The 1961 Macdonald Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, was held from March 6 to 10, 1961 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary, Alberta. A total of 51,575 fans attended the event, which was only 150 fans short of the record set in 1955 Brier in Regina. Due to issues during the 1960 Brier with brooms shredding causing numerous delays to clean the ice during games, curlers no longer could choose their own broom and instead could only use brooms provided by the Brier committee. Previously, the Brier committee had always supplied brooms, but curlers were permitted to use their own if desired.