Team Ford/Campbell leading the way with unblemished 4-0 record at 2026 Canadian Mixed Doubles

While there are many members of Canada’s curling elite scattered across the sheets at the Cloverdale Curling Club, host of the 2026 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Surrey, B.C., two young guns from Southern Ontario are making the curling cognoscenti take notice.

Katie Ford and Oliver Campbell (Kitchener Waterloo, Ont.) moved to 4-0 in Pool C after downing Team Northwest Territories’ Reese Wainman and Nick Saturnino (Inuvik) 14-0. That puts them into a good position to advance to the playoffs with only two round-robin games remaining. They were ahead of three teams at 2-1 heading into the final draw Monday.

“If you’d told us we’d be 4-0 in the competition we’d be pretty jacked. We played some pretty good teams to start,” said Ford, who skips her own women’s team and played for the University of Waterloo while Campbell is originally from Chatham, Ont., before attending Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo.

This is the duo’s third season together and all the work they put in this season is paying off.

“We got a taste of the national championships last year and kind of wanted to come back for more. We’ve worked hard this year, played a lot of events, practised a lot,’ said Campbell. “We were feeling ready for this.”

That taste he’s talking about came at the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Summerside, P.E.I., and it had to be bittersweet. After winning the 2025 provincial title Team Ford/Campbell went 6-1 in the round robin. That was sweet.

The bitter was what happened next. In the qualification round, they led Melissa Adams and Alex Robichaud (Fredericton) 4-3 after four ends with the hammer in the fifth but they gave up a steal that end and then steals of four in the sixth and seventh ends to fall 11-4. The loss was tough to swallow.

“You’re making me relive my trauma. I remember it vividly,” said Ford with a laugh. “It was probably one of the bigger games we’ve been a part of as a team.”

“I know, for me, the nerves hit pretty big,” added Campbell. “At the fourth-end break realizing we were in the driver’s seat to win a national playoff game, and I think that got the best of me.”

They have rebounded from that loss, although not right away. “Well right after that it was alcohol,” recalled Ford before bursting into a loud laugh and before describing how they responded in the long run. “Getting to the playoffs in general was a huge accomplishment for us because that was our first nationals for us as a team.

“We knew we had it in us, so we carried it into this season and we really worked at it.”

Said Campbell, “It was a lesson learned that one, we could be in that position, and two we learned how to control the emotions a little bit better. That’s one thing we’ve talked a lot about over the last year is how do we play like we know we can play when we get into those big moments. Just having played in more and more of those now the nerves just aren’t as high.”

One of those big moments since last year came in December when they won a large international event in Madison, Wisc. The field included teams getting prepared to play in the Pan Pacific Olympic qualifying event in Kelowna, B.C. Finishing first vaulted Team Ford/Campbell to second in the Canadian mixed doubles rankings and 21st in the world.

“Every season we’ve been together it’s been building and building and building,” said Ford referring to their confidence.

Ford and Campbell are right in the mix to win this title even though the field includes former national mixed doubles champions, Olympians and winners of multiple Montana’s Brier men’s and Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s titles. They are elite curlers Ford and Campbell may have to battle before the week is out.

“I’ve been watching these guys for the past decade on TV, so it’s cool to play alongside them and play against them,” said Ford. “I’m excited to see how this one ends.”

The 28 teams are divided into four round-robin pools. All the pool winners will advance directly to the quarter-finals Thursday at 7 p.m., (all times Pacific). The teams with the next eight best records play a qualification round Thursday at 1 p.m., to determine the other four quarterfinalists.

The duo of five-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s champion and three-time world champion skip Rachel Homan, and 2021 Brier men’s Canadian champion Brendan Bottcher, are in full control of Pool A at 3-0. Team Homan/Bottcher defeated Team Prince Edward Island (Ella Lenentine, Jack MacFadyen and coach Andrew MacFadyen, Cornwall) 9-3 in six ends Monday afternoon. They scored four in the fourth end, stole another in the fifth and stole three in the sixth for the victory. Heading into Monday’s final draw, they are followed closely at 2-1 in Pool A by Canada’s 2026 mixed doubles Olympians Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, and the Team Alberta duo of Zoe Cinammon and Johnson Tao.

Pool B is crowded with four teams at 2-1 including Ford and Campbell’s clubmates Terri Weeks and Sam Steep, who was the first one to suggest Ford and Campbell team up. The others are: Team New Brunswick’s Rebecca Watson and Sam Beland (Fredericton); Team Québec’s Sophie Sanscartier and Maxandre Caron (Boucherville); and Laura Neil and Scott McDonald (Kingston, Ont.). Team British Columbia’s Sarah Loken and Cody Tanaka (Victoria), who skipped British Columbia at the 2026 Montana’s Brier in St. John’s earlier this month, sit at 2-2. The 2023 Canadian Mixed Doubles champions Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing fell to 1-2 in Pool B after losing 7-3 to Team Loken/Tanaka earlier Monday.

Team Ontario’s Jacob Horgan and Kira Brunton (Ottawa) and Team Adams/Robichaud were atop Pool D with 3-0 records heading into Monday’s final draw. The Halifax duo of Marlee Powers and Luke Saunders had a chance to go 4-0 but lost 9-5 to Team Manitoba’s Aaron Macdonell, Mackenzie Arbuckle and coach Tim Arbuckle (Winnipeg) Monday afternoon.

Live streaming of the 2026 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship is available on Curling Canada’s YouTube channel.

Live scores and standings will be available by CLICKING HERE. Draws continue Tuesday at 10 a.m., 1, 4 and 7 p.m. PT. The round robin wraps up Wednesday with draws at 10 a.m., 1 and 4 p.m.

For the schedule and team lineups, go to the official event website: www.curling.ca/2026mixeddoubles/

CLICK HERE for ticket information for the 2026 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship.