them are afraid of heights so . . . Their Team Motto is “Always race like you’re in last place!” and though that's a good idea, the goal is to never actually find yourself there.
So that's it. Only ten teams this season and it also looks like Air Canada has dropped out as a sponsor which could prove to be either a blessing or a curse for the season. With so many racers afraid of heights I guarantee that there will be a lot of height related challenges this season and even though Wayne thinks I'm afraid of heights as well, I'm not. Heights don't bother me, it's that splat at the bottom if you slip and fall.
I would have liked to have seen more teams, twelve would have been a nice number, but I'm just one guy ranting away on the internet who has no control over those things and I'll just have to believe that production knows what they're doing. They should, they've managed to keep The Amazing Race Canada as one of the most watched programs on Canadian television and that's helped Wayne and I have one of the most loved blog sites about The Amazing Race Canada. Looking forward to the season premiere on June 28th when both Wayne and I will get down to the nitty gritty of why we're here, and then we'll meet up once again for our video blogs from the pub. Until that time.