What would Canadians rather watch — aspiring prime ministers swapping barbs, or a glamorous royal couple exchanging vows?

A pair of recent surveys suggests Canada’s political leaders may come out on top.

A poll assessing national interest in the upcoming royal wedding suggests about 40 per cent of Canadians have been making plans to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot Friday.

Impressive as that figure may seem for an event in the early morning hours across the country, it falls short of the 51 per cent that declared their intention of watching the English-language election debate that was on TV earlier this month.

Another recent Harris-Decima survey suggested 27 per cent of Canadians had definite plans to watch the April 12 debate between the country’s federal political leaders, with another 24 per cent saying they were likely to tune in the marquee event of the current election. The numbers were fairly equal across both French and English Canada, said Harris-Decima senior vice-president Doug Anderson.

By contrast, interest in the royal wedding was more muted across the country, but notably in Quebec where 52 per cent of survey respondents said they were very unlikely to watch the festivities, Anderson said.