World and Canadian champions, along with Olympic gold-medallists, will be heading to Brandon, Man., next December for the 2016 Home Hardware Canada Cup, it was announced today by Curling Canada.

This week, John sits down with Matt Dunstone, the 2013 and 2016 Manitoba and Canadian Junior Champion skip who caused quite a stir in the curling world by also making the Manitoba Men’s final two weeks later, knocking off Reid Carruthers before dropping the final to Mike McEwen. Matt will head to Taarnby, Denmark, in hopes of improving on his bronze medal from 2013.

This week, John sits down with Kaitlyn Lawes, a curler who, at 26 years old, has a resumé that most curlers would call an illustrious entire career. She famously won the 2014 Olympic gold medal playing third for Jennifer Jones, but that was just the cherry on top of four Scotties appearances, one Canadian championship, one World silver medal, and two Canadian Junior titles (which she won as a skip!). She’s also really nice, which is cool.

Welcome to Magical Question Fun Time, the new Curling Canada feature in which comedian John Cullen sits down with your favourite curlers for interviews like you have never seen. Each interview will feature eight questions: five standard questions that will be asked to each curler, two questions specific to that curler, and one question provided by the curler interviewed previously.

This time last year, Mike McEwen (Winnipeg) was running away with the lead on the Canadian Team Ranking System leaderboard, winning all but one of his first seven events. The one he didn’t win was won by Brad Gushue (St. John’s), who is starting this season like McEwen did last year.

Two teams will take a significant step towards the 2018 Winter Olympics this December at Revolution Place in Grande Prairie, Alta.

They shook hands before and after the game and had a brief chat in the third end but otherwise the two Koe brothers fought tooth-and-nail Wednesday evening, both desperately needing a win – albeit for different reasons – at the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions.

Brad Gushue nearly jumped out of his shoes after a spectacular final shot he called his best ever gave his Newfoundland-Labrador team a heart-stopping 8-7 victory over Alberta Wednesday at the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions.

The highly anticipated historical Battle of Alberta between Team Canada and Alberta turned out to be an intense game of cat and mouse between two rival teams that refused to give an inch Tuesday at the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions.

Jim Cotter and his B.C. team have played their share of tight games so they weren’t fazed by another one Tuesday morning, hanging tough until they got the break they wanted in the ninth end to score four and beat Mark Kean of Ontario 8-3 in Draw 8 of the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions.

Brad Jacobs and his Northern Ontario Olympic champions continued to roll along at the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions, posting two victories Monday to stand alone atop the standings at 5-0, the only unbeaten team.

Kevin Koe shook off a case of suspected food poisoning to lead Alberta to a critical 7-3 victory over Mark Kean of Ontario Sunday in the fifth draw of the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions.

For several agonizing seconds Jim Cotter and his B.C. team watched helplessly as their potential game-winning rock slid ever so closely to the edge of the house before finally stopping to give them an 8-7 extra-end win over Kevin Koe of Alberta in the evening draw Saturday at the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier, presented by SecurTek Monitoring Solutions.

Prince Edward Island is moving on while the Yukon is going home.

History will be made on Saturday afternoon at the Scotiabank Saddledome when Team Canada steps onto the ice for its inaugural game at the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier.