‘The Amazing Canada 4’ rankings: Who’s in the best spot to win?

This season of “The Amazing Race Canada” so far has been great. We’ve had beautiful locations, thoughtful challenges, and above all else great, diverse casting that is bringing us for the first time a guaranteed female winner.

In coming up with this power-rankings article (our first of the season — there may be another one or two down the road), part of the fun came via the notion that any of the remaining teams could win in theory. There are several we consider to be serious threats; even if there is a favorite in our mind, we’re not leaning the needle so strongly to them as we were at this point to Gino & Jesse last season. The edit couldn’t have made it any more obvious with those guys.

5. Frankie & Amy – One of the things that we look at in making rankings is figuring out what the ceiling is. For these two, it appears to be somewhere around third. Even with the Express Pass, they’ve never placed any higher than that. They are smart when they need to be and fast when they need to be, but they’re somewhat prone to mistakes and aren’t physical beasts in the way some other teams are.

4. Rita and Yvette – The twins win the most-improved award so far this season; their second-place finish is the strongest we’ve seen for them so far. Personality-wise, we like them and feel they’ve got the right temperament and determination to win the Race. Our chief concern comes via the edit, since at this point in the show we still probably know less about them than all of the other teams.

3. Joel & Ashley – Joel’s humility is a really wonderful asset to this team. He knows when to take a step back and allow his daughter to lead the way, and knows when to put the pedal to the gas. They’re not the fastest team, but they’ve already overcome some adversity coming into Kingston and that could serve them well. Plus, they know how to win a leg!

2. Jillian & Emmett – By far, these two are probably the fastest and strongest team. Emmett is a complete force in some of these challenges, and when they’re on their game they’re borderline unstoppable. The challenge comes in the percentage of time they’re actually on. They fight significantly more than any other team, and you get the sense that they’re always only a few comments away from another implosion. Teams have won with this dynamic before, but it is something that you have to watch for as we get to the more stressful challenges.

1. Steph & Kristen – Ironically, the previews for the next episode suggest that the two could have more trouble in the Cuba leg than at any other point in the Race to date. Given that promos can often be misleading, we’re going based on what we’ve seen and that’s a physically-strong, confident pair of racers who communicate well and know not to always take things so seriously. Even though we worried about the whole Express Pass lie, it didn’t really come back to bite them. How they handled that advantage in the last leg was perfect, given that they didn’t use it out of caution rather than arrogance.

Who is your favorite team, and do you think that said team will also win? Share in the comments below!

If you missed our most-recent episode review for “The Amazing Race Canada” from a little over a week ago, rest assured that you can check that out here! Also, race over to this link to score some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: TNT.)