Canada's PM would rather be an ice hockey player

OTTAWA, Apr 19 (Reuters) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that while running the world's second largest country isn't a bad job, he'd much rather be an ice hockey player.

Harper, whose Conservatives won the January 23 election, is a huge fan of the sport -- known simply as hockey in Canada -- and is writing a book about its early history. He also tries to catch all the games his young son Ben plays in.

''I love my job as prime minister, but if you could be a hockey player, I mean, what could be better than that?'' Harper said in an interview with sports channel TSN due to be aired later this week.

''I always say, it doesn't matter how busy I am and how early in the morning it is, the one thing I can always manage to get energy for is to see my kid play hockey,'' he told TSN, which released a partial transcript of the interview yesterday.

Just for the record, Harper says the Ottawa Senators and the Calgary Flames will fare best among Canadian teams when the playoffs for the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup championship start later this week.

REUTERS SRS PC0908