The Topline
- This week, famed Canadian sportscaster Don Cherry, 92, was appointed to the Order of Ontario
- The Order of Ontario is the province’s highest civilian honour, awarded to an Ontarian who has shown excellence and achievement in their field
- This raises a question about whether Cherry might soon receive the Order of Canada , the country’s second-highest honour
- The appointment comes after Don Cherry stepped down in 2019 from his role on Hockey Night in Canada after making controversial comments about new immigrants to Canada
Switch sides,
back and forth
Time heals all wounds
Don Cherry made a career out of picking a side and sticking to it. Whether it was a preferred hockey team, favourite players, the topic of fighting, or any number of social or political issues, he never shied away from giving his opinion.
Eventually, that approach got him in trouble during a November 2019 broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada, when he singled out immigrants for not wearing poppies to honour fallen Canadian soldiers. Following swift backlash from viewers, Cherry stepped down after 38 years in the role.
Since 1982, Cherry was a fixture of Hockey Night in Canada with his popular Coach’s Corner segment. His over-the-top, elaborate suits were made up of colours and patterns that were as loud as his opinions.
Nobody can argue against Cherry’s wealth of hockey knowledge and experience, nor his love for his country. He played and coached in the NHL, promoted everything from minor hockey to women’s hockey , and proudly boasted of every achievement Canada made to our most popular sport.
In fact, the Order of Canada uses a Latin motto , desiderantes meliorem patriam, meaning "they desire a better country." It’s hard to argue that Cherry doesn’t embody exactly that.
He’s one of the most influential and recognizable personalities in Canadian sports history. A 2004 survey for a documentary called The Greatest Canadian ranked him seventh, ahead of John A. Macdonald, Alexander Graham Bell and Wayne Gretzky.
Keep this in mind: as Chris Knight points out in The National Post, all the figures who were ranked ahead of Cherry, and who were alive when the Order of Canada was created, have already received it . So it only makes sense that Cherry should be next in line.
He doesn’t represent Canadian values
Yes, Cherry was awarded the Order of Ontario, but that doesn’t mean he should be handed the Order of Canada too.
While he holds more accomplishments in and around the game of hockey than most people can list, the list of unfortunate incidents he’s been involved in throughout his career is just as long.
Cherry’s popularity soared as he gave opinions and riffs during Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night in Canada for 38 years. But with loud opinions came loud controversies.
Part of Don Cherry’s brand involved lambasting “pretty-boy players” – picking on Europeans, particularly Russians , and going after anyone who he didn’t view as classy elder statesmen of the game.
Alexander Ovechkin, the greatest goal scorer to ever play the game, scoring his 50th goal in 2009? Well, that was a double whammy in Cherry’s books – being Russian AND celebrating too exuberantly .
This doesn’t begin to examine numerous other incidents involving xenophobic comments, racism, climate change denial, inappropriate language, name-calling and a litany of other acts one might describe as inappropriate.
Herein lies the argument against recognizing Don Cherry with the Order of Canada: nobody will argue he doesn’t wear Canada’s maple leaf on his sleeve. But that doesn’t mean he represents the values of Canada, or what it means to be Canadian. Not the modern version of it, anyway.
Equality, diversity, human rights and the rule of law are enshrined into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with acceptance, kindness, protection from discrimination, empathy and understanding being key components of those values.
Don Cherry didn’t always uphold these values, and even when he did, it was from a singular mindset of him being right and everyone else being wrong.
He rejected discourse, particularly from his co-host Ron MacLean, often talking over him or dismissing his opinions on their Coach’s Corner segment together.
Ultimately, anyone chosen to represent Canada at its best must also reflect the values Canada upholds.
Don Cherry’s impact on hockey is undeniable. His claim to representing the best of the country, however, is not.
