73% want Cherry kept or paid more
Support narrower among francophones
Anne Marie Owens
National Post
May 3, 2004
Canadians want their Hockey Night in Canada to include Don Cherry -- bad suits, heated invective and all, according to a new poll.
Amid rampant speculation that the CBC is preparing to get rid of the coruscating commentator at the end of the playoffs, an overwhelming majority of Canadians favour keeping Mr. Cherry on the job, either at the same salary or even boosting his estimated $700,000 pay packet.
In a survey by COMPAS Inc. for the National Post, those in favour of keeping Mr. Cherry on the job outnumbered those who would like to see him fired by a margin of roughly three to one.
The results show that Canadian support remains strong for the bombastic half of the Coach's Corner duo in the midst of his ongoing battle with his boss, the public broadcaster, which has employed censure, in the form of seven-second tape delays, and rumoured salary cuts in its dealings with Mr. Cherry.
In fact, Mr. Cherry is so popular that the proportion of people who would boost his salary to keep him on the job (22%) is almost as large as the proportion who would have him sacked (27%.) Fifty-one percent of those surveyed say they would keep Mr. Cherry on at the same salary.
"He really is a hockey icon and these results confirm it," said Tamara Gottlieb, the poll's principal investigator. "What Canadians are saying here indisputably, is you can't take Don Cherry out of Hockey Night."
The fractious relationship between the CBC and Mr. Cherry, whose history with the broadcaster spans almost a quarter-century, has taken on the proportions of a national issue in recent months, as politicians from across Canada weigh in on whether he should stay or go.
The dispute hit its peak this February when the CBC imposed a seven-second delay on Mr. Cherry after his argument against mandating protective eye shields strayed into politically incorrect territory, with his suggestion that it is mostly "Europeans and French guys" who wear visors in the NHL.
The COMPAS poll confirms the heightened concerns that French Canada has over Mr. Cherry's role as a national commentator, with 50% of French-speakers saying they would prefer to have him terminated, and only 16% in favour of boosting his salary to keep him.
French-speakers also reported the highest percentage of those with no opinions about whether Mr. Cherry stays or goes, at 30%.
Among English-speakers, the percentage of those without an opinion was 16%. Fifty-four percent of anglophones would keep Mr. Cherry on at his same salary and 24% would increase his pay.
The poll surveyed 906 Canadians between Friday and Sunday. The sample size of the national survey is believed to be accurate to within four percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
http://www.canada.com/national/national ... 173723ff39
05-04-2004, 12:09 AM
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