‘Big Brother Canada 2’ full interview: Winner Jon Pardy reflects on alliances, moves, and more

Just in spending a few minutes around Jon Pardy, it is very easy to see how he won “Big Brother Canada 2.” While he may not have been a superfan of the game going in, he has such a natural air and charisma. He’ll remind you of your best friend growing up, and make you want to hang out with him. Even though Jon did win a lot of competitions late in the game, it was actually his social game that carried him to the win in front of the jury. Likability is so important sometimes, and despite being a newbie to the game, he was quick to understand that.

As you can see above, we chatted with Jon one-on-one in the HoH room Friday morning following the finale, and he was still energetic and funny despite getting literally no sleep following the finale. You can see our post-finale interview with him here; this one is a lot more in-depth.

CarterMatt – So what’ve you been up to in the last 12 hours?

Jon Pardy – Last 12 hours, trying to do some damage control on Neda (laughs), and soaking it all in. This is so amazing and surreal after the fact. This is all just an absolutely amazing experience.

Have you gotten a chance to sit down and talk with your family and [girlfriend] Janelle yet?

Yeah, I did get to sit down and have a few beers with my family. Very Newfie-style last night. Me, my family, and Janelle sat down. We didn’t talk much game; it was just catching up on their lives, how they were doing last few months.

How nice was it just to get that little break after all this time in the game?

It was SO nice to just sit back and relax. It was definitely good to have those people around me.

Just being in here, it feels much smaller than it does on TV. How hard was it for you the first week, this outgoing guy, to be confined in here?

This space was unbelievable. You think it would get easier as time went on, but it got harder and harder and harder with every single day.

What did it feel like when it was just final four or final three? This place has to feel very empty.

You can pretty much yell out and it echoes back to you. I would rather there be 14 people in here so I can go mingle rather than just four people over and over again.

Going into this game, you had an interesting perspective in that you hadn’t really seen the show before, so you were just yourself. Did you make a real big point of just trying to mingle with everybody and get to know the story?

With me, that’s just the sort of person I am. At the bar I just love talking to people. Any situation where it involves talking; I guess I just love hearing my own voice, if that’s what it comes down to. (Laughs.) Meeting people is something [I like to do] inside and outside this house, and that was more me as opposed to the game.

So when did the Jon / Neda alliance officially begin?

Day 8 or 9 we really started to become good friends, and I think Day 20 it was a non-sober final two was made, and then Day 21 we reiterated the final two. So Day 20 was the first final two that me and Neda made.

Since you bring up ‘non-sober,’ we may as well bring it up now. You and Allison and the drunken Diary Room [task]…

Oh no, the drunk off in the Diary Room!

How the heck did you manage to not look pass-out drunk in front of everyone?

It was so fun to go in there with my Newfie friend Allison. Anytime that you throw two Newfies into the DR with a little bit of alcohol, it’s going to be a fun time. We had a blast with it the whole challenge. It was a whole lot of fun. I can’t wait to watch the whole episode. It’s probably one of the things that I am most excited to watch, that whole episode. I guarantee that there’s subtitles!

Are you going to go home and watch these right away, or will you try to take a little break first?

I’m definitely going to take a few weeks and just relax with my family. I’m sure my roommates are going to be telling me everything that happened every step of the way before I even sit down and watch it.

Let’s talk about the injury for a second, because there’s an interesting phenomenon with reality TV shows where people get injured, and they can use that to try to get far. I even did that years ago on a show. They can kind of help you in a game, since they can take the attention off of you. Did you ever feel that?

When I dislocated my shoulder I was like ‘wow, this really sucks,’ and the doctor gave me six weeks of no physical activity. And I was like ‘what can I do,’ since you can’t take six weeks off in the Big Brother House.

At that point, Neda told me ‘stay in your sling,’ and I was like ‘what do you mean, stay in my sling?’. She [was like] ‘nobody will think you’re a target with your sling on all the time.’ I kept the sling on for a little while, and milked it as long as I could, and then started playing the game when people least expected it.

Did that really force you to focus more and more on your social game?

As soon as my shoulder popped out I knew that the competition factor was out the window. I knew that I had to rely solely on my social game. I had to put a lot of trust with people I was aligned with.

Let’s talk a little First Five here. Do you think that even if Canada didn’t nominate [Andrew and Sabrina], there would have still been a time when they fell apart?

That group, they made it so blatant and obvious that they were running the house. That’s going to start getting shattered pretty quickly. I didn’t think it was going to get shattered as quickly as it did! They went out bing, bing, bing, bing, didn’t they?

Who makes an alliance five minutes in? That makes no sense? I didn’t know anything about the game, and even I didn’t do that.

