On a red carpet Thursday night, Carney and Williams shared an embrace, with the Kelowna actor gifting the prime minister a
Team Canada fleece that his character wears.
Speaking at Prime Time 2026, Carney said that the six-part drama — which is adapted from a series of romance novels by Nova Scotia-based author Rachel Reid and centres on two professional hockey players who fall in love — comes during a time when LGBTQ rights are threatened in parts of the world.
‘People should be able to be whoever they want to be’
“The world knows that Shane (Williams) and Ilya (Storrie) are rising hockey stars who fall for each other as they face off in one of the greatest rivalries the game has ever known,” Carney said in a speech, according to the Canadian Press. “But they’re also two young men who are terrified of being their fullest self. And we live in an increasingly dangerous, divided and intolerant world. And the hard-fought rights of the 2SLGBTQI + community are under threat, including in many of the countries where the show has record-setting audiences.”
Carney added that “a fundamental Canadian value is that people should be able to be whoever they want to be. To love whoever they want to love.”
torontosun.com
