One hour outside of Calgary in a small town to the southeast called Irricana lives Canada’s Greatest Know-it-All and his name is Ted Coffey.

Currently working in Canada’s oilfield as a consultant and engineer, Coffey, 57, also happens to be a high school dropout. He was crowned Canada’s Greatest Know-it-All on the Discovery Channel show of the same name.

During the March 19 finale, he defeated nine other contestants to become the champion.
“I thought it was a trivia show at first,” Coffey said of initially auditioning for the show.

The contestants had to do more than just answer a few jeopardy-style questions. They had to prove their merit by getting down and dirty and applying all of their knowledge in real world scenarios.

Whether it was assembling an anatomically correct skeleton that was incased in ice, or building a cardboard structure that could withstand hurricane force winds.

Of all the challenges, Coffey said his favourite was calculating an air strike with one of the two remaining Lancaster bombers in active duty.

But it wasn’t all fun for Coffey while he was on the show. Early on, he found himself butting heads with another contestant.

“At the start there was a really, really annoying guy and I was like, why was I beating myself up to do this?” Coffey said.

Even though he has known he is Canada’s Greatest Know-it-All since the summer of 2011, it wasn’t until the finale of the show aired that the rest of the country has discovered his title.

“I’m not worried to be known, I’m a stay at home kind of guy,” Coffey said.

Discovery is looking for new contestants for next year’s show. Coffey admits that he would do it again in a heartbeat if he could.

“I have already convinced two people from the oilfield to tryout,” Coffey said.