Juno News - November 06, 2026


The 5 greatest Don Cherry moments — and why they matter today

Canadian troops deploy to Russia’s border Peter MacKay： Could Canadian troops get caught in a Russian conflict？

Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

173.94

Word count

3,475

Sentence count

172

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Well, it was seven years ago, to the week, that the great Canadian Don Cherry made his final
00:00:11.440 appearance on Hockey Night in Canada. After a long career of promoting Canada, the game of hockey,
00:00:17.740 sportsmanship, toughness, and our Canadian Armed Forces, he lamented, as so many patriotic Canadians
00:00:24.120 do around this time of year, that far too few Canadians and people living in this country
00:00:29.960 wear a poppy during the Remembrance Day period. He noticed that around Mississauga, where he lived,
00:00:37.780 very few people partake in the simplest and most basic act of remembrance,
00:00:44.040 buying a poppy and wearing it on your lapel. He said that people come to this country,
00:00:49.620 They love our way of life. They love our milk and honey. The least they can do is put on a poppy
00:00:54.820 during Remembrance Day. Well, of course, that statement was completely true, completely 0.89
00:01:00.760 accurate, but it was made during the height of woke, peak woke in Canada under the Justin Trudeau
00:01:08.400 post-national era. Comments like that pointing out the fact that actually some immigrants in
00:01:14.080 this country don't really care about our country. Many Canadians don't care that much about our
00:01:19.340 country and don't bother partaking in wearing a poppy. Those comments weren't allowed then. In
00:01:24.900 fact, on the mainstream media public broadcast, they probably wouldn't be allowed to be made
00:01:29.500 today. So with those comments, one of the most famous Canadians around the world,
00:01:35.740 one of our icons, was fired for pointing out the fact that we have millions of people in this
00:01:41.500 country who don't actually care about Canada, because that's really the crux of the commentary.
00:01:45.480 yes it's about remembrance day but it goes beyond that do they really care about canada
00:01:52.040 so on this episode of ratioed we're going to be going over my top five don cherry moments because
00:01:58.100 in here are some true gems of the past some great commentary some great stuff that has very little
00:02:06.620 to do with hockey in fact these comments and these top five moments have nothing to do with hockey
00:02:11.400 they are about Canada. They are about who we are as a country. Don Cherry spoke to the average
00:02:18.620 Canadian. He was able to tap in to what we were all feeling and he understood the moment better
00:02:23.720 than most. So we're going to go over the top five greatest Don Cherry moments of his career but
00:02:30.500 before we do I want to encourage you all to buy a Juno News subscription. Paying for Juno News is a
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00:03:18.660 The next request is to buy a subscription with my code JunoNews.com slash Harris in return.
00:03:24.120 You'll get early access to every episode of this show ratioed as well as exclusive Juno News
00:03:28.900 reporting you won't find anywhere else. As always before we get into the show be sure to
00:03:33.780 like this video, subscribe to the Juno News YouTube channel, and the comment question for
00:03:37.540 the episode is this. Are people wearing the poppy where you live? Let me know your answer in the
00:03:44.020 comments below and let's get into it. So these moments do have an order. We're going to start
00:03:48.720 at five and we're going to work our way down to one. You probably know what number one is.
00:03:52.680 But for the fifth moment, it is when Don Cherry traveled to Afghanistan to support our troops
00:03:59.620 in combat to boost morale for the canadians out there on the battlefield take a look at this
00:04:05.960 there we are we went up to five if you can believe it in one day
00:04:10.840 that peter there we're in a chinook there taking off
00:04:14.060 everywhere we've gone nordiques it's not even a team and they're a favorite team
00:04:22.860 What you're telling the truth, Don, if I could boil this down,
00:04:34.260 what the coach is saying right here is that if the price is right,
00:04:37.700 the cup is coming to Montreal.
00:04:39.580 This guy's worse than McLean.
00:04:41.660 Right there, and I'm signing some guns there at the end.
00:04:45.860 I don't know. I think they're guns.
00:04:47.040 I forget what they were. Sights or something.
00:04:49.200 I don't know if they weren't the snipers.
00:04:51.220 it wasn't just that cherry traveled to afghanistan to boost morale for our troops
00:05:08.360 but it went beyond that because as you will likely recall as i did growing up
00:05:13.840 every time there was a battlefield casualty in afghanistan every time a canadian lost their life
00:05:21.120 in Afghanistan, Don Cherry used his airtime on Coach's Corner to make sure that every Canadian
00:05:27.520 knew that soldier's name, to make sure that they were not forgotten, that they would not be left
