Mark Carney and Hudson Williams are BFFs now
Even though the prime minister still hasn’t finished Heated Rivalry
In what was possibly the most CanCon event of all CanCon events to ever occur, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams linked up for what could probably have been a simple photo-op—but, this being the winter of Hollanov hype, became a series of adorable embraces.
Related: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman binged all of Heated Rivalry in one night
At an annual Ottawa film and television conference called Prime Time, before an audience of industry personnel and Canadian political leaders, Carney and Williams hugged for the cameras and then did “the leg thing” at Carney’s request. It’s a lot to explain. You can watch here.
Carney said he hasn’t seen the whole show yet (darn, and his approval rating had been so high) but that he plans to watch episode five soon. “Don’t tell me what happens in the cottage,” he added. Sir, cancel your meetings and find out!
In a touching gesture, Williams gave Carney a special present: the Team Canada fleece worn by his character, Shane Hollander, on the show, which Carney immediately put on, clearly as smitten as the rest of the show’s record-breaking audience.
Carney applauded the showrunners for creating Heated Rivalry in Canada and addressed the show’s key message with a tone of seriousness: “A fundamental Canadian value is that people should be whoever they want to be, to love whoever they want to love,” he said.
Oh, we know he’s going to enjoy those last two episodes.
Related: “This was a fictional world, but it still felt healing”—Heated Rivalry star Harrison Browne on blazing a trail for trans athletes
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
