Don Cherry shouldn’t have been on TV, not at the end, not at 85. But he was a Canadian institution, the most famous man in hockey not named Wayne Gretzky, the loudest voice in the country. And nobody, for a long time, had been able to tell him no.People tried over the years and some succeeded, but Don outgrew Hockey Night in Canada, of all things, and the problems always blew over. That was one of the lessons of Don Cherry over the years, along with keep yer head up, dress right, don’t put your stick in front of a shooter, everybody loves fights, let’s go. He rode roughshod over critics, co-hosts, and most significantly, executives and producers. He did it for nearly 40 years in a game that sometimes seems allergic to unfiltered honesty, and a lot of Canadians adored him for it.And on Monday, Don Cherry got fired, on Remembrance Day. He was fired two days after he performed one of his greatest hits on Hockey Night in Canada, because at 85 everything is an old idea, a classic. As he had many times before, he complained not enough people wore poppies. As the Star’s Kevin McGran reports, poppy sales aren’t actually down. Don, for whatever reason, felt like they were. And he addressed one group, one specifically. Not every Canadian. The ones from elsewhere: You people, who come here. “Downtown Toronto, forget it, downtown Toronto, nobody wears a poppy,” said Cherry, on Hockey Night in Canada. “Now you go to the small cities, and you know, the rows on rows, you people love — that come here, whatever it is — you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price. Anyhow, I’m going to run (an annual Remembrance Day montage) for you great people and good Canadians that bought a poppy.”It’s clear what he was saying, if you know ...
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