Sport: Les Canadiens: The Politics of Pucks

On the sixth floor of a Masonic temple, at the intersection of Sherbrooke and St. Marc in Montreal, actors wielded hockey sticks as they rehearsed a play called Les Canadiens. The author, Rick Salutin, sat to one side, commenting on his work with noncommittal tenderness.

"There are some effective scenes. Sports and politics. Hockey and the elections. We begin long ago on the Plains of Abraham, with General Wolfe wearing a Maple Leaf uniform. Wolfe dies and a French farm boy throws away the gun that killed him. The boy doesn't want war any...