The Order of Canada is one of Canada’s highest honours and is awarded in recognition of exceptional achievements, extraordinary contributions to the nation or remarkable dedication to a community.
The motto of the Order, DESIDERANTES MELIOREM PATRIAM, translates to “They desire a better country.”
The Order of Canada is administered through an independent advisory council. Each of the six to eight hundred nominations submitted each year , by any person or organization, is received by the order’s Advisory Council, which, along with the governor general, makes the final choice of new inductees.
The federal Conservatives petition to award the Order of Canada to controversial hockey commentator Don Cherry.
Prime Minister Carney’s office mum on Conservative Order of Canada petition for Don Cherry
Conservative Order of Canada Petition
Don Cherry, who according to the Conservative Party’s Order of Canada petition—with the full support of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre—“embodies what it means to be a proud Canadian,” describes Cherry as having a “candid and unapologetic style reflects a spirit of authenticity and independence that resonated with millions of Canadians.” and according to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith , “Don Cherry is a Canadian icon, a hockey legend and is loved by Albertans. He’s not just one of the greats; his word and opinion about our national sport is still treated as hockey gospel by millions of Canadians.”
So this is the Canadian icon who
Excerpted from the article:
” compared the name of the Finnish coach of the Winnipeg Jets to dog food; referred to the wars in the Balkans as “Lower Slobovia attacking Slimea”; declared that players who wear visors are “sucks” and that most of them are “Europeans and French guys”; called French-Canadian flag bearer Jean-Luc Brassard “some ski guy that nobody knows about”; told French Canadians they were not “true Canadians” for opposing the Iraq War, singling out Habs fans for booing the American anthem and adding: “You have to realize it’s Quebec and it’s French Canadians.”.
When Ron MacLean raised the question of whether First Nations kids get a fair shake in life, Cherry cut him off: “Fair shake in life? Go out and get your own fair shake in life and work for it.” In 1992, he called Manon Rhéaume’s historic appearance as the first woman to play in an NHL game “a PR stunt” and said women “should stick to women’s hockey.” He said women reporters did not belong in hockey dressing rooms.
He has spent decades championing the law of talion on ice — that every act of violence deserves an equal and opposite response — celebrating enforcers, glorifying retribution, and dismissing the medical evidence on brain trauma as an inconvenience to the natural order of the game, going so far as to call former enforcers who courageously spoke out about brain trauma “pukes,” “turncoats,” and “hypocrites.”
This is the man Pierre Poilievre says embodies Canadian pride.
