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Don Cherry is finally off the air. We run through some of his greatest hits Rock‘Em Sock‘Em style but instead of brain damage and sweet goals it's racism, misogyny and climate denial. And to help us process the news of this hockey commentator cut down in his prime we turn to comedian Mav Adecer and writer and hockey dad Tej Swatch.

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Transcript

Podcast Introduction

00:00:00
Speaker
Oh, um, Jim, can we put in some, like, can we have me say that Jason Nixon murdered a horse with his bare hands?
00:00:23
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney. We're recording here in Amiskwitchi, Waskagand, otherwise known as Edmonton, here in Treaty Six territory. And folks, let me just start off the podcast by saying it. We got him.

Don Cherry's Controversy

00:00:35
Speaker
Yes, folks, Don Cherry is finally fucking canceled.
00:01:02
Speaker
It really is sad when you think about it, you know, this is an 85-year-old man really cut down in the prime of his hockey-commentating career. But yeah, Don Cherry finally said something so irredeemably awful and racist that he is now officially off the air. To help us process and react to this news, we have a couple of the people that Don Cherry was warning us about. First up is Mav Adeser. He is an Edmonton-based stand-up comedy guy. And our other guest is Atej Swatch, an Edmonton-based writer and hockey dad.
00:01:31
Speaker
Dudes, welcome to the progress report. What's up? Thanks for having us Okay, so let's just get right to it Let's get to the the clip that ended Don Cherry's career the downtown Toronto forget it downtown Toronto Nobody wears the poppy and I'm not gonna wait says wait a minute. How about running it for the people that buy them?
00:01:48
Speaker
Now, you go to the small cities, and you know those, the rolls on rolls, you people love you. They come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. At least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that. These guys pay for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada. These guys pay the biggest price. Anyhow, I'm gonna run it again for you great people and good Canadians that bought a poppy. I'm still gonna run it.
00:02:17
Speaker
Anyhow, I love your Ford. The least we could do. I love it. The biggest price is 25 cents. It's 25 cents, right? No, well, anything. Whatever you want to donate.