Don’t you think that there is a lesson here for future players that it’s better to get to know the people first?

Yeah, don’t make an alliance with four strangers and you have no idea who they are or what they are. That could be one of the silliest moves I’ve ever heard of.

You never want to be in an alliance where you feel like you have to take care of someone else, and Sarah’s said she had to do that with Sabrina a lot.

It was an alliance where they had no idea. They may have hated each other day three, but made the alliance not knowing anything … I may be way off, not knowing the game, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Traditionally [with few exceptions] on reality TV, you are correct.

That’s like sitting around on a green couch and saying ‘hey everyone, I’m Jon. Want to make an alliance?’

Let’s talk about getting rid of Arlie. I was worried with you for with this move, because Neda kind of played you, and she’s said that she took advantage of you being drunk one night and put this in your head.

Neda put the idea of getting Arlie out as [a potential move] in my head. I didn’t make one move in this game that didn’t better my game. If I didn’t think that Arlie leaving was going to better my game, I would not have ever thought about putting him on the block. She raised some very good points for my game. That is the only reason I considered it.

I put Arlie on the block, and it was almost a big swing and a miss when he was up there. It was close, Secret Vetoes up the butt and things like that!

This was one of you and Neda’s biggest moves in convincing the Gremlins to actually going along with this plan. How did that happen?

Those two days was the most game I played in the entire house, telling them that we were going to work with them, no matter what. Then having to go to Allison and saying ‘we’ll work with you,’ and seeing where her head was at. I think we did gain Allison’s trust, and that is why Arlie did leave the house.

One of the things you did really well is jury management. How did you manage to make tough votes like against Heather and Neda, but then find a way to do so where they did not hate you for it?

(Joking) I think it was good, because we got all the wieners out before jury, and we were a bunch of cool cats! (Laughs.) There were a lot of superfans and a lot of fans in that jury, and I knew that they were going to respect the game, and who made the best game. Even Neda. It was so cutthroat to send her home and not hold up the final two, but as a superfan she understands the game and understands that it was a move she would have had to make for herself.

It was a weird thing watching the finale [in studio] last night, because there were people who were obviously very sad to see Neda go, but at the same time happy for you that you made such a big move.

She played an amazing game from day 1, flawless. I think if she had won, she wouldn’t have done anything different and I wouldn’t have been standing final two. Whoever won that HoH was going to be in the final two, and they were not going to be standing with the other.

How much did Canada play into your mind during the season? There were so many twists that Canada was involved in.

Canada was this season. This season was Canada. It was never a goal of mine to appeal to Canada. What you see is what you get. Be me, do me, and if Canada likes it, then it is so amazing. To be loved by your country, there is no greater feeling than that.

The fact that I got their vote at the end meant everything to me, and I felt they had my back the entire time.

The final two with Sabrina. Before the jury [questions] even start, what were you thinking? Were you counting votes in your head?

I had no idea. I thought it may be a toss-up. I had no idea how the jury goes. People were saying that it could be a bitter jury. I had no idea where their heads were at.

It depends on the season.

Exactly. I was hoping that they would respect who played the best game, and if I was sitting next to [Sabrina] they would vote for who they thought played the best.

Let’s talk about catchphrases this season. ‘Wake Up Canada’ was a big one [for many people], ‘Hundo’ …

(Laughs) That’s what this house does to your mind!

Did you ever have any idea that any of these random things [people] said would end up becoming big things?

There’s like hashtags and stuff, and I’m just like ‘what is happening here, Canada?”. But it’s definitely cool, and I appreciate it a hundo percent for sure.

Now that you’ve went through ‘Big Brother’ are you going to be a big fan of the show moving forward?

I fell in love with this game when I was playing it! I didn’t know much about it, but playing it was such an amazing thing, and you need to be the right kind of person to win this game. It’s amazing what you have to endure day after day after day. It’s an amazing accomplishment. I will definitely watch ‘Big Brother’ from here on out. Will I miss my Leafs game for it? Probably not (laughs), but I’ll be a fan for life.

How rough was it for you missing part of the NHL playoffs?

I can’t wait to watch a game tonight!

Would you ever come back? You’ve already won, so…

If I ever got a chance to come back, I’d be here in a heartbeat. Give me a few months or a few years, then I’ll be back.

Same exact strategy?

I may have to switch it up! Maybe study a little bit more and see what I can come up with, because this big goofy thing isn’t going to work anymore. You can only do it once.

Once you go cutthroat, you can’t go back.

Exactly!

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If you want to see all of our other “Big Brother Canada” finale coverage, be sure to visit the link here. We’re going to have more all weekend long! Also, sign up now to get further TV updates courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter.

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