There’s a lot to discuss in Canada ahead of its April 28 election, including tariffs, inequality and President Trump’s threats to annex the country.
But a political debate in Montreal on Wednesday night won’t have a prime time slot. That is because many Canadians would rather watch a hockey game that evening.
A French-language debate between five leaders of Canadian political parties had been scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern. But after two party leaders complained that the debate would compete with a 7 p.m. Montreal Canadiens game, the debate’s start time was moved up by two hours.
“Citizens therefore will not have to miss anything in this crucial moment in the election campaign, and at the same time be able to follow the decisive periods of the hockey game that could allow the Montreal Canadiens to reach the playoffs,” Radio-Canada and the federal Debates Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, one of the party leaders who called for the scheduling change, Yves François-Blanchet of Bloc Québécois, told reporters that he wanted to watch the game “like anybody else.”
“But now I believe that some questions are very serious about Canada’s future, and Quebec’s future, and maybe some attention should be given to the debate,” he said. “If the debate can be changed, let’s do that.”
Another leader, Jagmeet Singh of the New Democratic Party, was quoted as saying in a statement that the scheduling conflict made Canada’s political system “look out of touch.”
“This kind of political discussion shouldn’t compete with something that means so much to so many,” Mr. Singh said, according to the CBC.
The game does mean quite a lot to Canadians. Hockey is the national pastime, and this particular contest — the last game of the Canadiens’ regular season — carries high stakes.
A lot of people in Montreal are nervous that the Habs, as the team is known, could squander what had until recently seemed like a near-certain chance of qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four years.
After losing their last three games, the Canadiens either have to beat the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday or tie them in regulation. Otherwise, they’ll have to hope that the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team just behind them in the standings, lose to the New York Islanders on Thursday.
Mr. François-Blanchet told reporters on Tuesday that he wished the Canadiens had won on Monday.
“Then we would have been done with this season, and then the playoffs would have begun,” he said.
Instead, the Habs were beaten by the Chicago Blackhawks, the second-worst team in the National Hockey League.
Montrealers feel “a lightness in the step” when their team is in the playoffs, but on Monday the city was “shuffling gingerly across eggshells,” the NHL.com columnist Dave Stubbs wrote after the loss.
“If you want to see an entire city having an anxiety attack, this is the place,” he wrote.
Mike Ives is a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the world.
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