Cherry's History of Racism

00:02:29
Speaker
Well, the thing is that I never actually bought a Poppy. I've only ever stolen it from veterans because when I first immigrated here,
00:02:36
Speaker
Uh, I just thought, uh, this seems to be important, I guess, and I needed to like camouflage myself, you know, being a you people. Got to blend in. Um, I was thinking about how like Don Cherry is truly like a legend and just kind of, uh, this amazing relic, you know, and it's sad to see him go. Like he, I was thinking about how like he was the voice of the zeitgeist for a long time. And I just found out that zeitgeist means time ghost.
00:03:05
Speaker
and uh Don Cherry is basically a time ghost haunting Upper Canada as the voice of like the Etobicoke car dealership Oh Yeah, I mean and I don't think I mean the fact that he's not on coach's corner anymore It's kind of hilarious to contemplate his career as a as a media personality kind of unmoored He's already done interviews with Tucker Carlson and and like the rebel but um
00:03:32
Speaker
I don't know, Tej, like this, what was actually said here, does this strike you as being anything materially different from the other stupid racist shit he said over the past 40 years? No, not at all. It's unbelievable. Well, I guess it is unbelievable. Whatever's changed has changed, whether it's a leadership at Sportsnet or whether
00:03:50
Speaker
you know, people of whatever color that are starting to get, you know, they're starting to speak up more. More uppity. More uppity, that's right. These snowflakes and their cancel culture that's toxic. I remember back in, I don't even remember the year I wanted to look it up, but when a couple of Sikhs were prevented from going into the Legion, he had a lot to say about that.
00:04:13
Speaker
and I remember he ended one clip and I couldn't find it I really want to find it but he said uh um yeah the real soldiers the legion is about the real soldiers so he was like denying these six who were decorated who actually had you know all the verified military records he was just like no they weren't really in the war it's just such horseshit like that didn't get him fired
00:04:32
Speaker
that this did it's not different from anything i think they weren't real soldiers they weren't real soldiers no i mean i mean the funny thing about the turban discourse was that like the reform party and like western canadian racist shitheads were like all over it right it was that was our uh turban six in the r-c-m-p right yeah that's right yeah huge racism thing for like years and years but they sure came by to troll for votes you know and they kind of left that out conveniently i mean
00:04:59
Speaker
Okay, okay, so I think it is time to, as Mab said, to like pour one out for a legend here, and I think we are gonna go through some of Don Cherry's greatest hits. It'll be like Rock'em Sock'em, but instead of like brain damage and jock jams, it'll be like racism and misogyny. So let's cue up a clip here. What do we wanna start out with here? Do we wanna go with his thoughts on global warming? Do we wanna go with his thoughts on natives? You can guide me here, guys. Give me some guides. Remind us what he said about indigenous folks.
00:05:26
Speaker
Okay, well here, actually why don't we start off with the kind of greatest clip that was assembled by I think the star or something and then we'll get to his thoughts on Indigenous folks.
00:05:36
Speaker
I want to say something first of all, okay? I want to say something first of all. I don't believe, and I really believe this, I don't believe women should be in the male dressing room. I know, wait a minute, I remember the first time it happened to me, guys are walking around naked. Totally think a woman can be in the dressing room. I do believe a lot of guys take advantage and they are sexist.
00:06:00
Speaker
Natives have an inferiority complex is when something happens to them. So I said you'd have to ask Chris, but why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't some kids feel like they haven't been given a fair shake in life? Ask Davison to ask. Fair shake in life. Go out and get your own fair shake in life and work for it. Don't give me that stuff. Ben Veneux, corner de coaches.
00:06:17
Speaker
Monomies, and that's for you because all the French guys in Montreal are mad at you. But the other night, our coach is a bilingual country, remember that. The things you've said about him down here, he's racist, muscle-bound Ontario, self-lendress. Yeah, about Lendress, of course I'm talking about Lendress, like that.
00:06:33
Speaker
tearing the fabric of our nations apart. Now, look, you don't want to speak English down here. You don't want universities down here in English. You don't want signs up. How in the world do you not think an 18-year-old kid from Ontario and why he doesn't want to come here? He's a frail. Oh, he said he'd come and play in front. But Ron, did you fall off a turbotruck? You women are going to get mad at me out there.
00:06:57
Speaker
when you come to the games keep your eyes on the puck and i'm telling you i've seen some awful smacks and it's always a woman yapping away there look at the gate lots of fans what are you talking both genders get involved in talking about the game dear god holy shit wow
00:07:17
Speaker
At this point, I'm kind of angry at Sportsnet for not taking him off the air sooner.

Cultural Impact of Cherry's Views

00:07:23
Speaker
Like that's a lot. And some of those clips are from like the 80s. Yeah, exactly. They should have taken him out back in 87 and then just old yell at him. This man has been melting in front of the entire country for decades.
00:07:39
Speaker
He has kind of slowly slid into a quasi-dementia, right? I mean, was he popular because he spoke to a certain segment that watched hockey? I mean, it's just such a... I don't know. The fact that the CBC, the bastion of liberal thinking and whatever, let him stay on after all that shit?
00:07:59
Speaker
But but I think that that is like that is just what hockey is. Yeah. In a lot of ways, you know, like it's never it's never. And, you know, based on like everybody's reactions to Don Cherry, like I know this one CBC reporter out of Winnipeg is getting like just brutally harassed online right now. And yeah, it has nothing to do with the troops at all. It's just about
00:08:28
Speaker
Um, just being angry at like Canada, not looking the way you want it to anymore. I mean, if anything about this whole stupid episode makes me angry, it's just that is that he wrapped himself up in remembrance day and poppies to take a couple of pot shots at immigrants. And now it's trying to walk it back in the most cowardly way possible, but like, that's what he did. So how much, how is that respecting any of the troops as he claims to do? I mean, yeah.
00:08:54
Speaker
But he loves he loves the troops, but I I would argue that that's what Remembrance Day is about It's about shoving your face in how you are not really Canadian And he's explicitly like this segment is explicitly about policing poppies, right? It is explicitly about like if you are a Canadian if you don't wear a poppy you are un-Canadian Yeah, yeah, and you know, it's like, okay. I'm
00:09:16
Speaker
I'm a bad person because I'm not celebrating some 19 year old new fee getting murdered overseas for some dumb shit reason but like in terms of the clip like
00:09:25
Speaker
Do we let it go because he was just a daughtering old idiot that had some incisive things to say about hockey or Maybe hockey's pretty fucking inconsequential in the big scheme of