00:05:32.940 behind. And another, we have to do it right now, we have a beautiful, look at this guy, he was
00:05:39.180 beautiful, Sergeant Marty Goodroll, 1st Combat Engineer Regiment, based out of Edmonton, serving
00:05:47.060 first battalion royal canadian regiment battleground a great he's from sudbury ontario
00:05:52.580 third duty this is his third duty over there he was killed to believe it or not on canadian
00:05:58.100 forces day june 6th and his mom said uh after he went over and saw the kids he knew he had
00:06:04.020 just go back and make a difference and his heart her hearts go out to his mom micheline
00:06:09.540 and Orell, and Marty came home today. Marty was 35, and God love you, Marty.
00:06:19.760 And Don Cherry made sure to list the name of every fallen Canadian soldier in Afghanistan
00:06:24.880 on Coach's Corner. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there was no media figure in Canada
00:06:31.420 who did more to support the Canadian Armed Forces during the Afghanistan War,
00:06:36.180 to ensure that the names of the fallen would never be forgotten than Don Cherry.
00:06:40.700 He did more than the news broadcasters.
00:06:43.540 He did more than politicians.
00:06:45.820 He used his airtime to promote them.
00:06:49.100 And it mattered more because more Canadians were watching him on Saturday evenings
00:06:52.640 than they were watching basically anything else.
00:06:55.120 And since we're on this moment, I also want to highlight another clip.
00:06:57.700 When Don Cherry explained to Canadians who did not support the war
00:07:03.360 and did not support the mission,
00:07:04.700 he implored them to look beyond the politics of this and to look at the individuals the canadian
00:07:10.560 soldiers fighting and to care for them they may not support the war but they sure as hell had an
00:07:16.520 obligation and a duty to support our troops who went there and that's what he implored his audience
00:07:22.800 to do take a listen to this clip now i have to say something as i go through the airports i meet our
00:07:28.700 beautiful uh soldiers and the first thing they i go up and i said gee you should be happy you're
00:07:33.460 back in canada said no way we want to be back with our troops we're ready to go there's the
00:07:39.100 toughest nails these guys and they never complain you know the one thing they always say to me at
00:07:43.620 what you know what they say you know what really bothers us what bothers us is certain politicians
00:07:48.980 and people say that we're the wrong guys we capture the taliban and everything and we turn
00:07:55.320 them over to their people and now we're the bad guys we're the bad guys and the message is that
00:08:01.480 we want to put to these politicians and the people hey be more worried about us the guys that do it 0.80
00:08:08.680 than the Taliban that's trying to blow us up and I say amen to that. Who today in Canadian media
00:08:14.360 who commands the same audience size as Don Cherry did shows as much care and affection
00:08:20.680 and loyalty to the Canadian armed forces? Who does that today? Nobody even comes close.
00:08:26.980 All right, so moment number four, we're going to lighten it up here, is when Don Cherry went after David Suzuki, called him a left-wing kook for promoting climate change on Coach's Corner.
00:08:38.240 Take a listen to this bit.
00:08:39.580 Here's your pal. Listen carefully.
00:08:42.740 I didn't see this.
00:08:44.060 Hi, I'm David Suzuki, Don Cherry's favorite left-wing kook.
00:08:48.500 Winter sports fans know that something strange is happening with weather and climate.
00:08:52.840 let's show our concern with the symbolic gesture of turning off our lights during earth hour
00:08:58.220 but i'd keep your tv on at least finish the game
00:09:01.520 look david suzuki left wing cook you're in vancouver it's warm out there why don't you come
00:09:12.320 to toronto we've been freezing for two months record set what is this warming trends we're
00:09:17.660 dying of cold and he's talking warm and trend. What? Paul Kelly. Now at this time, Cherry and
00:09:23.920 Suzuki both worked at the CBC. They obviously had a little bit of a rivalry, but it was all in good
00:09:28.640 fun. But again, you can't see this kind of commentary on television today. It was a different
00:09:34.320 time back then. But gosh, is it ever funny? Questioning climate change, calling out the
00:09:40.040 hysteria, calling out the nonsense. It was just a totally different time and one that obviously
00:09:46.780 we'll probably never get back. All right. So my third moment I think is often overlooked. It
00:09:51.920 doesn't get much attention in the collection of Don Cherry's greatest hits, but I thought that
00:09:57.220 this was probably the funniest thing that he ever did. And that was when Rob Ford had Don Cherry
00:10:05.300 present at his swearing in ceremony as Toronto mayor. Don Cherry shows up in a bright pink suit
00:10:13.160 to City Hall for this momentous occasion of Rob Ford swearing in, and he starts going after
00:10:19.880 Toronto cyclists. He calls them lefty pinko bike riders. Take a listen to this.
00:10:31.800 Thank you. It is now my great pleasure to call upon Mayor Ford's special guest,
