The 2013 Tim Hortons Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, was held from March 2 to 10 at the Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta. This edition of the Brier marked the thirteenth time that Alberta has hosted the Brier, and the sixth time that Edmonton has hosted the Brier.
In the final, Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario defeated three-time Brier champion Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba with a score of 11–4 to win his first Brier title and Northern Ontario's first title since 1985. Jacobs and his team will represent Canada at the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Victoria, British Columbia.
Event summary
The eighty-fourth edition of the Canadian Men's Curling Championship saw one of the strongest fields in the past few years assembled. Defending champion Glenn Howard of Ontario made his eighth consecutive and record fifteenth overall appearance at the Brier. Veterans Kevin Martin of Alberta, an Olympic gold medalist and former world champion, and Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba, a former world champion, made their twelfth and tenth appearances at the Brier, respectively. Former bronze medalist and Olympic gold medalist Brad Gushue made his tenth appearance at the Brier representing Newfoundland and Labrador, while former Brier champion Jean-Michel Ménard returned to compete for a fifth time. Northern Ontario's Brad Jacobs, a former bronze medallist and perennial competitor, and Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories and Yukon, who made a breakout playoffs finish last year, returned to the Brier once more. Brock Virtue of Saskatchewan and Andrew Bilesky of British Columbia made their first appearances at the Brier, while veterans James Grattan of New Brunswick, Eddie MacKenzie of Prince Edward Island, and Paul Flemming of Nova Scotia made repeat appearances at the Brier.
The 2012 Tim Hortons Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, was held from March 3 to March 11 at the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This Brier marked the sixth time that Saskatoon hosted the Brier; the last time that the Brier was hosted in Saskatoon was in 2004. The winner of the Brier, Glenn Howard, will represent Canada at the 2012 Capital One World Men's Curling Championship in Basel, Switzerland.
In the final, Ontario's Glenn Howard defeated Kevin Koe in ten ends with a score of 7–6. Howard won his fourth Brier title overall and his second Brier title as skip. Ontario third Wayne Middaugh became the first person in Brier history to win at three different positions, as second in 1993, as skip in 1998, and as third in 2012. Middaugh also set a record for best performance by a third in the final (with 98%), and won the Hec Gervais Award, which was awarded to the most valuable player in the playoffs.
This edition of the Brier saw the first Northwest Territories/Yukon team advancing to the page playoffs in Brier history since the induction of the playoffs format in 1980. Previously, the best performance from the Territories came in 1975, when Yukon's Don Twa and his team tied for second place after the round robin. In 1985, the Territories made it to a tiebreaker before being knocked out. The Brier also saw Ontario skip Glenn Howard breaking the record for most career games played at the Brier, which was previously set by his brother Russ Howard at 174 career games, after defeating Saskatchewan in Draw 10.
The 2015 Tim Hortons Brier was held from February 28 to March 8 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The winners earn the honour of representing Canada at the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Halifax.
Changes to competition format
For the first time, the event was expanded to include an entry from Nunavut, which has previously not participated in the Brier. Another notable change is having separate entries for the Yukon and Northwest Territories, which have historically competed as a single entry.
Starting with the 2015 tournament, the top ten teams automatically qualified to the main tournament, which was a competition between twelve teams as in years past. An eleventh team was the defending champions from the previous Brier who will play as Team Canada. The four remaining unqualified teams played in a pre-qualifying tournament to determine the twelfth team to play in the main tournament.
It was the first time in the history of the Brier that a Team Canada will partake, which essentially allows the defending champions direct re-entry into the event. The skip of the previous year's winning team, Kevin Koe, formed a new team in the off-season and was not be part of Team Canada. Koe won the 2015 Boston Pizza Cup with his new team and represented Alberta at the 2015 Brier. Koe's former teammates recruited John Morris to skip the first ever edition of Team Canada at the Brier. Morris was the runner-up from the previous year.
Tim Hortons Inc. (known internationally as Tim Hortons Cafe and Bake Shop) is a Canadian multinational fast food restaurant, known for its coffee and doughnuts. It is also Canada's largest quick service restaurant chain; as of September 2014, it has 3,665 restaurants in Canada, 869 in the United States, and 56 in the Persian Gulf region. It was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton and Jim Charade, after an initial venture in hamburger restaurants. In 1967, Horton partnered with investor Ron Joyce, who assumed control over operations after Horton died in 1974. Joyce expanded the chain into a multimillion-dollar franchise. Charade left the organization in 1966 and briefly returned in 1970 and 1993 through 1996.
Tim Hortons franchises spread rapidly and eventually overtook McDonald's as Canada's largest food service operator. The company opened twice as many Canadian outlets as McDonald's and system-wide sales also surpassed those of McDonald's Canadian operations as of 2002. The chain accounted for 22.6% of all fast food industry revenues in Canada in 2005. Tim Hortons commands 76% of the Canadian market for baked goods (based on the number of customers served) and holds 62% of the Canadian coffee market (compared to Starbucks, in the number two position, at 7%).