Justification of Cherry's Firing

00:09:37
Speaker
things. I don't know I mean it's like listening to that clip. I'm like he's been at this for years He's been at this for years, but also like any kind of hockey related thing always devolves into the voice of this like
00:09:52
Speaker
nativist kind of psychopath like the way no lore on Twitter when when she or Loreto yeah When she was tweeting about the beautiful hockey boys died in the truck yeah, and and how like you know I thought it was a pretty innocuous kind of like thought of just like I wonder what the outpouring would be if this weren't white kids and suddenly like
00:10:21
Speaker
Even Jason Kenney was on that dog pile. The full breadth and depth of white Canada dog pile. Oh my God. Nora Loretta. Yeah. In that context. And it isn't an emblematic of like how hockey is treated by like, you know, the like the ruling class and the like upper middle class white people, right? Yeah. I mean, like this is our
00:10:42
Speaker
Lamer version of like the gladiatorial matches except nobody gets their heads It's so lame that our nationalism has to be represented by a game and like how much we love the game and how much So, okay, so that was the the kind of greatest hits of Don Cherry, right? But but even in within that clip was his this clip around about indigenous folks about natives as he called them and there's a longer clip right there that I think is emblematic of a couple of things and I want to play it for you and Kind of get your reactions
00:11:12
Speaker
What are you saying that natives have an inferiority complex is when something happens to them? Some I said you'd have to ask Chris, but why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't some kids feel like they haven't been given a fair shake in life? Ask Davison to ask. Fair shake in life? Go out and get your own fair shake in life and work for it. Don't give me that stuff. Don't give me. I was like Ted Nolan. When Ted Nolan

Racism in Hockey Culture

00:11:32
Speaker
didn't get the job, it was racism. It wasn't racism.
00:11:36
Speaker
Look, my Ukrainian grandparents came over here and got their fair shake. I mean, it was free farmland. It was free farmland.
00:11:49
Speaker
Well, since you bring that up, if you were at NHL club and you saw all the reaction when Ted was fired in Buffalo, would you be a little leery of hiring him a second time? Yeah, well, the thing... So he is in a case... Wasn't racism, though. It was because he is. No, it isn't. It was between him and the GM. That's why he didn't get it. It wasn't racism at all. And let's never get into that again. I've lost the whole thing. No, that's good. It's an odd as well. We might as well just sit here and then how much time we got left. We've got to get a couple of minutes.
00:12:17
Speaker
for sure. A couple of minutes. A couple of minutes. Well, let's go to the troops. No, no, we got more time than that. No, we don't. This is Christmas. Let's go back in the Christmas spirit. I got 9,000 things I wanted to talk about. We got lots of time. We'll talk about it next week. Come on, we can do it. We got to do it. Do what? Well, listen. We'll get back. We'll make a little truce here at Christmas. Do what?
00:12:35
Speaker
The benches on the same side is one thing you recommended. Well, you ruined the whole thing like that. The whole thing is... The other thing you said is puck over the glass and sure enough it showed up. Foot in the crease, it showed up. Bench is touch icing. The players have all said it. Instigator rules. So why don't we show Sid the kid?
00:12:50
Speaker
just jangling keys in front of them just like come on no and the reason why I wanted to play that clip is not just the like the racism around indigenous folks but like the fact that Ron McLean over the years has had to ride shotgun with this like racist old piece of shit and like has has
00:13:07
Speaker
This is like Don Cherry is trying to like ruin Thanksgiving dinner and Don is trying to get him to stick to sports and like I don't have any sympathy for Ron McLean. I mean like fuck that guy. No, but like the this is emblematic of how well he was treated by Like people like Ron McLean and powerful people right but that he had his own personal David Spade on his TV show
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes you need someone to... Yeah, oh, it's like this, the wacky straight, you know, it's the stiff straight man next to me, the doddering old grandpa raving about the natives' ship, they should get their own fair shake or whatever. And the troops. The troops. Oh yeah, he wanted to talk about the troops, but Ron got him off talking about the natives. I mean, he had 9,000 things he wanted to talk about, I mean, in his two and a half minutes.
00:14:01
Speaker
It is amazing how Don Cherry is an old daughtering white guy, but still manages to

