Survivor: Island of the Idols has arrived! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the castaway most recently voted off of the island.

Tom Laidlaw had am ambitious strategy for his Survivor career when he talked with me in Fiji. “I don’t want our tribe ever to have to go to Tribal Council,” he declared. “I want to win every game, and I think that’s doable.” It’s a team-based attitude that got the Canadian through a decade in the NHL but unfortunately couldn’t survive past the rink. With only one tribe win under his belt, it was an unfortunate swap that ultimately sent the game of the man from the Great White North south for good.

Tom came into the season as the oldest contestant and Survivor‘s first Canadian representative. That made him stick out, especially when people put him in a trio with Elaine Stott and Vince Moua. Luckily, Tom’s work ethic and challenge strength allowed him to skate by, even when “Axe Man” Vince attempted to give him the chop. He was comfortable in a blindside-happy tribe before a switch shook up his game. He was left on Lairo beach with detective Dean Kowalski and perennial target Karishma Patel as his companions. His hands and feet were suddenly bound, and like in the Reward Challenge, he tried to crawl over the sand mound in front of him. Tom and Dean hoped that Karishma’s time would finally come due to her weakness in challenges. But the majority of former Vokais saw Tom’s straightforward and loyal attitude as a sign that he would be Lairo loyal through the merge. As a result, they served up an elimination as fully loaded as an Applebee’s fajita.

Now out of the game, Tom talks with Parade.com about his attempts to work with his new tribe members, the impact he had on the first two big moves of the game, and what from this experience he’ll bring into his motivational speaking.

It was evident that you, Dean, or Karishma would be the one to go at last night’s Tribal Council. How surprised were you that it was you?

I obviously knew it was going to be one of the three of us. As much as I had been trying to target Karishma, I felt this was a new group of people, and I didn’t know them as well. I didn’t understand their strategies and how they looked at the game. So I thought it could be me. In fact, as Tribal Council went on, I remember grabbing my bag. That was the first time I had done that at Tribal; before, I just left them on the floor. I didn’t want to leave the game and not have something to say to the group. So I really prepared myself for it possibly being me. I wasn’t completely sure, but I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t me either.

You end up being very sportsmanlike to the tribe when you get voted out. What prompted that choice?

When I went out there to play, I had it in my head that there’s a certain way I wanted to be perceived. I wanted to play hard. I played a big role in Ronnie’s blindside and Vince keeping his idol in his pocket. But I also wanted to play a loyal game with an alliance. They wanted to get Elaine out early, and I fought for her. That was important for me, and I wanted her to see that. I wanted that to be my reputation, the loyal player. Janet said that’s a big part of why she wanted me voted off. It’s not that we didn’t get along; she felt confident I would still be loyal to the other four Lairo players on the other tribe. I was not happy to get voted out. But I wanted to play a certain way, and I felt I played that way.

On that note, we see Janet describe you as a “straight shooter” with a tribal mentality, which you mention is one of the reasons why you get targeted. What is your reaction to that observation?

That was very accurate. I wanted to be that loyal player, understanding full well that at certain times, I would have to do something to someone that I was loyal to. At some point, you have to get people out if you want to win. But it was important to me that it was part of my game. I wanted a strong game and to participate in blindsides, but I wanted to form that unbreakable alliance. Janet was right in what she said; there’s no question. In fact, I was even asked if I had an alliance with the other four Lairos, and I said, “Yeah.”

But Dean and I also sat down with Jamal at one point and said, “Noura wants to get you out, if you want to use us. Have we formed an alliance with other people? Yes, but those people are gone now. If you want to get Noura out now, we’ll vote with you.” From watching the game so much and seeing so many different personalities and ways to play and win, I decided this is the way I’m playing. I understand that’s not the way other people play the game. But I felt confident about it, and I still feel confident about it now. If the tribe swap had gone differently, it would have been a different result.

What was your take on the five new people who came to the Lairo camp?

On the old Lairo tribe, we had a blast together. But we were also playing the game hard, blindsiding right off the bat. We had a ton of fun. I think the people who came over were great. Janet and I hit it off right away. I also hit it off with Jamal and Jack. But they were different personalities. It was much more of a serious group, much more businesslike. I also didn’t see any “goofiness” from Noura that she apparently had earlier in the game. We didn’t see any cracks in the armor between the five. They were smart in making us think there was no way we could break them up. Even though Jamal and Noura made it very clear that they wanted to get each other voted out. But once they came to us and it was time to vote, they had already decided to stick together.

Let’s go to the beginning. You mentioned you played a big role in Ronnie’s blindside. Can you elaborate on that?

Yeah, they didn’t show that much. Ronnie and Aaron were two big personalities and good athletes. They were really trying to “take over” camp, which I don’t blame them for. They wouldn’t let anyone else start the fire, stuff like that. I wanted to be one of the guys running the camp. Then when they targeted Elaine, that was important to me. I wanted to play that loyal game, so I told her, “They’re after you. I’m not letting this happen.” That’s when we put together the blindside against Ronnie. He was also doing some stuff that appeared shady. He was aggravating enough people that it seemed he would be good to get out. We would have had a tougher time trying to get Aaron out at that point.

