The 1998 Labatt Brier was staged at the Winnipeg Arena, returning to the city which had hosted the Canadian Men's Curling Championship on three previous occasions (with Manitoba winning each time), but not since 1970.
The Brier was won that year by Winnipeg's Don Duguid. Ironically, Don's son Dale had earned the right to represent Manitoba at the 1998 renewal. Joining Duguid was favoured Wayne Middaugh of Ontario, who had captured the 1993 Brier and Worlds as second for Russ Howard. The field also featured two veteran skips, Alberta's Tom Reed and Newfoundland's Toby McDonald, who last appeared in the 1977 and 1981 Briers, respectively. McDonald was also a member of his province's 1976 miracle Brier-winning team under skip Jack MacDuff.
At the conclusion of the round robin, Middaugh finished first, as expected, with a 10-1 record, but in a big surprise, Quebec's Guy Hemmings earned second place, at 8-3, followed by Manitoba, Saskatchewan (Rod Montgomery) and British Columbia (Greg McAulay), each at 7-4. In a tie-breaker to determine fourth place, Saskatchewan edged B.C. 3-2. Then, in Page Playoff pairings, Manitoba eliminated Saskatchewan 6-3, while Ontario walloped Quebec 10-4.
In the semi-final, Hemmings took out Duguid 7-5 to set up a rematch with Middaugh. But the Ontario skip proved too strong, winning 7-4 to claim the Labatt Brier Tankard. It was the eighth Brier win for Ontario. The final attendance of 147,017 was the third highest in Brier history, behind only Calgary (223,322 in 1997) and Saskatoon (151,538 in 1989).
Middaugh then went on to Kamloops, B.C., to represent Canada at the Ford World Curling Championships. His team of Graeme McCarrel, Ian Tetley and Scott Bailey continued its championship form by finishing first with an 8-1 record at the conclusion of the round robin. Then, they whacked Finland 9-2 in a semi-final, before edging Sweden, skipped by defending world champion Peter Lindholm, 7-4 in the final, giving Canada its 25th men's world crown since 1959.
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