{"id":29033,"date":"2026-05-02T11:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/29033\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T11:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T11:08:13","slug":"canadians-split-on-don-cherrys-order-of-canada-nomination-those-who-know-who-he-is-that-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/29033\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians split on Don Cherry’s Order of Canada nomination \u2014 those who know who he is, that is"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Leger poll has uncovered a three-way split among Canadians on the question of whether hockey commentator Don Cherry<\/a> deserves the Order of Canada: Those who think he does, those who think he doesn\u2019t, and those who have never heard of him.<\/p>\n

The latest poll is titled Federal Government Satisfaction: Survey of Canadians, and asks about voting intentions, government performance and use of the notwithstanding clause, among other topics. But tucked away in its pages is this query: \u201cThere is currently a petition to have Don Cherry<\/a> named to the Order of Canada. Do you feel Don Cherry<\/a> should receive the Order of Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Canadians are almost evenly split between yes (30 per cent) and no (29 per cent). But in addition to the 27 per cent who said they don\u2019t know, there\u2019s a further 14 per cent who chose \u201cNever heard of Don Cherry<\/a>\u201d as their answer.<\/p>\n

Andrew Enns, executive vice-president of Leger\u2019s Central Canada operations, told National Post that the Cherry question was something of a novelty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall us ever sort of testing the waters on any other personalities getting the Order of Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t really have a benchmark here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherry, 92, was named to the Order of Ontario in February and received a congratulatory visit from Doug Ford<\/a>, the province\u2019s premier. Then in March, Andrew Lawton, Conservative MP for Elgin\u2013St. Thomas\u2013London South, said he was nominating Cherry for the Order of Canada<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Lawton\u2019s announcement received support from\u00a0Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who wrote on X<\/a>: \u201cDon Cherry embodies what it means to be a proud Canadian.\u201d He added: \u201cGreat work getting this going Andrew, and count me in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

The Leger poll found almost equal numbers for and against giving Don Cherry the Order of Canada.<\/p>\n

The suggestion received immediate political backlash due to Cherry\u2019s previous comments about immigrants and French-speaking Quebecers. He was fired in 2019 from Sportsnet\u2019s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast after suggesting immigrants are reluctant\u00a0to buy poppies<\/a> and support Canada\u2019s veterans.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the poll found that Quebecers were least likely to think Cherry deserved the honour<\/a>, with just 10 per cent in favour and 40 per cent against. Every other province had 32 per cent or more in favour.<\/p>\n

The political divide was also apparent. Among Liberals, 40 per cent were against the Order of Canada appointment while 26 per cent approved. For Conservatives, the split went the other way, with 47 per cent in favour and 14 against. And Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois voters were even more united in their views, with a full half against and only seven per cent in favour.<\/p>\n

BQ voters also polled highest in the \u201cnever heard of him\u201d category, at 26 per cent. The only demographic with less awareness of Cherry<\/a> was 18-to-34-year-olds, where 30 per cent didn\u2019t know who he was. This dropped to 12 per cent among 35-to-54-year-olds, and just six per cent among their elders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a point in time where Don Cherry \u2026 probably had a much higher awareness level,\u201d Enns said.<\/p>\n

Whether these numbers would hurt Cherry\u2019s chances of being invested in the Order, Enns couldn\u2019t say. \u201cI don\u2019t know if the Governor General or the prime minister\u2019s office actually do any polling on candidates to test the waters,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it would strike me that, when you look at these results, it\u2019s probably not the type of nominee that you\u2019d necessarily want to put forward. It might garner some negativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poll reached out to 1,521 adult Canadians between April 24 and April 26. A probability sample of this size yields a margin of error no greater than plus or minus 2.51 per cent, 19 times out of 20.<\/p>\n

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Leger poll has uncovered a three-way split among Canadians on the question of whether hockey commentator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13540,17,13538,13539],"class_list":["post-29033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-andrew-lawton","tag-canada","tag-don-cherry","tag-the-order-of-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}