Hockey Divides

Hockey holds an important place in the Canadian imagination, thought to communicate quintessential stories about what Canada is and how it came into being. Within the hockey imaginary, Canadian hockey celebrity Don Cherry has loomed large. During his decades on Canadian public airwaves, he consistently sparked debate, engendering vitriolic hate from some and public adoration from others. Despite Cherry’s status as a significant Canadian celebrity and his ability to generate strong emotions – both positive and negative – in the Canadian public, he has been largely ignored by scholars and mocked in the mainstream Canadian press. In contrast, Hockey Divides takes Cherry, his audience, and those surrounding him seriously, arguing that the Canadian public’s attitudes towards Cherry tell an important story about the nation’s moral and social fault lines. Drawing on diverse media sources, including three years of Hockey Night in Canada’s “Coach’s Corner” broadcasts, Cherry’s many books, and Canadian press coverage of Cherry and other Canadian hockey celebrities, award-winning sociologist and sports researcher Kristi A. Allain addresses how Cherry signals, reifies, and fuels tensions in the nation. By examining Cherry in the context of tense public debates, Hockey Divides distils the persona and reception of Cherry as a paradigm of the polarizing state of affairs in the country.