Playoffs Force Scheduling Switch for French Debate

Broadcasting consortium decides the Canadiens/Bruins series takes precedence over leaders' debate.

Playoff hockey proved to be the first issue this election season that all parties agreed on. With both the French-language leaders' debate and the first game of the first-round match-up between the NHL's Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins scheduled for Thursday night, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe asked the broadcasting consortium to move the debate to Wednesday to make sure viewers wouldn't have to make a “heartbreaking” decision between politics and les habitants' age-old rivalry with the Bs. The other parties quickly vouched support and, sure enough, the consortium agreed to move it ahead to Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. Given the reaction a certain subset of chaos-seeking Montrealers have to playoff games, though, maybe two hours of discussion on corporate taxes and income splitting would cool heads enough to spare a couple storefronts on Ste Catharine Street.