In politics, there’s kicking a hornet’s nest, and there’s tripping over one.

Typing up a column about Don Cherry’s suitability for the Order of Canada without being asked to? That’s kicking a hornet’s nest.

KINSELLA: Conservative MP petitioning for Don Cherry to get Order of Canada a dumb move Back to video

Everyone has an opinion about the former hockey broadcaster. Mine is this: he made hockey games entertaining. He did. Cherry was like Donald Trump, in that you never knew what he was going to say next. But, unlike Trump, Cherry didn’t seem to revel in being cruel. He didn’t make a career of punching down.

He did like punching, however. Don Cherry knew that hockey was fast and physical, and fights were inevitable. And, let’s face it, hockey fights are sometimes entertaining.

Grapes was entertaining most of the time

So, most of the time, Cherry was entertaining. He was funny, with the garbled syntax and the byzantine sartorial choices. But, sometimes, Cherry would pop off about things that had nothing to do with hockey. And then he’d get in trouble.

You can debate whether he should’ve been kicked off the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, and – seven years later – people still do. Here’s what got him in trouble. Here’s what he........

© Edmonton Sun