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Review: Who did Tim choose on The Bachelor Canada?

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After weeks of trauma and tears, backstabbing and booze, it all came down to Tuesday night on The Bachelor Canada. Well, sort of. Tim Warmels won’t reveal who he chose to be his betrothed–or at the very least his bestie–until next week, but the groundwork for his oh-so-important decision was laid.

In one corner was Trish, the big-city former beauty pageant participant who likes hockey and is open about her feelings. In the other corner was April, the quiet, more reserved gal who played her cards close to the chest. Which one would win Tim’s heart? The fact that Trish already loved him while April was still working on her deep feelings may have given the former an edge over the latter, but nothing was clear cut.

Tahiti served as the backdrop to a pineapple plantation picnic and dinner with Trish that led to the dreaded–or exciting–fantasy suite invite from Tyler Harcott. Did Tim’s heart do a stutter-stop when Trish nodded yes that she wanted some alone time with him? We’ll never know, but he did hop up and offer his hand to her. No word on if they skipped dessert for this or whether dinner was actually done by that point. (How funny would it have been if they’d opened the door to the suite and Tyler was stretched out on the bed? Listen, it’s been a long season, OK? Gimme some leeway on stupid comments.)

april

April and Tim headed off the coast of Tahiti for a cruise around in a yacht. The mood was tempered a bit by April’s concerns that Tim might choose Trish over her, which would shatter the already fragile brunette. Their jump off the side of the boat represented April’s hesitant leap of faith in Tim that everything would be OK, but she still wasn’t sure. Words like “scared,” “might be falling in love,” and “but” threw up red flags all dinner long, so I was a little surprised that she chose to spend time with Tim in the fantasy suite. I think he would have been OK with it if she declined.

Of course, Tim couldn’t make this all-important life decision on his own, so he called on his mom and dad to help out. Peter was immediately enthralled by Trish’s outgoing personality, but Marg was more suspicious and whipped out a list of questions for Trish to answer. Trish needn’t have worried; after saying she wanted a family she had Marg in the palm of her hand.

Not so for April, whose walk to Tim’s parents’ cabana looked like she was headed to the electric chair. If this was a job interview, April wouldn’t have gotten the gig. Her reluctance to look Peter and Marg in the eye, her stammered answers and repeated “ums” certainly could have been the work of careful editing by the producers to make April look like the underdog, but I don’t think so. Her request to see Tim, followed by a tearful “I want to go home,” would seem to have sealed April’s fate.

We won’t find out who Tim chooses until next week, but at this point it appears Trish is his best fit.

The Bachelor Canada finale airs next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET followed by the After the Final Rose special at 8:30 p.m. ET on City.

Who will Tim pick in the The Bachelor Canada season finale?

  • April (51%, 368 Votes)
  • Trish (49%, 357 Votes)

Total Voters: 725

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Bachelor Canada, Featured

Review: Women … and Tim … Tell All on Bachelor Canada

This is my first go-round at a Women Tell All special. At least, the Canadian version. I’ve seen several of the U.S. Bachelor tell-alls and have been amused by the cattiness, sniffs and the side eye delivered in front of the live audience.

This being my first-ever watch of the Canadian instalment, my immediate questions were as follows: Would the truth behind Lisa’s makeup session come out? Would Natalie defend her return to the show or admit it was a mark of desperation? What would former frontrunner Kaylynn say to Tim Warmels? And would Tyler Harcott show up to host the darned thing?

The first revelation delivered was that yes, Harcott was the ringleader for the episode, wrangling jangled hearts and raw nerves with aplomb. After what felt like an endless recap of the season’s highs and lows–anyone who has watched the year already knows what went down–Harcott got down to business with hard-hitting questions regarding their first thoughts on Tim (“Price Charming,” Sonia exclaimed), how Sonia felt being the “most mature” woman in the mansion at 42, and whether Rileigh was jealous of the other girls in the house. I always hate it when the ladies or men are interviewed en masse like that; there are quick edits and mere snippets of conversations that really don’t reveal anything of substance.

Things got more interesting once Kaylynn made her way to Harcott’s Hot Seat. There were some mildly testy moments during her segment, most notably Kaylynn saying she’s not that emotional in real life, followed by the first eye roll of the night courtesy of Sachelle. The thing that struck me about the first few minutes of the Women Tell All was how upbeat Harcott was and how flippant his comments were regarding the girls’ feelings. Kaylynn’s crying jags were underplayed by the host, which I thought was a bit of an injustice and bordering on disrespectful. Kaylynn cried a lot, so why not explore why that was? I’d have been a lot happier if the producers had dumped all of the replayed footage and really explored the reasons why the girls thought they were dumped and their feelings about the process overall.

Natalie was up next and stated the producers had not asked her to return to the show, but that it has been her own decision. She also announced–and I was actually caught off-guard by this–that she knew Tim wasn’t going to keep her around and had only returned to cause drama amongst the remaining girls. The fireworks started to go off, with Lisa critiquing Natalie over her decision to come back and Renée-Anne accused her of putting on an act. I was actually surprised by the vitriol directed at Natalie for her actions, actions that I didn’t think were unwarranted.

The highlight, of course, was when Lisa took the stand her spot on the couch. If Natalie felt attacked by the ladies, Lisa must have felt like she’d been through a war. However, jabs from Sachelle (backed by audience applause) and comments from Natalie didn’t faze the season’s villain; she just shrugged her shoulders and blamed the free booze. She also blamed the demon in the bottle on her smoochfest with the Italian bartender, an incident that was galvanizing during the episode but barely covered on Tuesday night. Lisa said she regretted the move, but I wanted more of an explanation. Alas, none was given.

