'Bad idea': Quebec Tory MPs slam Don Cherry’s Order of Canada nomination

OTTAWA — Only days after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said hockey commentator Don Cherry should be given the Order of Canada because he “embodies what it means to be a proud Canadian,” some of his Quebec MPs — including his lieutenant in the province — are speaking out against the nomination because of Cherry’s past anti-Quebec tirades.

On Thursday, Éric Lefebvre, MP for Richmond —Arthabaska, was the first to speak out on social media that, out of respect for Quebecers who have played and are still playing in the NHL, he cannot, as MP, endorse Cherry’s candidacy for the national award which is given by the Governor General of Canada to recognize distinguished service in the country.

“Throughout the years, Mr. Cherry has indeed marked the history of hockey and of sports television, notably through his role in the show ‘Hockey Night in Canada.’ However, his numerous controversial statements targeting, among others, francophones and Quebecers have profoundly divided, rather than united, Canadians,” Lefebvre wrote.

“In my view, to grant this distinction to Mr. Cherry would send a message contrary to the values of respect and inclusion that we aspire to as a society,” he added, before concluding his message by specifying that this reflects his personal opinion.

In the hours that followed, however, others echoed Lefebvre’s view — not the least of which was Poilievre’s own lieutenant in Quebec, Pierre Paul-Hus.

“With all due respect, the nomination of Don Cherry for the Order of Canada is a bad idea. Mr. Cherry has held unacceptable views towards the Quebec nation and francophones. I do not support this nomination for the Order of Canada,” Paul-Hus wrote on X.

Paul-Hus’ post was retweeted by Quebec Minister of Culture Mathieu Lacombe.

Conservative MP Gérard Deltell, from the Quebec City area, expressed a more nuanced view on X but came to the same conclusion as his colleagues.

“If, by misfortune, in other times, Don Cherry has uttered unacceptable and derogatory remarks towards francophones among others, his support of our military cannot be disputed. It’s up to the committee of the Order of Canada to decide (whether he receives the award or not.) Personally, I do not support his candidacy,” Deltell wrote.

Paul-Hus told National Post that nominating Cherry for the award had not been decided by caucus and that he and his Quebec colleagues did not feel bound by this decision.

While 92-year-old Cherry has had a celebrated career as a broadcaster in Canada, he was no stranger to controversy. In fact, the commentator was fired in 2019 after claiming immigrants refuse to wear poppies to mark Remembrance Day.

But Quebecers — true to their motto “Je me souviens” (I remember) — are still holding grudges over inflammatory comments made by the hockey commentator against them, their hockey players and athletes, the French language and Quebec in general.

In 2004, Cherry said, in a rant against hockey players who wore visors, that it was only “European or French guys” that wear them. In 1993, he said of anglophones in Sault Ste. Marie — which declared itself unilingual English — that they “speak the good language.”

And in defending Eric Lindros, a hockey player who refused to play for the Quebec Nordiques in 1991, Cherry said: “You don’t want to speak English down here, you don’t want universities down here in English, you don’t want signs up… How in the world do you not think an 18-year-old kid from Ontario… doesn’t want to come here? He’s afraid!”

During the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, after a Bloc Québécois MP complained there were too many Canadian flags on the Olympic sites, Cherry said during CBC’s live coverage: “It’s a funny thing they don’t want the Canadian flag, but they want our money. I’ve never seen such a bunch of whiners in my life.”

Cherry had also dismissed Canadian flagbearer Jean-Luc Brassard, who had won Olympic gold in men’s freestyle skiing in 1994, as a “French guy, some skier nobody knows about.”

It was Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, who represents the Ontario riding of Elgin–St. Thomas–London South, who announced last week that he is nominating Cherry for the Order of Canada , which elicited an immediate, favourable response from his leader.

“Don Cherry embodies what it means to be a proud Canadian,” Poilievre posted on X. “Great work getting this going Andrew, and count me in,” he wrote.

But the news that some in the party’s Quebec caucus have spoken up against Cherry’s nomination has prompted at least one other Ontario MP in taking a side.

Jamil Jivani, representing the riding of Bowmanville—Oshawa North, said on Friday he had just signed Lawton’s petition in support of Cherry getting the Order of Canada.

“Don deserves the honour.”

— With a file from Brendan Kelly, Montreal Gazette.

National Post
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