WARMINGTON: Five years after being fired for pushing poppies, Don Cherry is still pushing poppies

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Five years removed from being fired for promoting poppies, Don Cherry still believes Canadians should wear a poppy for Remembrance Day.

Some things never change. Nor do some people.

With a poppy pinned to his sweater, the Canadian broadcast legend adored by millions and scorned by woke critics sits alone with his coffee and a copy of the Toronto Sun and thinks of the soldiers who died at war to give him this moment of freedom and reflection.

“I always have my poppy,” Cherry says with a smile. “I always have a bunch of them too, in case somebody asks me for one.”

There is certainly no shortage of people in 2024 not wearing one for Remembrance Day.

“It’s still the same,” he chuckles. “Canada hasn’t changed.”

It’s not lost on the 90-year-old icon that five years ago this week, his monster television career came to an abrupt end for merely pushing the sales of poppies to raise money and remember veterans.

“You people that come here … whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy,” Cherry said on Coach’s Corner.

Saying “that’s why we love you,” his sidekick Ron MacLean offered a thumbs up in response but managed to survive the onslaught. There was no love or thumbs turned up inside the Rogers Sportsnet executive boardroom. They threw Cherry under the Zamboni.

Cherry, a former NHL coach of the year with the Boston Bruins, said he felt the internal pitchforks out for him on that very Saturday night and early Sunday and knew what it meant. He was being hung out to dry. By Remembrance Day, the pearl clutching had hit a national level, many of his high-profile friends had gone to social media to turn on him, and he was eventually, unceremoniously, turfed.

“I was worried this would take away from the veterans so I said ‘don’t fire me on poppy day, Remembrance Day, that’s the worst thing you could do,” recalled Grapes. “But they did it anyway.”

The way Cherry was treated that week was gross. They pulled on a then 85-year-old Canadian treasure and mercilessly and hypocritically took him down for far less than what they have all done in their lives. They cancelled the man voted as Canada’s seventh greatest Canadian over something he didn’t say or mean but what his haters tried to put in his mouth. Cherry said he was not trying to be racial or even controversial but be more of a coach trying to remind the players on the bench to wear their poppies.

“I want people to think of the soldiers, airmen and the sailors who were killed overseas. That’s the guys I want them to remember,” said Grapes. “These guys offered their lives, and I just don’t want them to be forgotten.”

But they are. Cherry notices even fewer poppies now than when he complained about it in 2019.

“I don’t see many,” he told me. “You go downtown, that’s where I really get pissed off, you don’t see any poppies.”

It’s also troubling the poppy is now being appropriated by groups supporting banned terror groups and their martyr rallies.

Turns out Cherry was proven right. Five years after being very publicly fired from Hockey Night in Canada for essentially asking people to wear a poppy at Remembrance Day, Cherry has no regrets. Well, maybe, some regrets. But not on his position that the least Canadians can do is buy a poppy at this time of year.

“I definitely have no regrets on that. I have no regrets on how I feel about wearing a poppy.”

The always straightforward superstar of straight talk for almost 40 years on Coach’s Corner does admit, however, missing being with MacLean and all of the rest of the Saturday night crew.

“I do have some regrets there,” said in an interview Friday. “I have regrets when I see the guys on television and think of the fun I could have had.”

And his connection with his loyal fans who miss him just as much.

“I still have a stack of mail downstairs,” he said. “I want to answer every one.”

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Those people, yes many of you people too, want this man back on their TV screens on Saturday nights. Not in the cards, says Grapes.

“I don’t see that going on,” said Cherry, adding firing him on Remembrance Day is hard to fix. “I knew it was time to go. Actually, they did me a favour. I don’t know where that guy (who fired him) is now. He’s not at the CBC.”

Meanwhile, Grapes has built up his Don Cherry Grapevine podcast to one million listeners each week. Fans have tuned in to hear him with his son Tim and daughter Cindy, who tragically and unexpectedly died this past summer after a short illness. This has rocked Don to his core and with the help of Peel cops, Bobby Orr, his fans checking in on him and his amazing family, he’s getting back on his feet. Surrounded by his dogs, his super supportive wife Luba, equally as patriotic and passionate about hockey son Tim, talented grandson Del and of course his legion of fans, he enjoys each day.

“I am doing OK,” said Cherry. “But what I hope is people this Remembrance Day think of the fallen troops and wear a poppy.”

It’s the same thing Grapes said back in 2019. He should have been celebrated for it then and he certainly is being applauded for it now.