All the Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic results

Click here for Part 1 of this series, which covers provincial women’s and men’s championships from British Columbia through Saskatchewan and the northern territories.

The Manitoba women’s provincial championship came down to the top two seeds—and last stone of the final game.

Beth Peterson’s Winnipeg Assiniboine Memorial team had won a tiebreaker over Neepawa’s Hailey McFarlane, then walloped veteran Darcy Robertson of Assiniboine in the semifinal—9-1 in six ends—at the Millennium Recreation Complex in Pilot Mound.

Kate Cameron of Winnipeg’s Heather club, the top seed, awaited in the final.

The score was tied 6-6 coming home at the Millennium Recreation Complex in Pilot Mound, only after Cameron had launched a comeback after falling behind 4-1.

In the end, Peterson forced Cameron to hit with her final stone but the veteran’s shooter didn’t need to stay in play. Cameron made no mistake for the 7-6 win, and the 2025 RME Women of the Rings Championship title.

Cameron is backed by Taylor McDonald, Allison Flaxey, Mackenzie Elias and Brianna Cullen. It’s the second Manitoba women’s title for Cameron who played third for Michelle Englot in 2017, and Cameron and McDonald are also former Alberta women’s champs.

Cameron is the defending third-place finisher at the Scotties, after knocking out four-time defending champs Kerri Einarson a year ago in Calgary before falling to Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones.

Peterson’s teammates were Kelsey Calvert, Meghan Walter—who split from Cameron and retired from women’s curling after last season, or so we thought—Melissa Kurz and Katherine Remillard.

Flaxey, who replaced Walter on Team Cameron, won the Canadian Mixed for Manitoba in 2009 and also scored the Ontario women’s title back in 2014.

Next stop: the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Feb. 14-23, in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The 100th Manitoba men’s provincial—which features a very different defending champion squad—gets underway at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie on Feb. 4.

Over in Ontario, four championships took place at two venues.

The Northern Ontario shootout at Port Arthur Curling Centre in Thunder Bay saw multiple champion Krista McCarville make a wild shot to conclude the round robin.

Under pressure, the veteran scored four with last rock in her round robin finale to beat Lauren Mann of Timmins 9-8. That gave McCarville a 5-1 won/loss record, tied for first, but it meant a spot in the semifinal.

In that semi, McCarville took it up a notch and defeated T-Bay’s Robyn Despins 9-4 in nine ends to qualify for the final against Emma Artichuk.

The Sudbury team started with the hammer and scored two. The game saw the combatants swap singles until the key seventh and eighth ends, both steals for McCarville. That gave the skip yet another provincial title by a 6-5 count, and her team is headed just down the road to another hometown Tournament of Hearts.

On the men’s side, Sandy MacEwan of Sault Ste. Marie took the C-Qualifier, scoring two to defeat defending champ Trevor Bonot of Thunder Bay by a 7-6 score.

Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston then beat MacEwan in the semifinal 9-5.

In the end, the story was all about Toronto-based John Epping, who throws fourth stones for the Sudbury squad featuring Jacob and Tanner Horgan and Ian McMillan. Epping’s first run through the north was a short run, as the squad won four straight games and walloped Johnston 10-2 in a six-end final.

In his first three games, Epping outscored his opponents 30-9.

“This has been a different experience this week and everybody has just been so fantastic to us and very welcoming to me,” Epping told TB NewsWatch. “It’s going to be exciting to wear the moose.”

It will be a fourth Brier for the 41-year-old skip, who won southern Ontario Tankard crowns in 2018, 2020 and 2021.

Down south at the Cobourg Community Centre, defending women’s fours champ Danielle Inglis of Ottawa defeated Toronto High Park’s Hailey Armstrong 9-5 in the 1 vs 2 Page playoff.

Meanwhile, Chelsea Brandwood of Niagara Falls defeated Carly Howard, last year’s finalist, 9-7 in an extra-end of the Page 3 vs 4 game.

Brandwood then won the semifinal, defeating Armstrong by a 6-3 count.

The Sunday final saw Inglis jump out to a 3-0 lead over Brandwood. After a Brandwood deuce and Inglis single, the defending champs stole a point for a 5-2 lead, and they were never in trouble, winning 8-4.

The sunshine is back in Thunder Bay!

The winner of the Ontario men’s competition is an eye-opener.

One year after a university team almost won the Tankard—London’s Jayden King—an equally youthful team did.

Sam Mooibroek’s outfit from Whitby Curling Club are all under 25, and they defeated Scott Howard of the Navan CC in Ottawa 7-4 in the final.

The new champions were up 6-1 at the break.

Last year at Dorchester, Team Mooibroek lost three qualifying games to miss out on the playoffs. This year, their lineup was bolstered by the addition of young Winnipeg skip Ryan Wiebe to play third, ahead of Scott Mitchell and Nathan Steele.

Team Mooibroek went 3-0 to make the playoffs, then beat Howard 9-3 in the first Page playoff game. Howard beat fellow former champ—and former teammate—Mark Kean of Woodstock 7-3 in the semifinal.

At other provincial championships to date:

Laurie Ste-Georges (who defeated Émilia Gagné) and Felix Asselin (who upended veteran Robert Desjardins) both repeated as Quebec champions.

It’s the first Quebec title for former Rachel Homan lead Lisa Weagle, who joined the team in the off-season.

Weagle gets to face her younger sister at the Thunder Bay STOH, as Julie Weagle will skip team Nunavut, who return to the Scotties ice after a year away.

Two young teams will represent Newfoundland & Labrador, skipped by Brooke Godsland and Ty Dilello.

The championships, hosted at the RE/MAX Centre in St. John’s, concluded as word spread of the death of Toby McDonald at age 73.

The six-time Brier competitor (1976 champion) and coach of Team Gushue at the 2006 Turin Olympics was a massive influence in the sport, and not just throughout Atlantic Canada.

McDonald’s episode of the Curling Legends podcast is expected to be released within days.

In New Brunswick, Melissa Adams defeated Justine Comeau 8-6 in an extra end to win the A, B, and C events and sweep her spot in Thunder Bay.

The championship was held at the Heather in Saint Andrews. The men’s championship gets underway in early February.

Jane DiCarlo and now five-time champion Tyler Smith will represent Price Edward Island.

Nova Scotia saw Christina Black defeat Mackenzie Mitchell 6-4 in Halifax for her fifth NS women’s title.

The bluenose men will be represented at the Kelowna Brier by Owen Purcell, who defeated Kendal Thompson 8-5 in the final. It’s Purcell’s first Nova Scotia Tankard trophy after capturing the Canadian Mixed in November.

Part 1 of this series covers provincial women’s and men’s championships from British Columbia through Saskatchewan and the northern territories.