Cherry's Climate Change Denial

00:14:10
Speaker
be every drunk Filipino uncle I've ever had. The thing about Ron McLean is that there's an observation made at the beginning of this whole thing that the problem isn't Don Cherry, old daughtering, whatever. It's people like Ron McLean who stay quiet as he goes on.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean he didn't call him out there. He just tried to get him back on track and the thing that happened last week He didn't call him out period. He just let him finish right. I mean, it's just that's the problem It's so emblematic of Canada that like people who aren't races but aren't fucking courageous enough to call shit out It's just
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, that should run. But I would say that calling him out is not Ron's job. Ron's job is to jangle keys in front of Don Cherry so that he stops crying and finishes the broadcast. Sure. But I mean, Ron McLean is emblematic of the acquiescence of white liberals to all sorts of horrible shit.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that like you it's it's really important not to see this as two separate acts Like this is a double act, you know, this is Abbott and Costello like this isn't just the asshole in the enabler Yeah, it's it's you know, Ron's not just there like being put upon like we're gonna deal with this guy It's like no his job is to keep this going. Yeah
00:15:27
Speaker
And I have a memory of Ron McLean from my university days, where he was the keynote speaker at this Calgary Business Hall of Fame thing. Some billionaire was getting feted by a room full of oil and gas psychos. And Ron McLean was a fucking star. He was treated by royalty, by this room full of super rich Calgary elite. OK, so would it surprise you to learn that Don Cherry has interesting things to say about global warming? Here's your pal. Listen carefully.
00:15:58
Speaker
Hi, I'm David Suzuki Don Cherry's favorite left-wing kook winter sports fans know that something strange is happening with weather and climate Let's show our concern with the symbolic gesture of turning off our lights during Earth Hour But I'd keep your TV on at least finish the game David Suzuki
00:16:21
Speaker
Left wing cook, you're in Vancouver, it's warm out there. Where don't you come to Toronto? We've been freezing for two months, record set. What is this warming trend? We're all dying of cold, and each talk a warming trend. What? Paul Kelly's all over that too, along with Andrew Farance. That's probably my favorite point of the year, is that interview's sickening. It was sickening. Listen, I'm in the ice and it's cold, and when I go out of the hockey rink, it's cold all the time.
00:16:50
Speaker
Where is this global warming? Yeah, so I mean I mean he just reduced to almost in co-hate rage by just the presence of David Suzuki on his broadcast Yeah, yeah, and and he didn't have the words to like insult them So we had to borrow David Suzuki's own words and just like because he just has he just has like a handful you know that he can use and
00:17:17
Speaker
I mean there's another clip here of the on climate change that I want to play just because this one is actually from last year But go ahead. I was just gonna say why why were they running climate change clips on fucking coaches corner? Who gives like what listen these guys are on?

