Take a break from the exciting Stanley Cup playoffs, with its record 18 overtime games in the first round, five of them in the thrilling Capitals-Leafs series.
Spare yourself tomorrow night from the first game of the St. Louis Blues-Nashville Predators second-round series. Set the PVR so you don't miss the first 10 minutes or so of the start of the Edmonton Oilers-Anaheim Ducks game.
If you care about this province, if you believe in democracy, force yourself to watch the televised leadership debate between Christy Clark of the Liberals, John Horgan of the NDP and Andrew Weaver of the Greens. Park yourself in front of the TV from 6:30 until 8 p.m. because this will be the only time the three of them will appear together for a provincewide broadcast to seek your vote on May 9.
Maybe there are other things you'd rather be doing, instead of watching playoff hockey or sitting through a provincial election leadership debate. The dogs need a good long walk. The closet or the garage need reorganizing. Doesn't Bill Nye have a new series on science on Netflix? Perhaps the grout in the bathroom tile needs to be scrubbed with a toothbrush.
Whatever it is, please postpone those activities for 90 minutes Wednesday evening to tune in to the leadership debate.
At the end, you may be bored to tears, annoyed about losing an hour-and-a-half of your life you'll never get back or mad as hell at what passes for political leadership in this province but you'll probably know who's getting your vote.
Except, unless you live in Kelowna or on Vancouver Island, you don't get to vote for them.
For the folks who paid attention during their social studies class or are political junkies, this makes perfect sense but for a large portion of the electorate, this is insanity.
Last November, Americans in all 50 states got to mark a ballot for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or a host of other names of individuals running for president. In the 2014 municipal election, local residents got to choose between Lyn Hall and Don Zurowski for mayor.
Yet the names Clark, Horgan and Weaver will be absent from the ballots of Prince George voters.
Instead, voters in the riding of Prince George-Valemount will choose between Shirley Bond of the Liberals, Natalie Fletcher of the NDP and Nan Kendy of the Greens, marking possibly the first time in local political history that all of the candidates on a ballot are women. In Prince George-Mackenzie, the candidates are Hillary Crowley of the Greens, Bobby Deepak of the NDP and Mike Morris of the Liberals.
One of the individuals from each of those two ridings will represent Prince George in the B.C. Legislature but they will answer to their respective leader for the next four years, starting from where they get to sit in the legislature. That's why the leadership debate is important to watch.
Clark, Horgan and Weaver will badmouth each other and they'll also say why their the best ones to protect B.C. residents from those terrifying external forces.
For example, Clark spent Friday traveling up the Cariboo to Prince George, telling audiences in Williams Lake, Quesnel and here how she wasn't afraid of U.S. President Donald Trump and she would fight to protect jobs in B.C.'s forestry sector. She made the exact same comment during her exclusive interview with The Citizen but we didn't use it. Her stated lack of fear of President Foghorn Leghorn is irrelevant because Horgan and Weaver would say the same. How the next premier will help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau negotiate a softwood lumber agreement with the United States and get good terms for B.C. is the real issue.
So the leadership debate will be kind of like hockey. If they're not fighting each other, they'll insist they're fighting for you, for your job, for your welfare, for your environment but what they're really fighting for is your vote, of course.
The hockey connection continues through to the moderator, CTV's Jennifer Burke. Her hubby is Brian Burke, former Vancouver Canucks GM and current president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames.
In short, she knows how to deal with bluster.
Put in the 90 minutes tomorrow night, then stop in to the all-candidates debate hosted next Tuesday night at UNBC by The Citizen, CKPG, the Chamber of Commerce and the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board to hear from the six local candidates mentioned above.
We only have to vote once every four years, so investing a few hours in educating ourselves on the issues and hearing directly from the candidates should be the least we can do to make an informed vote on election day.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
