‘Big Brother Canada 2’ houseguest spotlights: Will Ika Wong handle the pressure?

One of the nice things that Slice is doing to promote “Big Brother Canada 2” is that over time, they are starting to give us videos featuring most of the cast members. That is extremely helpful to actually getting a sense as to where most of the houseguests stand … and that brings us to Ika Wong. She’s an interesting woman in that she was born in Jamaica, has strong opinions, and really wants to play this game to represent a variety of other people.

Throughout this spotlight, the one question that we’re going to be asking ourselves is whether or not Ika is worrying too much about representing for other people that it could take away from her own game. The better players we feel just go in and try to win, and don’t really care so much about what others could think of them retroactively.

Name – Ika (pronounced eye-ka and not ee-ka)

Age – 29

Location – Thornhill, Ontario (which is a close suburb of Toronto)

Occupation – Hairstylist

Three adjectives we would use to describe her – Determined, blunt, and knowledgeable

Strengths – Being that she references Danielle Reyes, it feels like Ika is someone who does know this game pretty well and has an understanding as to how it should be played. She’s married with two children, and therefore brings a very different sort of life experience to the table than some of the other houseguests. Maybe this helps her to see things a different way, and avoid some trouble in the early going. She also should at least be decent in some of the challenges … at least the ones that are not overly physical.

Weaknesses – The biggest thing is that Ika seems to be someone who likes to have things done a certain way, and we can see fights coming with people who are either too drunk all the time, or too sloppy. Her children are old enough to be aware of what she is doing, and that could also be a huge distraction for her. She doesn’t want to embarrass them or herself, and she’s also putting all this pressure on herself to represent black women in a better light than they have been ever since Danielle was on the show. Why do that? Why not just go out there and play your game.

“Big Brother” comparison – Elissa Slater. Both are married mothers, and both are coming into this game with a lot at stake when it comes to their image and the pressure put out them to maintain that. While Ika doesn’t have to deal with being Rachel Reilly’s sister, she will still likely have those who target her just for being different.

Outlook – We don’t feel like Ika is going to be able to relate to other people enough to win this game, and her biggest potential is finishing around where Elissa did on her season, even if there are luckily for her a number of other people in preexisting relationships this time that she can sympathize with. Don’t be surprised at all if she is sent home right before the jury by people who want to make sure she can go back to her kids versus being in the jury house.

Photo: Slice