Cherry's Media Defense and Ideological Alignment

00:17:31
Speaker
On the ice like every day. That's their job. They know about ice
00:17:39
Speaker
The ice isn't getting choppy, it's just fine. Yeah. There's my friend Willy right there, and he predicts six more weeks of cold weather. Now, I'd like to ask you with your left-winged Pinkle friends, what about the warming trend? Like, where does that come down? You know all about that.
00:17:56
Speaker
Do you really want to get into that? No, I'm just asking you that the cuckaloos are saying the warming trend will freeze the net. Yeah, well, we're not totally cuckaloos if you look at some of the things going on in our world. But I will admit, it's nice to have a real winter. And we have, I know from hometown hockey every Saturday night, four hour delay in the cold weather. All right, let's go. Ron McLean like noted left wing activists. Oh my God. And not just like,
00:18:22
Speaker
It really is just like this amazing double act where where Don just like drags the Overton window over to Like just the farthest right, you know like Victor Orban right and then like and then and then Ron McLean is just like hey, let's just Real it into like a little bit. I mean there's damage to him having this banal uninformed counterpoint to Don Cherry's nonsense It's just like
00:18:52
Speaker
A lot of people don't see this debate anywhere else except for Coach's Corner. It might be possible they don't see it anywhere else except for Coach's Corner. And you get fucking Ron McLean representing the other side. And it's just... Ron McLean, the Adam Friedland of CBC Canada or whatever, or Rogers, whatever it is these days. I mean, Tej, you're the only hockey dad in the room here. I think it is worth broadening this conversation out to.
00:19:15
Speaker
like, the hockey world, the hockey culture. Like, does Don Cherry represent, like, what hockey culture feels like to you, or is he removed from that? I would, no, he does not represent hockey culture as far as what I've seen. And now, my son's only been in hockey only. He's only been in hockey for three years. And I'd also like to point out that your son is only seven. He's only seven. Got to get him started early, you know? He's got to get those scholarships.
00:19:46
Speaker
I have seen a lot of what Don represents in hockey. I've also seen
00:19:54
Speaker
not as much as you would think it's not the dominant thing people are respectful and that's just gonna happen this country is full of people from somewhere else and they're you know they're integrating they're doing a thing kids see people playing hockey they want to play hockey and like i my son's on a team with like all sorts of like indigenous people chinese kids arab kids everything um... and the coaches they're still white and all the rest of it and they're they you could see them as being don terry folks but
00:20:21
Speaker
they're not like they they have to be respectful because they know that it's about i i'm giving them a lot of credit i did it's about the game for them and i i think that's important to point out um then again he's only seven he's a novice when it gets higher up in years and when there actually is competition to get on a team i wonder if that stuff starts to rear its head i can say that growing up
00:20:45
Speaker
I didn't play hockey because my parents didn't want to put up with that shit. And I know kids that are a generation younger than me, just a little bit younger, they put up with unbelievable amounts of shit.
00:20:58
Speaker
Well, I think it's worth pointing out, too, that whether Don Cherry's bullshit filters down to, like, your seven-year-old son's hockey experience is probably not relevant. But what I will say is that Don has poisoned the well for discourse around hockey for so long in Canada, right? He's essentially created a safe space for racist, blowhard, dumbass white dudes for, like, since the 80s, right? And you just absolutely hate to see it. Well, I think that...
00:21:27
Speaker
More than Dawn manufacturing the safe space, I think that his existence is emblematic of that being the baseline. Because he wouldn't have been allowed on air if he wasn't...
00:21:44
Speaker
making somebody money, right? Would we have seen a Don Cherry in like basketball or soccer or even like football? Oh, in football, American football, there's a lot of shit that's in American football. Yeah, but it's all owners and they never go on mic. That's true. Yeah, they have lawyers for that stuff. But with with hockey, it's like,
00:22:04
Speaker
you know it is just this thing of a very much a reflection of the ruling class and the fact that he got canned now for honestly what seemed like more tame stuff compared to the other bullshit that he's spouted before like is emblematic of just like how the ruling class is a lot more
00:22:24
Speaker
Aware of like their need to be woke or whatever. I think they see people of color moving to games other than hockey They're moving towards basketball. That's getting more popular. They're going towards other sports and like Heaven forbid soccer actually like takes off in this country, you know soccer is an extremely popular sport for six-year-olds in Canada Yeah, but like all of the like time and attention is focused on our like precious 16 year old like God King hockey player. Oh, yeah I mean
