The 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian women's national curling championship, was held from Saturday, February 18 to Sunday, February 26 at the ENMAX Centrium in Red Deer, Alberta. This Tournament of Hearts marked the second time that Red Deer has hosted the Scotties; the first time that the Scotties was hosted in Red Deer was in 2004. The winning team, Heather Nedohin of Alberta, went on to represent Canada at the 2012 Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta. Nedohin won the final after she defeated British Columbia's Kelly Scott with a score of 7–6. Nedohin's championship win was the seventh win by the home team of the host province and the first championship win for Alberta in fourteen years. Teams The defending champions, skipped by Amber Holland, returned to their third Scotties in a row, for the first time wearing the red and white for Canada. They were looking to build momentum off of last year's success, when they won their first Canadian Women's Championship. The last time a team from Saskatchewan won back to back championships was in 1994 when Team Canada's Sandra Peterson (Schmirler) defeated Manitoba's Connie Laliberte to win her second National Title. The road to a second national title was not going to be an easy one for the defending champions, as this year's field proved to be a difficult one. For the seventh time, in eight years Kerry Galusha represented the Northwest Territories/Yukon. Galusha has added Sharon Cormier to her team, and together the team had found early success on the World Curling Tour, defeating several top teams, and qualifying for an event. Making her 10th Scotties appearance, Heather Strong represented Newfoundland and Labrador. Strong's last appearance was in 2009, when her team went 5-6. Strong has never advanced beyond a tiebreaker and was looking for a spot in the playoffs. Manitoba's spot to the Scotties was hotly contested and had several top teams vying for the provincial title. Jennifer Jones won the provincial final over Chelsea Carey. Jones, who made her 9th appearance at the Scotties, was looking for her 5th national title, but fell short. British Columbia's provincial playoffs saw four past provincial champions looking to win a place at the Scotties. Kelly Scott defeated Marla Mallett in the final to win the provincial championship. Scott missed out on the playoffs last year. Kim Dolan represented Prince Edward Island.