Canada's national women's curling championship gets underway Friday at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre. It is the first time the Scotties Tournament of Hearts has been held in the Greater Toronto Area. Eighteen teams will play from Jan. 23 to Feb. 1, starting with a four-game opening draw at 7 p.m. Friday, Curling Canada said Wednesday.
Visit Mississauga won the right to host in January 2025. The City of Mississauga expects the tournament to bring more than $6 million into the local economy and fill more than 2,500 hotel room bookings, with extra business for restaurants and shops.
Who is in the field
Team Canada is skipped by Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., a four-time Canadian champion who finished second last year. Her team took over the Team Canada spot from Rachel Homan of Ottawa, the 2025 champion, who will be playing for Canada at the Winter Olympics in Italy. Einarson opens Friday against Yukon's Bayly Scoffin.
Ontario will be represented by Hailey Armstrong's team from Whitby. Armstrong's rink is one of four made up almost entirely of Scotties first-timers that will play on opening night. The others are British Columbia's Taylor Reese-Hansen, Quebec's Jolianne Fortin and Nova Scotia's Taylour Stevens. In all, 27 players will make their Scotties debuts in Mississauga.
The field has Team Canada, 14 provincial and territorial champions, and three teams that qualified on national rankings: Kayla Skrlik of Calgary, Christina Black of Halifax and Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg.
How the tournament works
The teams are split into two pools of nine, and each team plays an eight-game round robin. The top three in each pool make the playoffs. There are no tiebreaker games. Ties are settled by head-to-head results first, then by last-shot draw rankings.
The playoffs start Jan. 30, and the Page playoff games follow on Jan. 31. The semifinal is at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1, and the final is at 7 p.m. that evening. The winner will represent Canada at the world women's championship in Calgary from March 14 to 22.
Getting to the arena
The city says single-day tickets and packages are still available. Tickets are sold online at curling.ca/tickets and at the arena box office, 5500 Rose Cherry Pl., which is open Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The city expects heavier traffic around the arena during the tournament and suggests carpooling, ride-hailing or MiWay. TSN and RDS will broadcast the event.
The event has local ties. Kruger Products, title sponsor for 45 years, has its corporate headquarters about a 10-minute drive from the arena, and the city points to the Dixie Curling Club, part of Mississauga since 1956. Opening night wraps up with a free concert by Canadian rock band The Trews at the Patch, the tournament's fan venue.