00:10:38.120 Mr. Don Cherry, to give his remarks.
00:10:43.160 Can I kiss? Is that the kiss of death that they give like that? I guess that's what they're doing around here. Well, actually, I'm wearing pinko for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything. I thought I'd get it in.
00:10:57.560 I would expect Ron McLean here to come here, but, you know, I am befuddled because I thought
00:11:07.000 I was just doing a good thing coming down with Ron and Rob, and I was going to do this
00:11:11.160 here, and it's going to be nice and the whole deal.
00:11:13.400 I've been being ripped to shreds by the left-wing pink old newspapers out there.
00:11:18.320 It's unbelievable. 0.98
00:11:20.540 One guy called me a jerk in a pink suit, so I thought I'd wear that for him, too, today. 0.98
00:11:27.560 um you know it's funny uh uh in that in those articles my church was i was a made fun of 0.97
00:11:35.920 because i go to church i'm easy to do it that way uh and i was called modeling for for the troops
00:11:42.160 because i honor the troops this is a kind of uh you're going to be facing rod with these left-wing
00:11:47.720 pinkos they scrape the bottom of the barrel that was 2010 by the way 16 years ago today we have
00:11:54.180 Olivia Chow as mayor of Toronto, but it's amazing to imagine that in 2010, Rob Ford was being sworn 0.75
00:11:59.920 in with Don Cherry speaking at the podium and going after lefty pinko bike riders in the Toronto 0.67
00:12:07.780 Star. I think you're stepping into some sort of time capsule to a different era, but it was only
00:12:11.440 16 years ago. Okay. So number two, this one requires a bit more time, but it was a fifth
00:12:19.460 the state interview that Don Cherry did for the CBC back in the 1980s. This is probably the
00:12:26.180 interview with the greatest amount of gems, the greatest one-liners, and a real insight into Don
00:12:32.700 Cherry's political thinking. So there's a couple of clips here. Where do we even begin? Well, I guess
00:12:38.560 let's start at the politics side, where Don Cherry explains his political philosophy. The fact that
00:12:45.060 liberals and conservatives approached Don Cherry to enter politics in Canada. What a missed
00:12:51.660 opportunity that would have been. And in that clip, he talks about what he would do as a
00:12:56.300 politician. I'm just going to let this whole clip run because it's worth listening to if you haven't
00:13:00.720 seen it already. Take a listen. Are you a safety valve for people who are stewing about all kinds
00:13:07.820 of stuff? Or are you dangerous? I don't know whether I'm dangerous. I just say what I think.
00:13:12.920 and i it's the way i think you can say it's bigotry if you want i don't think it is i'm
00:13:19.320 pro-canadian more so than i'm anti-soviet or anti-sweet i wish more canadians were like me
00:13:27.320 that really plays in the country these days but where is it going to end where is it going to end
00:13:32.660 if we get into that kind of politics whether it's in sport whether it's to do with jobs we let people
00:13:39.500 come in and take our fish and the people are starving down there then people come in and wreck
00:13:44.960 everything on us they come in and and it wouldn't happen if i was in parliament there's not a party
00:13:49.500 in canada would take you today i've been asked by talking about what you i've been asked by two
00:13:53.840 which ones uh liberal and conservative and they want don cherry and they're talking about
00:13:59.180 the immigrants they want people that people like but people like on tv how could you not like me
00:14:06.200 on t if you're a canadian good old boy like me from the back benches he'll clean up metric and
00:14:11.480 more i'll tell you i'll straighten those guys out i want to be in the back hollering and yelling
00:14:16.120 i'll be great i'll be as great in politics can you imagine me imagine me going down to newfoundland
00:14:22.280 going down there what would happen i'd go down here and i'll say look vote me in and i guarantee
00:14:27.960 you as i stand here no foreign trawler would come in and touch one fish and foreign aid if you want
00:14:35.320 get into that here we got people dying here we got people dying for want of beds and we're giving
00:14:40.440 money to the foreigners no way it'd be canada first and canada only that's what i am a nationalist i 0.84
00:14:47.640 want to start a new power the nationalist and isolating ourselves in trade and isolating 0.90
00:14:52.760 ourselves and the rest of the world will do just as much good as going out and punching somebody 0.63
00:14:57.880 in the nose before the end of the 75 75 of our trade is with good old usa and they like
00:15:05.240 a strong they want a strong not to be wimps wimps i like this part too in this interview when he
00:15:12.320 talks about how there's too much glazing going on to these foreign hockey players who are all
00:15:17.500 actually too soft and there's not enough promotion of canadian hockey players and there's not enough
00:15:22.860 people in canada who recognize that actually we are the best listen to this but listen you can't
00:15:29.220 don't get caught in the canadian syndrome where if it's canadian it's got to be bad we're the best