The big thing to me was, once they came after Elaine, this was my opportunity to show her I’m loyal to her and will fight for her. I knew she was with the girls, so if I were with her, then I would be part of a pretty hefty alliance. It was only two or three days in, and we didn’t really know each other. So I had to get people to trust in the plan and not say anything to Ronnie or Aaron. Admittedly we used Vince a little bit to keep them in the dark, which I knew he wouldn’t be happy about. A lot of work had to go into it. You don’t know until you play how you’re going to go out there and react. But man, once we got out there, we got into game mode right away. I surprised myself with how much fun it was. As much as I feel bad that someone is going to be the first guy voted out, it was fun to do a blindside.

How about the Vince vote? I was surprised to see him target you considering the bond you made on Day 1.

At the start, I thought Vince was going to be someone I could really align with and play that loyal game. That went away pretty quickly. That wasn’t Vince’s game. Vince was playing a much different strategy; there was the perception he was going around telling everyone about the other conversations he was having. He became the exact opposite of who I wanted to have an alliance with. Once he got back from the Island of the Idols, he was doing a lot of strange stuff. He turned his bag inside-out in front of us and turned his pockets out to show he didn’t have the idol. It was almost too much of a show, so we were pretty confident he had the idol on him.

I didn’t realize he was pushing as hard as he did to get me voted off. I thought we had convinced him we were voting for Karishma. But I think he felt confident enough that the target wasn’t on his back, whether it was Karishma or me. He was a difficult guy to play with because he was all over the map. He didn’t have a strategy where you felt you could have an alliance with him without him screwing it up. So he was pretty easy to vote off.

You just mentioned Karishma. Last night, you said, “I don’t know how to describe [our relationship], but I would say she and I are not best friends.” Can you put it into words now?

Part of it is my background. I love to win. I went in with the goal of never losing a challenge. The exact opposite happened. In that situation in my world, you ask, “Okay, why is this team not winning? What’s the problem?” It’s unfair to her because it wasn’t always this way. But she seemed to be the problem. She told us all at the start that she was excellent at puzzles. She was not. That’s fine; I’m not excellent at puzzles either, but I wasn’t putting myself in that position. Even in the last challenge where Dean was shooting the baskets, I could have shot as well. But if I’m playing with Wayne Gretzky and there’s a penalty shot to be taken, I’m not taking that shot; Gretzky is. Dean was a college basketball player, so I figured he would shoot them.

If you can’t do something, don’t tell us you can do it, or it will hurt the team. I feel bad saying this, but if she wasn’t good with puzzles and she wasn’t good physically, what’s she going to do for the team? In the challenge where we had to wriggle through the sand, I knew she couldn’t do puzzles, so there was no use putting her there. But at the same time, she wasn’t physically able to get herself through the sand. I don’t want to put words in her mouth, but I thought part of her strategy was for her to come across as the girl who was picked on and bullied. I don’t want to disrespect her if she felt that way. But I didn’t see her being bullied. Everybody else on Lairo was participating, helping with camp. She was more so sitting at camp with her head in her hands and not doing anything, then complaining that nobody included her in anything that’s going on. Again, I don’t want to disrespect her feelings. But I did not see her getting bullied.

Elizabeth said you were a father figure on the tribe, to the point where Elaine even called you “Dad” at Tribal Council. Was it part of your strategy to play that parental role?

I made it clear from Day 1 what I had done. I had been an international hockey player. I didn’t think that was going to hurt me; I never made enough money that I would be a threat. If anything, I thought it would help me, that it would be something they’re drawn to. That partially happened, though maybe not as much as I thought it would. Especially with somebody like Elizabeth, who’s been an athlete herself. We had a bond and joked around.

Does that include the flower in your hair?

(Laughs.) It’s funny you bring that up. I honestly don’t remember I did that. I can’t remember where it all came from. The funniest part of that was my face. I looked like some sort of hippie on the beach. I was watching the episode with my son. When we saw that, we were both like, “Where did that come from?!”

You currently do motivational speaking through your brand “True Grit Life.” Is there anything you’re going to bring from Survivor into that from now on?

When you hear other motivational speakers, they come up with some great stuff. There are a ton who I respect. But I hope the difference for me is that I lived it. I grew up on a farm in Canada, played hockey, then started an agent business. Survivor is another chapter. I turned 61 when I was out there, and I really wanted to make sure I didn’t play like some old man. In the first challenge, I went to the wall to make sure they climbed up my back. I wanted to be at least on par physically with all the younger players, without the crutch of being an older person.

When I speak with people now, they say they can’t do things because they’re too short or heavy or old. That’s just not true. And I’m not just saying it; I’ve lived it. I went on Survivor at 61 years old and played the game. That would be the biggest takeaway for me. I’ve already gone and spoken to groups. Sometimes you tell young people what they’re supposed to do, and they just say, “Yeah, you’re just saying that.” But in this case, I’ve done it as well.