Sachelle relived the horror of being dumped after her hometown date, but the arrival of Tim on the couch meant they had some closure and no hard feelings. Tim also didn’t have any harsh words for Lisa; he accepted her apology and moved on. I was a little underwhelmed–I had been expecting harsher criticism of Tim by the ladies who had been dumped–but that stuff was either left on the cutting room floor or ignored in favour of bloopers and lighter moments on the show followed by an extended sneak peek at the two-part season finale. That’s too bad. I was really hoping for more serious discussion with the girls–especially the ones eliminated early and received no attention other than being introduced at the beginning of the show–over their experiences with Tim.

The Bachelor Canada two-part season finale kicks off next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on City.

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Bachelor Canada, Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes

Tonight: Rick Mercer Report, 22 Minutes, Bachelor Canada

Rick Mercer Report, CBC
Rick is in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland cod jigging with singer Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea and then he’s off to the Norwood Fall Fair in Ontario for lawn mower racing, taffy pulling, and fly ball races with dogs.

22 Minutes, CBC
This week on 22 Minutes, celebrity blogger and Alberta native, Kelly Oxford guest stars; MP Tony Clement ‘drops the mic’ on community radio with Mark Critch.

The Bachelor Canada, City – “The Women Tell All”
Join host Tyler Harcott as this season’s most memorable bachelorettes return to confront each other – and Tim – for one last chance to speak their minds and have all of their burning questions answered.

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Bachelor Canada, Featured

Review: Hometown hell on The Bachelor Canada

After the shocking events of last Tuesday’s episode of The Bachelor Canada–Lisa stayed and Kaylynn was eliminated–I was truly interested to see how Tim’s hometown visits would go. Especially when it came to seeing Lisa in Calgary. Would he revisit the drama of the week before and question her more deeply about her kissing another man, or would bygones be bygones?

The producers saved all that for the last visit on Tim’s schedule by having him travel to see Trish, Sachelle and April first.

Trish’s hometown date in Edmonton was brilliant, offering the hockey-crazed bachelor not only a genuine Leafs jersey–with Warmels on the back, it should be noted–but also with some ice time on the local rink. After scoring some points on the net and Trish, Tim was hoping to win some from her family. It started out a little awkwardly–having an entire family come walking down the driveway will do that–before settling into oddness at the dinner table. (How did I know it was odd? Why, the producers were playing off-kilter music to let me know.) A round of “Jesus Loves Me” later and that was pretty much it. I expected Trish’s brother–sporter of some bad-ass shades–to pull Tim aside and quiz him on the “journey,” but that never materialized. Trish and Tim did, however, admit to falling for each other, the closest either would come to using the “l” word. (Did anyone else half-expect to see Gam-Gam peeking through the drapes while T&T made out?)

Things didn’t look good for Sachelle, meanwhile, after she learned their Porter flight with Tim from Toronto to her hometown of Sudbury, Ont., was grounded for hours by fog. Undeterred–and realizing the entire city of Toronto was right behind them–Tim turned her frown upside down and the pair hopped into a cab and headed to his Queen St. West neighbourhood for a coffee, some prime people watching and talk of babies. (I love how they made Sachelle seem like a big-city newbie in awe of everything in Toronto.) And while Tim suspected it would be Sachelle’s brother, Shane, who would pull him aside for a chat it was actually her father who did it first. They were quickly joined by Shane, who played bad cop by telling Tim to let Sachelle go if the feelings weren’t there. Gee, thanks buddy. Also, if Tim does dump Sachelle, I’m assuming Shane’s veiled threats about putting a hurt on Tim will have had something to do with it.

Meanwhile, April was battling with nerves and trust. It was something she hoped they would address once he arrived in Wasaga Beach, Ont. The date started off very seriously, with April revealing her father passed away at a young age of a drug overdose and that they wouldn’t be meeting her mother either because the two don’t get along. Instead, they had dinner with April’s grandparents, who have been raising her. April’s grandmother put Shane to shame, observing that Tim liked to work out a lot and that she could see right through him. Turns out the comment may have been taken out of context–I know, shocking–because she then complimented Tim on having great qualities.

So, what happened in Calgary? Tim was up front with Lisa, first admitting that he could totally see himself falling for her. Then came the but: he wasn’t going any further in the relationship with Lisa and would not be meeting her family for dinner. Unless the producers asked him to keep Lisa around to make for a dramatic hometown visit–and I have no reason to suspect this–Tim made a tough last-minute decision. Was it the right one? It’s easy for me to say yes, but clearly it weighed on him. And despite me not liking Lisa, The Bachelor Canada contestant, I didn’t feel any joy at seeing her cut down like that. I also don’t envy her; she’ll be the girl who was eliminated from the show for kissing a dude in Italy for awhile.

The lack of a third rose confirmed what April, Trish and Sachelle suspected–Lisa had been dropped–opening the door for the season finale. So, who will Tim have to choose between? April and Trish. I told you: Shane scared Tim off with his aggressiveness and punching talk. In the meantime, next week’s Women Tell All special looks exciting, with appearances by Lisa and Natalie, eye rolling and a rare appearance by host Tyler Harcott.

The Bachelor Canada airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on City.

Who do you think Tim will pick in the Bachelor Canada season finale?

  • April (55%, 226 Votes)
  • Trish (45%, 183 Votes)

Total Voters: 409

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