Moose Jaw -
As we are now knee-deep in one of my favourite annual sporting events, the Tim Hortons Brier, I feel a need to wade in to one of the most controversial subjects that constantly comes up this time of year.
Every year, people start talking about the need to change the field at the Brier. The Brier has a team representing Northern Ontario and one representing the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
There are two issues here so let's start with the Territories. As it stands now, Nunavut has no representation in the Brier. This seems to be coming to a head this year as the Yukon Curling Association is pushing the Canadian Curling Association (CCA) to give it a separate entry from the N.W.T. in the Brier thanks, in part, to some controversy with this year's team.
The N.W.T. Curling Association has put in a new rule this year allowing any team from that territory to include someone from the Yukon. That has happened this year as one of the two teams representing the N.W.T. in the Yukon/N.W.T. finals had a third from Whitehorse. That team won the playdowns and now Jon Solberg of Whitehorse plays for Jamie Koe's Yellowknife rink.
With the Yukon pushing for its own entry - so its players don't go straying to Yellowknife - the CCA is seriously considering expanding the field. The talk, however, is that it would add two more teams at least - Nunavut, Yukon and N.W.T. would each have their own instead of just one Territories squad. The CCA is then talking about splitting the teams into two tiers, like English soccer.
The problem is that the lower tier would only compete against each other and the best of that field would move up for the following year's Brier to replace the worst team from the top tier. That means that A) not everybody would get to play against each other and B) the teams in the bottom tier would arrive at the Brier knowing they could not win.
It's just wrong on so many levels.
The beauty of the Brier is that when it begins, any team has a chance. Sure, some provinces usually don't have much of a chance thanks to population and distance from major spiels to get experience playing the top rinks. But, as has been proven in the past, upsets are possible.
The other issue is that of Northern Ontario. Some people grouse about the separate team and want to replace it with a Team Canada. I'm completely against this change for a number of reasons.
Geographically, Southern and Northern Ontario might as well be two different provinces. It's is actually longer to drive to Toronto from Thunder Bay than it is to get to Moose Jaw from there. Plus, Northern Ontario has been represented at the Brier since the beginning and despite poor play in the last decade, it has won more titles - four - than P.E.I., Territories, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec combined.
So, to deal with the two issues, here's my plan: Don't change the size. Keep it at 12 with the same teams and no Team Canada (make the champs earn their way back in). I am a former resident of the Yukon and really support the Northern curlers but the three territories just don't warrant individual teams, based on competitiveness. In junior curling, Yukon and N.W.T. have separate teams and since the split, the two are usually 12th and 13th. Playing off against each other makes them better. Population-wise, the three territories combined have 104,000 people, less than the smallest province, P.E.I. with 137,700.
To make it fair, the CCA should pay for the travel of the two best teams in each of N.W.T., Yukon and Nunavut to go to the territorial finals. One of the reasons some teams stay out of playdowns up there is because they have to pay for travel and it is pricey to fly up there.
With two teams from each territory, they could play a double round robin of 10 games, plus a semifinal and final, giving each team more experience at a high level. Plus, with the travel covered, more teams would compete for the spots to represent each territory at the Territories' final and this would give them more experience.
With more experience, the winning team would be more competitive at the Brier and that would be better for everybody.
Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.