00:22:54
Speaker
So Don Cherry, after this happened, he got fired on Monday. He was on Remembrance Day hilariously. He immediately gave interviews to all over the place, but also to the like white supremacy power hour folks. He gave interviews to the rebel. He gave an interview to Tucker Carlson from Fox News.
00:23:13
Speaker
You know, I mean, not that this was ever in dispute, but just in case he wanted confirmation that he was a racist piece of shit, like go on Tucker Carlson, right? But I think this Tucker Carlson clip that I'm going to play is interesting for just like a little bit of rule reversal. Not at the traditions of Canada. Like why is that controversial?
00:23:34
Speaker
But don't ask me. And the big thing is I should have said if I had to come through, if I had been smart and protected myself, I should have said everybody should be wearing a poppy. Yeah. Like I went downtown Trump. Yeah. And that's fair. Fair enough for the whole thing. It's a two words.
00:23:51
Speaker
that got it, that you people, and as you know, people are very sensitive like that, and that's the, they got it. But I, listen, I was laughing. Well, they're not sensitive, they're not sensitive at all. They're fascists. They're not, they actually have no real feelings. They're faking their outrage. They're trying to crush you because they want to exert power, because it makes them feel big when actually inside they're small. But you, just to clarify,
00:24:13
Speaker
So we're all fascists according to Tucker Carlson, but the the part I mean you can't see the video of this clip But like Don Cherry is kind of playing the Ron McLean role Yeah, it's like what? What we thought we were talking about hockey in Canada here, and you're talking about fashion Yeah, it's like seeing the the coyote eat Roadrunner for the first time. It's fucking awesome
00:24:36
Speaker
I was going to say, can we dispel, like get rid of the notion that all he said was you people. The whole fucking context of the thing was you people that come here that love our way of life and our milk. Like a bag milk and honey. Just trying to re litigate what the fucker said is drives me insane. And it's just, it's not what he said. Um, in terms of being a fascist.
00:25:00
Speaker
But also, you know, like I think it goes goes back to how like Remembrance Day is this thing that is weaponized in order to facilitate more jingo is bullshit as opposed to hey, isn't that fucked up that we all just like made teens do state-sanctioned murders to each other and
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah, like the discourse around the poppy here is is a real interesting question I think it's ultimately why probably why he got fired, right? I mean he could say you people maybe about half a dozen other subjects but it was because he was combining the you people and the land of milk and honey with this like Poppy discourse and the remembrance day discourse and I mean I will just come out and say that I think that the discourse around the poppy and remembrance day is broken, you know, like
00:25:48
Speaker
The fact that we don't talk about the history, the material conditions that led to the First World War, the fact that like 15 million people died in the First World War for like no good reason beyond kind of imperial greed and avarice in like some of the worst conditions ever concocted by man.
00:26:03
Speaker
And that like now it's about... Remember As Day Seems to me like filtered through boomers who've watched too many World War II movies. Yeah, well like when Wonder Woman defeated Hitler in World War I, right?
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, and and so Okay, I'm happy Don Cherry is gone. Obviously like a racist piece of shit. Goodbye But like the fact that this almost kind of like calcifies the discourse around poppies does does kind of make me not happy But that's but that is its desired effect, you know, like I I don't know maybe I'm like just a little bit more cynical here but like I
00:26:41
Speaker
Don Cherry is the wrong kind of rich white guy anyway, you know cuz he's like He's not like the he's not gonna be in the Panama Papers, you know, like he's the he's the guy who wears tablecloth for suits like fuck that guy who cares like but what you want is to keep protecting the interests of like actual rich people and for them it doesn't it doesn't make sense that we start thinking about
00:27:08
Speaker
Remembrance Day as essentially like a way to indict capitalism in a lot of ways. For Remembrance Day to be about have much more of an anti-war, pro-peace message. Not if we're like we've got like troops out in the fucking Ukraine right now doing movements or like Christian Freeland like
00:27:32
Speaker
You know cheering on Venezuela and Bolivia and stuff, you know, nobody bumps up against the idea like it is if you listen to any coverage of Remembrance Day when it's actually happening. It's all about It's sorrow porn. It's all it's all about Oh, this this what this person went through and this is what he did and all the rest of it And they all saw invariably white That went through all these horrible things to me if you're wearing a poppy and you're not anti-war I frankly think you're doing it wrong but
