Over 80 curling enthusiasts from across the Pontiac got together at the Shawville Curling Club on Saturday to compete in the 18th annual Liberal Bonspiel.

With 20 teams participating and people packing every seat in the lobby, the event provided an atmosphere of social amusement and loose competition, while fundraising for the Québec Liberal Party.

Among the many curlers was Pontiac MNA André Fortin who said the event was a good chance for him to get a better sense of the people in the community.

“It’s always good to get our members, people who support our party, people who support me engaged – to talk to them and see what they feel is happening in the community, what needs to be fixed,” said Fortin. “And honestly a curling event is kind of an excuse to talk to people.”

Rick Younge, the event’s main organizer, said the bonspiel has consistently grown over the years, to the point where he now has to turn teams away.

“I have to turn people away,” said Younge. “They just want to play so much. We try to make it nice for everybody to come. This is another one of our weekend events. It’s a good way to keep our club, keep us active and keep the community going.”

Showing appreciation to Fortin, for his work representing the Pontiac’s rural communities, the event served as an opportunity for the club and its members to connect with him and show their support, according to Younge.

“Basically, the community is having a little way to thank André Fortin for all the good work that he does as our MNA,” said Younge. “He can meet the community. People can have a chat with him and talk to him and we can support him, show him that we appreciate all the work that he does representing us in Quebec City.”

Taking place on the Saturday of St. Patrick’s Day weekend, Younge said it enabled him to make sure Fortin could make an appearance, considering his tightly-rounded work schedule.

“This tends to be the time of year that he has a little bit of time off, that he can come,” said Younge. “We can’t have the bonspiel without the man of honour at it. So, we try to organize it when it suits the club and it suits him. It’s kind of the window we have.”

For Eric Provost, one of the participants, who has curled at the club for over 25 years, the event was a joy because it provided two things that he loves about curling: competition and friendship.

“I love it,” said Provost. “This is a fun get-together. There’s a certain amount of competition, but friendship at the same time and that’s what I love. I like curling and having friendship on the ice. You can chit-chat, you can joke. Competitive is there, but it’s fun.”

With the bonspiel drawing so many people from across the community and beyond, Fortin praised the man behind the operation, for making it such a communal event for all.

“I gotta thank Rick Younge,” said Fortin. “Year after year, he gets everybody together. He really is all of the work behind this event and I think his effort obviously paid off.”

At the end of the night, the winners of the round-robin tournament were awarded an engraved plaque on the Pontiac Liberal Association Trophy.

The winners were: Trevor Tanguay as the skip, Justine Tanguay as third, Monica Tanguay as second and Bree Barr as lead.

With 20 teams particpating, the 18th annual Liberal Bonspiel provided an atmosphere of fun competition. Pictured, Eric Provost prepares to throw a stone down the ice.

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