The Canada Cup (branded as the

Home Hardware Home Hardware Stores Ltd. is a privately held Canadian home improvement, construction materials, and furniture retailer. Co-founded in 1964 by Walter Hachborn and headquartered in St. Jacobs, Ontario, the chain is co-operatively owned by ove ...

Canada Cup for sponsorship reasons, and also referred to as the Canada Cup of Curling) is a major men's and women's curling championship in Canada. It is organized by

Curling Canada Curling Canada (formerly the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)) is a sanctioning body for the sport of Curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes C ...

and is one of its major events on its "Season of Champions". The event is frequently used as a qualifier for various other events, such as the

Canadian Olympic Curling Trials The Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, marketed from 2009 through 2017 as the Roar of the Rings, are a quadrennial tournament held by Curling Canada that determines the Canadian men's and women's representatives for curling at the Winter Olympics. The ...

, Pre-Trials and Continental Cup. Since 2013, the Canada Cup is not held during the same curling season as the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were he ...

Competition history

The first event was held in 2003 at the

Sport Mart Place The Sandman Centre (formerly known as Riverside Coliseum and Interior Savings Centre) is a 5,464-seat multi-purpose arena in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the Kamloops Blazers Ice hockey team. The arena is owned by The City of ...

Kamloops, British Columbia Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

, the Cup's home until 2008. During this time the event was sponsored by the Strauss Herb Company. The first event featured a total purse of $220,000, divided equally for the men's and women's events. Subsequent events however have seen smaller purses available. In 2004, a second tier of competition, the qualification rounds ''Canada Cup East'' and ''Canada Cup West'' were added. In 2006, this had changed to men's and women's qualification rounds. The qualifying rounds were held every year with the

John Shea Insurance Canada Cup Qualifier The John Shea Insurance Canada Cup Qualifier was an annual curling bonspiel held at the Ottawa and Rideau Curling Clubs in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In odd years, the event was a qualifier for the men's Canada Cup of Curling while in even years the ...

being held at the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

and Rideau curling clubs in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and the

Diversified Transportation Canada Cup Qualifier Diversification may refer to: Biology and agriculture * Genetic divergence, emergence of subpopulations that have accumulated independent genetic changes * Agricultural diversification involves the re-allocation of some of a farm's resources to ...

being held at the

Saville Sports Centre The Saville Community Sports Centre is a sports facility run by the University of Alberta's Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, where it is located in Edmonton, Alberta. It features a curling rink, tennis courts and a gymnasium. Opened ...

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

. The men's and women's qualifiers alternated between the two cities. On February 18, 2008, the

Canadian Curling Association Curling Canada (formerly the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)) is a sanctioning body for the sport of Curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes C ...

announced that the 2009 finals of the Canada Cup of Curling would be held at the

Farrell Agencies Arena The Westland Arena is a 1,483-seat multi-purpose arena in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. It is home to the Yorkton Terriers The Yorkton Terriers are a team in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) based in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. The team ...

Yorkton, Saskatchewan Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. As of 2017 the census population of the ...

. The 2009-10 season was without a Canada Cup, with the event returning in December 2010 rather in the Spring like it had been previously. The Canada Cup qualifiers were abolished for the 2010 event, using a number of smaller bonspiels to feed the event. The 2010 event was held at the

Medicine Hat Arena The Medicine Hat Arena is a 4,006-seat multi-purpose arena in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. It was built in 1970 to replace Arena Gardens (Medicine Hat), the old rink that burned down in a fire where the Medicine Hat Inn is now situated. It was ...

Medicine Hat, Alberta Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are within ...

. The 2011 event in

Cranbrook, British Columbia Cranbrook ( ) is a city in southeast British Columbia, Canada, located on the west side of the Kootenay River at its confluence with the St. Mary River (British Columbia), St. Mary's River. It is the largest urban centre in the region known as the ...

hosted seven teams of each gender instead of ten. The teams played in a round robin as in previous years, with the top three advancing to the playoff round. The second and third-placed teams played in the semifinal, and the winner faced the first-placed team in the final. The 2012 event used the same format. At present, there are no longer any qualifying tournaments. Teams qualify based on their

World Curling Tour The World Curling Tour (WCT) is a group of curling bonspiels featuring the best male, female, and mixed doubles curlers in the world. History The World Curling Tour was founded by former World Champion Ed Lukowich, with later assistance from Jo ...

Order of Merit rankings, with one spot reserved for the top-ranking non-qualified team on the

Canadian Team Ranking System The Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) is a point system used by Curling Canada to rank men's and women's curling teams across Canada. They are determined through points earned in various curling bonspiels held worldwide throughout the season. CT ...

closer to the event. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

, Curling Canada stated that the 2020 Canada Cup would likely be postponed to an unspecified date in 2021, citing its role in qualification for trials for the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...

. The 2021 event ultimately did not go ahead, and there are no plans to hold the event in the near future.

Competition history

Winners

Men

Women

References

External links