00:28:01
Speaker
And I think you're right Duncan, there is no discourse around that. Is this going to calcify it? I hope not. I mean, I think, um, if this tradition stays alive and people like me are coming up and I don't know if Mad Wars or not, but like, and we wear it and we have that discourse that moves away from the jingoistic fucking war loving horse shit.
00:28:19
Speaker
But it seems like the response has been much more about, well, it's like, you know, brown people died in the wars, too. Yeah, no, that's exactly just like, excuse me, sir, I would have you know that my you people also fought in this war.
00:28:32
Speaker
Well, fuck that. That's stupid. Wars are stupid, guys. Wars are stupid. That's exactly right. Oh, let me say that. That is the precisely wrong response to this, that brown people, my grandfather fought in the war, too. So the war, that's not what it's about. And ultimately why I think this blew up
00:28:54
Speaker
on Chariots that he tried to link white supremacy to the Poppy and Remembrance Day in this extremely clumsy, doddering, brain melting, old man way. And thankfully he's fucked up and he's gone. We never have to think about him again. I think that's probably untrue, but he's at least removed from his perch.
00:29:10
Speaker
I'm sad, personally. As a person who says horrible stupid things in public, I never want anybody to get fired for saying horrible stupid things in public. But also, I really love how you knew exactly what you were dealing with when you were dealing with Don Cherry. And you knew exactly what Canada was when you were looking at Don Cherry. Because despite all of our
00:29:36
Speaker
you know, like pomp and all of our smugness about being a bunch of woke, ooh, sorry, this, that. Don Cherry's there to set the record straight, that Canada is everywhere with you people. It's that, that's Canada.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I'm of two minds. I like that he's gone, but also that makes a point, right? It's just that, yeah, we need this example of that idiot to be like, no, this is what you really are. I mean, I'm a little sad that we just never got to see him have a stroke on air, which was just an extremely minute. I would argue that we've been seeing it for decades.
00:30:11
Speaker
Fair enough. Fair enough. I mean, extremely small possibility and whatever. But did anyone actually watch Coaches Corner? Do we have any numbers on them? Oh, is it when you go take a piss break? I imagine. Right. I've never watched hockey. I will never watch hockey. The perfect guest for the show. Yeah. OK, so there's there's definitely one final Don Cherry clip that I have to play for you. And it is Don Cherry speaking at Rob Ford's
00:30:34
Speaker
Inauguration not inauguration because he was just mayor but like Rob Ford's there like a grinning idiot with his like mayor's chain on and And Don Cherry gets up in this suit, and we'll probably cut this clip down a bit I probably won't play the whole thing. I'll play the whole thing for you guys sure, but it is amazing
00:30:51
Speaker
Well, actually, I'm wearing pinko for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything. I thought I'd get it in. Would you expect Ron McLean here to come here? But you know, I am befuddled because I thought I was just doing a good thing coming down with Ron and Rob. And I was going to do this here. And it's going to be nice and the whole deal. I've been being ripped as shreds by the left wing pinko newspapers out there. It's unbelievable.
00:31:20
Speaker
One guy called me a jerk in a pink suit, so I thought I'd wear that for him, too, today. You know, it's funny, in those articles, my church was, I was made fun of, because I go to church, I'm easy to do it that way. It was called modeling for the troops, because I honor the troops. This is a kind of, you're going to be facing, Rob, with these left-winged pinkos.
00:31:49
Speaker
bottom of the barrel. But again, I was asked why I was asked. And I asked Doug, why? And they said, we need a famous good looking guy. And I said, I'm your man, right, right off the bat. You know, I was asked why a landslide? And I was in their corner right from the start. They phoned me, Doug phoned me that morning you'll get a landslide. And why? Because Rob's honest. He's truthful.
00:32:16
Speaker
He's like Julian Fantino. He's what you see is what you get. He's no phony. And I could go on right now all the millions and millions and thousands of dollars. He's going to save and everything. But I'd just like to tell a little story. Rob's in the mayor one day.
00:32:34
Speaker
apology comes and a $5,000 check. That's why I say he's going to be the greatest mayor this city has ever ever seen as far as I'm concerned and put that your point you left-wing coops. Thank you very much. So I think there's only one way to react to that in that Don Cherry is a prophet and that he knew that Rob Ford was going to get caught on tape multiple times smoking crack.
00:33:05
Speaker
You know what you know now that Don Cherry has been compromised to a permanent end I hope that once he's there in heaven, he's he's smoking one with Rob Ford It's it's a beautiful picture. Is it the end there? There's a rally to support him at the City Hall today?

