Don Cheery running for public office?

Only speculative at this point, but an interesting proposition nonetheless.

Cherry’s choice: Tories want him as a candidate

Don Cherry, the CBC broadcaster who, reports say, may be leaving his post at Hockey Night in Canada at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs, is so high on the wish list of MP Peter MacKay that the deputy leader took it upon himself last week to try to set up a meeting to court him.

The rough-and-tumble Mr. Cherry might be popular with right-leaning small-c conservatives, given his strong support of the Canadian military and his once having described the CBC as an arm of the federal government.

Update:

It appears Harper does not share McKay’s enthusiasm for Cherry’s candidacy, which is too bad seeing that Cherry has been a vigorous promoter of Canada and has never been afraid to speak his mind on a wide range of issues. Perhaps that last quality and what people often “perceive” as a anti-french attitude wouldn’t have made him a very popular man in the Commons anyways.

If Cherry is in fact interested in running for office, he certainly doesn’t need to wait to be invited. He could simple throw his hat in the ring during a constituency nomination contest and win the nomination with or without the approval of the party leader. It would then be Harper’s choice, or whomever is the leader of the party at that point, whether he would sign the nomination papers after the local party members have voted. Rejecting an elected candidate is not likely not a scenario that Harper, or any other leader of the party, would want to be confronted with.