00:15:34.860 I've been telling you the best.
00:15:36.340 How about the guy that used to be on it about four or five years ago?
00:15:39.180 And you know those other, the amazing upper body strength of the Russians.
00:15:43.520 So amazing. 0.80
00:15:44.980 They're nothing.
00:15:45.720 Just a minute.
00:15:46.360 They're nothing. 1.00
00:15:47.260 N-O-T-H-I-N. 1.00
00:15:50.120 Had a finished touch, but only wanted a touching finish.
00:15:52.460 And that was overseas, according to Don Cherry and the Coach's Corner.
00:15:54.700 All right, number one moment.
00:15:56.280 You all know what it is.
00:15:57.040 The final Coach's Corner.
00:15:58.980 The final Don Cherry broadcast moment.
00:16:01.940 Probably the greatest moment.
00:16:03.080 we'll just call it you people you know i was talking to a veteran i said i'm not going to
00:16:07.900 run the poppy thing anymore because what's the sense i live in mississauga nobody wears
00:16:11.800 uh very few people wear uh poppy downtown toronto forget it downtown toronto nobody wears a poppy
00:16:18.740 and i'm not going to wait he says wait a minute how about running it for the people that buy them
00:16:23.680 now you go to the small cities and you know you you know those the rows on rows you people love
00:16:29.700 You come here, whatever it is.
00:16:31.960 You love our way of life.
00:16:33.400 You love our milk and honey.
00:16:34.860 At least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that.
00:16:39.120 These guys pay for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada.
00:16:43.360 These guys paid the biggest price.
00:16:46.340 Anyhow, I'm going to run it again for you great people and good Canadians that bought a poppy.
00:16:51.440 I'm still going to run it.
00:16:53.280 Anyhow, I'm looking for it.
00:16:54.980 I just don't know what was so bad about it.
00:16:57.300 And I've seen this clip, you know, 20 times, 30 times.
00:17:01.560 I'm still trying to figure out what was so, so bad, so dangerous.
00:17:05.900 The fact that we had to get rid of one of our greatest icons.
00:17:09.800 I mean, I don't know how many years Don Cherry would have had left,
00:17:12.440 but we certainly would have had him for a few more years.
00:17:15.040 Ron McClain, you can see there him nodding away,
00:17:18.380 agreeing with what Don Cherry had to say,
00:17:20.760 says that we love you for it anyway.
00:17:23.600 Look, obviously Ron McClain stabbed him in the back
00:17:26.480 and became a villain in Canada because of it. But what is so bad? What is so bad about that?
00:17:33.640 He says, in downtown Toronto, forget it. No one wears a poppy. Well, guess what? No one wears a
00:17:38.160 poppy in downtown Toronto. I can attest to that. Okay. Yeah. One in 20, one in 30. It's a couple
00:17:45.020 bucks. Mississauga, I'm sure today is arguably even worse. You've got campaigns across the
00:17:51.920 country. I saw this campaign out in, uh, out in Victoria where they're trying to abolish wearing
00:17:57.600 the poppy. There's now a campaign throughout Canada with a Palestinian poppy. So let's just 0.54
00:18:02.480 go and deface our memorials. Let's go and deface our symbols that we wear to honor fallen Canadian
00:18:10.460 soldiers. Let's go ahead and do that. Let's put foreign flags on it. Why not? I mean, this is
00:18:16.180 obvious. This is so true. And he's been vindicated. 100% vindicated. And here's another thing to
00:18:23.980 bring up. You might recall a few months ago, there was this whole political controversy
00:18:28.860 when the Conservatives in Ottawa tried to endorse and pass some sort of motion to say Don Cherry
00:18:36.980 should be given the Order of Canada. The federal government, the Liberals, they said no. But you
00:18:42.120 had Quebec Conservative MPs saying that they also wouldn't support Don Cherry receiving the Order
00:18:48.360 of Canada because Don Cherry essentially called some Quebec hockey players a bit soft. First of
00:18:54.000 all, that's pathetic. Don Cherry should absolutely receive the Order of Canada. It's hard to think 0.99
00:18:59.520 of Canadians who are more deserving of the Order of Canada than he is, to be honest. But I just
00:19:04.600 keep going back to this point. Who in Canada that commanded the audience that Don Cherry commanded
00:19:10.320 at his peak did more to promote celebrate and honor the canadian armed forces nobody did
00:19:19.360 nobody did we love you don we hope you're doing well if anyone sees this or if he sees this we
00:19:25.760 greatly appreciate everything you've done for this country for the game of hockey for promoting
00:19:30.000 canada and the canadian armed forces put on your poppy everyone tell people who aren't wearing a
00:19:34.960 poppy to wear a poppy honor our troops promote our country and love canada all right we'll leave it
00:19:41.360 there as always thank you all for watching reminder you can use my code junonews.com
00:19:45.680 harrison return to get a discount on a juno news subscription a further reminder to answer the
00:19:50.080 comment question of the video are people wearing poppies in the town or city that you live in
00:19:54.800 My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ratio.