Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry getting support from Canadian politicians in all-star bid

Canadian politicians, from different political parties, have found something they can agree on — Kyle Lowry should be an all-star.

The Toronto Raptors point guard received votes from Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, along with Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s Liberal party.

Both politicians voted via Twitter, which the NBA has opened up as an avenue to cast a ballot by tweeting —or retweeting — a player’s full name, or Twitter handle, and the hashtag #NBABallot.

Harper told his followers that “Canadian basketball fans should get behind Kyle Lowry, who deserves to be an NBA All Star.” Meanwhile, Trudeau encouraged his followers — in both English and French — to retweet his message “to send Kyle Lowry to the NBA All-Star Game”

But it’s not just federal politicians who are throwing support Lowry’s way. Toronto mayor John Tory as well as former deputy mayor and current city councillor Norm Kelly have also endorsed Lowry.

Lowry, who has averaged 20.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game this season, was not named an all-star last year, in what was considered a snub.

Lowry is in third place among guards in the Eastern Conference with 406,974 votes behind the Washington Wizards’ John Wall and Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade. Fans vote for the starters — the top two guards along with the top three frontcourt players in each conference — and the rest of the team is chosen by coaches around the league.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James leads all players with 971,299 votes, while the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry trails James with 958,014 votes.

Fan voting continues until January 19.

With files from the Canadian Press.