HIGH ACHIEVERS: Dave Stanley, John DiLabio inducted as Governor General’s Curling Club members

By Martin Cleary

When you think of a curling club, whether it’s in your neighbourhood or in a small corner of Saskatchewan, here’s what comes to mind.

There could be two or more side-by-side, vertical sheets of ice in the tight quarters. The granite stones are neatly positioned at one end, waiting to be delivered. When the recreational and competitive curlers step onto the ice, the silence becomes a roar of intense instructions, excitement and strategizing.

But there’s one club that doesn’t hold true to these truths.

The Governor General’s Curling Club sounds like a rather regal venue to spin a few stones and hope for the best. But it’s much more significant than that.

Instead, there’s no physical club, since it has become a shrine for the best Canadian players and builders over the past 150 years.

“One of the guys said to me, it’s kind of like the Order of Canada for curlers. It’s not a hall of fame,” said Russell Curling Club’s Dave Stanley, who was inducted into the Governor General’s Curling Club on Monday at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club along with John DiLabio of the Cornwall Curling Centre and eight other prominent curlers.

Oddly enough, the Governor General’s Curling Club was once an active club for competition. Lord Dufferin started the club under its original name, the Vice-Regal Curling Club in 1874, when he built a covered rink so his staff could experience the game.

In 1910, the club was renamed the Governor General’s Curling Club and the door was opened for several prominent Ottawa curlers to take membership. At some point, the club shut down as an active venue for curling and dedicated itself to recognizing the significant achievements of curlers of all levels across Canada.

There’s also a certain exclusivity to the Governor General’s Curling Club. Former Governor General Roland Michener allowed the membership of the club to be increased to a maximum of 100 in 1967. Since then, membership has been capped at 140. For a curler to be invited into the club, a member of the elite group must pass away.

“They didn’t want it to get out of hand and stay true to its intent,” club secretary Elaine Brimicombe of Ottawa said about the restricted enrolment.

Besides Stanley and DiLabio, the Governor General’s Curling Club welcomed eight other members, some who are recognized international players and others who are vital contributors to their communities:

· Guy Hemmings, Quebec, a true ambassador for curling and two-time Brier runner-up.

· Amber Holland, Saskatchewan, 2011 Canadian women’s champion and world championship silver medallist.

· Mark Ideson, Ontario, 2014 Paralympic Games wheelchair curling gold medallist, nine-time world championship medal winner.

· Jennifer Jones, Manitoba, six-time Canadian women’s champion, two-time world champion, two-time Olympian.

· Frederick Ernest Koe, Yukon, past president of clubs in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Fort McPherson, jack of all trades including coach, draw master and promoter.

· Wendy Lee Morgan, Ontario, a dedicated volunteer driven by promoting the game and showing leadership in Paralympic wheelchair curling.

· Brian Gordon Ross, Quebec, first native-born Quebec player to win the Brier, while playing as lead for Jim Ursel.

· Linda Carole Wagner, Alberta, an active curler for more than 40 years, was third on Emily Farnham’s Canadian women’s championship rink in 1974.

The Governor General’s Curling Club also honoured two student-athletes with For the Love of Curling scholarships, which were worth $2,500 each – University of Ottawa political science and juris doctor in French immersion student Nathan Poklar of Oakbank, MB., and Amber Gargul of Beaconsfield, PQ, and the Pointe-Claire Curling Club.

Curlers are nominated for club membership by their peers. Stanley was good with the idea of putting his name forward on the encouragement of a member, but DiLabio needed two years to be convinced by his support team it was the right thing to do.

“It was totally unexpected,” Stanley recalled in a phone interview, when he learned in April he would be invited into the Governor General’s Curling Club and measured for a red jacket, tie and jacket crest.

“I did a little bio and was surprised. I didn’t think I had done all I have done in curling.”

Stanley, 69, was introduced to curling at age 12, when his father needed an emergency spare for his team. For the past 57 years, Stanley has been a member of the Russell Curling Club and brought great honours to his community.

He has won 30 Ottawa Valley Curling Association zone crests and made 18 trips to provincial championships, winning five titles and reaching the finals of five other Ontario finals. At the Canadian championship level, he was a 2016 national masters silver medallist, reached the semifinals in 2023 and was fifth in 2017.

By winning five provincial curling championships, the Ontario Curling Association presented Stanley with a lifetime achievement award.

During the past seven decades, he has represented the Russell club in numerous competitions and is a three-time grand aggregate winner in the men’s senior class at the season-ending Ottawa men’s bonspiel.

He has been an active fund raiser for the Russell club, including being a co-organizer of the successful Richard Kargus men’s cashspiel for the past 11 years, and also has been involved in learn-to-curl programs.

DiLabio, who graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in accounting in 1981 which led to his continuing 40-year-plus career with Welch LLP, was regularly encouraged by Cornwall curling icons Bill Dickie and Kevin Baker to have his name put forward for consideration for the Governor General’s Curling Club.

Proud of his achievements, he felt uncomfortable being in the spotlight.

“I’m very appreciative of it (club membership),” DiLabio, 67, said in a phone interview. “I hate talking about myself. But being recognized for what I have done has made me feel satisfaction. I did something. I’m humbled.”

For the past seven years, DiLabio has been a co-chair for the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic, which is the first event on the World Curling Tour and continues through Sunday at the Cornwall Curling Centre.

He also chaired the $2.3-million project to build the six-sheet Cornwall Curling Centre, which replaced the Cornwall Curling Club’s two-sheet venue. A long-time member of the Cornwall board of directors, the idea of a new curling centre started in 1993, was built in 2004 and fully paid for in less than 10 years with federal, provincial and club monies.

“We convinced the city to be a partner. We built it and operated it and the city owns it. It costs us nothing,” DiLabio explained, adding the club pays the city $1 a year.

He sat on the Ottawa Valley Curling Association board of directors for seven years and served as its president in 2011-12. This eventually led him to join the Ontario Curling Association board from 2019-22.

Once a competitive curler who now plays the stick version of the sport because of painful knees, DiLabio has been associated with curling for 40 years.

“Cornwall played host to the 1984 world junior championship and the dad of one of my friends had tickets. Why not look into it,” he reasoned.

“I was so impressed, seeing the volunteers in blazers and slacks. All the club members volunteered. I wanted to give it a try. They were wonderful people and it became my passion.”

And it still is.

Immediately after becoming a member of the Governor General’s Curling Club on Monday night, he drove to Cornwall to continue preparations for this week’s Shorty Jenkins Classic.