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On this day, Feb. 5, in 1934, R.B. Bennett was prime minister of Canada, Franklin D. Roosevelt was U.S. president, and Don Cherry was born.

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Exactly 92 years ago. In Kingston, where William P. Peters was mayor.

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Yes, this is Grapes birthday.

The legendary coach and Canada’s champion is still going strong at 92 and ready to watch Team Canada in the Olympics – starting with the Canadian women’s hockey team playing their first game against Finland.

Cherry has talked about how there’s no better feeling or higher honour than to represent your country out there in the world, something he did twice as a coach – first as an assistant coach with Team Canada in the 1976 Canada Cup and later as head coach of the Canadian team at the 1981 World Hockey Championships in Sweden.

Canada playing hockey on day one of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy is a good birthday present.

It’s time for some other birthday presents for the legendary star of Coach’s Corner and former coach of Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins. Being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame is one. The Order of Canada is another.

He’s deserving of both.

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Cherry has always championed Canada

There’s few who rival this man’s patriotism and support for our troops, our police, our firefighters, and our young hockey players. Cherry was pro Canadian before it was cool to be so.

And that’s something that has never been replaced on Hockey Night in Canada since he was pushed out on Remembrance Day 2019. For 38 years, when Canada was suffering, Cherry helped Canadians mourn and honour those who served us and who sometimes died doing so.

I was thinking of this when thousands went out to the Highway of Heroes on Tuesday to bring home a young gunner who died in Latvia and when three junior hockey players for the Southern Alberta Mustangs tragically died in a weekend car accident on their way to practice near Stavely, Alta. What Cherry would do is share that grief with the whole country on Coach’s Corner by showing their pictures and talking about who these fellow Canadians were as people.

Cherry meant it from the heart. That stuff affected him. It stayed with him.

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He was removed from his iconic career for correctly saying the “least” people can do is to buy and wear a poppy to remember the fallen. He wasn’t wrong. The people who fired him were the ones who were wrong.

And most of the country sees that now.

“It was a media pile on,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said this week. “He didn’t deserve that.”

The nice thing about Cherry, the free speech warrior, is when someone is down, he’s the first over the boards to drop the gloves to fight for them. When a fellow Canuck is being swarmed, it’s always comforting to have the coach in their corner.

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Canada needs to be in Coach’s corner

Few were in the coach’s corner when the ‘woke police’ came calling to cancel him.

But that was then. There is still a chance to make amends. There is still time to make things right. All of this should be done before his 93rd birthday. It’s time for ‘you people’ out there in a position to make this happen to put away your political correctness and fete the coach with the honours he’s more than earned.

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Brown talks of the different charity events in Brampton that Cherry has participated in and how much people appreciate that. He’s one of the many who are wishing Don Cherry best wishes on this day.

There are so many others. But Don is not as out there with his fans as he was for many decades. He doesn’t do public events anymore or many media appearances. However, he stays up on the news and sports and enjoys watching hockey with his son Tim and spending time with the dogs and his wife Luba.

When he goes out to the store, he gets a lot of love from a Canadian public that appreciates him.

Time for the Order of Canada

Hopefully in 2026, those who have the power will give Cherry the nod for the Order of Canada and the Hockey Hall of Fame. There’s really no one more deserving of being part of both clubs than this beacon of telling it like it is.

There’s nobody who’s done more for Canadians than Cherry, and when it comes to building hockey or doing broadcasting of it, there’s no other figure who bars would shut off the music during the first period intermission just to hear whatever it was he had to say. Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles understood that – Cherry was bestowed the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal and also the King’s Coronation medal.

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There’s a new rebirth of support happening for this legend. Out in Mortlach, Sask., Darren Jones and Mike Beaudoin have erected a large wooden sculpture in his likeness, Jamie Wiley makes and sells special Canadian flags with hockey sticks in his honour, and a family is opening a new Don Cherry’s sports bar in Parry Sound.

For his part, while honoured to receive those acknowledgements, Cherry is not worried about awards or pats on the back. He never has been. For those who have known him for many years, however, it is important that he gets his due.

For now, though, there is only one thing Canadians can say: Happy Birthday, Donald Stewart Cherry!

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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