Public Reaction and Cherry's Impact

00:33:22
Speaker
Yeah Derek field of rent has returned to bother us and he has a petition that's up to almost 200,000 signatures
00:33:35
Speaker
I mean, I don't really know how to end this. I mean, I think I think we just all have to pour one out for a real one. Yeah. And you know, any closing thoughts on Don Cherry being relieved of his post? Yeah. Listen, Don, don't let these pinkos get you down, man. You know, there's still a lot of hope for a young upstart like you. There's, you know, try football. They love racists there. Love you, buddy.
00:34:05
Speaker
I don't know if I can add much more to that. He's an 85-year-old man who needed to retire and someone did it for him.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah. OK, well, that's it. I mean, thanks for coming on the show. We're coming to the part of our show where it is time to plug your pluggables. How can people follow you online, find out about the work that you're doing, Mav? I'm going to be, you know what? Just come to every Edmonton comedy show. I'll be there. Don't follow me on Twitter. That's private. At Mavtime. Like the herb. Time.
00:34:38
Speaker
And what are some of the comedy shows dates and places? Let's see. I'm going to be performing at the U of A in February as part of a sustainability conference. It's about my show about climate change. So come to that. Don't worry about buying tickets. Just sneak in. Say you're a student.
00:34:57
Speaker
Um, I'm just starting off the sort of writing side of my career. You can just follow me on twitter at swatch tej. Awesome. All right. And if you enjoy this podcast, if you'd like this podcast, if you want to keep hearing this podcast, um, we need people to support us financially. Yes.
00:35:13
Speaker
dollars. We need dollars. So if you want to support us financially, please go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons. Join the 250 other folks who regularly give us anywhere from five to $50 a month. And you can help Jim and I put food on our table and generally not be homeless. If you can't or don't want to give us money, there's other things you can do to help us as well. By all means, smash that like button. Please share this podcast with your friends and family and enemies. They might like it too.
00:35:43
Speaker
Something that's really helpful and actually we haven't had a review in a month or so is to go on off of podcasts and leave an actual written review That's really helpful and actually because I've got a semi-viral tweet on this going on right now I expect to actually get review bomb by pro by a by pro Don Jerry shitheads. So please go

Podcast Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement

00:36:01
Speaker
and do that Five stars only five stars only five stars or don't don't review
00:36:07
Speaker
Also, if you have any notes, thoughts, things you think I need to hear about, you can find me on Twitter at Duncan Kinney. You can reach me by email at DuncanK at ProgressAlberta.ca. Thanks so much to Cosmic Family Communist for the amazing theme. Thank you for listening and goodbye.