Hockey fans vote to follow Canucks over election

Vancouver Canucks' Alex Burrows, right, is congratulated by Mattias Ohlund, of Sweden, after scoring during overtime in Game 4 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, in St. Louis. Vancouver won the game 3-2 and the series 4-0. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

For many British Columbians there is only one game in town, and that's not the provincial election.

The upcoming contest between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks is what people are talking about around the water cooler, not BC Liberals, the NDP of British Columbia, or the Green Party of B.C.

An Angus Reid Strategies poll, commissioned by CTV and The Globe and Mail and released on Tuesday, found 55 per cent of voters are following the Canucks' playoff efforts more closely than the election.

This is even more interesting, given that the Canucks haven't played for a week, when the team made history in sweeping the St. Louis Blues in four games on April 21.

And while it's not official yet, if the series starts this Thursday and goes to seven games the final showdown could land on election night, May 12.

"There's always distractions of some sort [on poll day] but this one looks like it's pretty significant," Harry Neufeld of Elections BC said.

Elections BC will need 32,000 employees to help carry out the election, and most will work on voting day.

But if there's a playoff game that night some may not turn-up, Neufeld said.

"They don't get paid, if they don't show-up, we have supervisors that will be reminding them the day before," Neufeld said.

Neufeld says other election workers are standing by, just in case.

BC Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell said he was concerned about voter turnout.

And the numbers are important. Campbell reminded his supporters last week they lost the 1996 election by a hair.

"For want of 1,200 votes, we would have been government," he said.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander