{"id":1942,"date":"2011-05-19T09:26:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T13:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2011-05-19T09:28:04","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T13:28:04","slug":"don-cherry-and-coachs-corner-warping-our-national-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=1942","title":{"rendered":"Don Cherry and Coach’s Corner – warping our national identity?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is from the department of \u201cOnly in Canuckistan.\u201d\u00a0 Straight in from left field, we have two aspiring PhDs claiming that Don Cherry is warping Canadians\u2019 minds and altering our national identity.<\/p>\n

In their review of Hockey Night in Canada\u2019s Coach’s Corner<\/em>, the brains of University of Western Ontario observe that Cherry goes unchallenged when making his statements about Canada\u2019s military. By presenting “an understanding of Canadian identity through the lens of hockey analysis,” Cherry is promoting a “tougher”, right-of-centre national\u00a0identity – one that doesn\u2019t reflect our diverse country.<\/p>\n

Co-author John Nater states: “His view of Canadian identity would appear to be a limited one, focused very much on traditional Canadian immigration from western Europe and the United Kingdom. The concern is it does exclude a large segment of the population . . . from non-traditional ethnicities. He is entitled to represent these views and put out his understanding of (national) identity, but the challenge with his position is they are not challenged. He is presented as a hockey commentator and there’s no challenge function to what he says on non-hockey related issues.”<\/p>\n

The authors of the study have gone so far as to suggest that the popularity of Cherry may be indicative of a shift in the Canadian politics. Nater observes: \u201cThis very much reflects a lot of the things that are happening politically. You look at Toronto (with the election of Mayor Rob Ford), you look at nationally now, it seems to be a shift to more of a small-c conservative point of view. I think Cherry reflects that \u2014 going to traditional values, the support for the Canadian Forces, the support for a strong questioning of patriotism or one’s love of country.\u00a0 It’s very much a strong view that Canadian identity rests on a tough image, a support for the troops and (goes) back to an older era \u2014 an idealized era \u2014 that looks at how you see Canada being a traditional British Anglo-Saxon country.”<\/p>\n

Here are some of the findings from the study that looked at every Coach’s Corner <\/em>segment from the 2009-10 NHL season:<\/p>\n