Oh baby! Bob Cole gets his Order of Canada

Bob Cole received his Order of Canada on Friday. At this point, the honours seem almost redundant: for so many years now, Cole has been the voice of Canada, the soundtrack to our ongoing national obsession with hockey. And the man can tweet. In his own. Voice!

At 83, Cole is English Canada’s answer to Vin Scully, both of them having gone from heirs to a tradition to gold standards -- in Scully’s case, taking over from legendary baseball voice Mel Allen, while Cole has been the follow-on from Foster Hewitt (trivia note: while Hewitt was winding up his career by calling Henderson’s goal in the ‘72 Summit Series nearly half a century ago, Cole was doing the same for CBC Radio as he moved along the road that took him eventually in the late 1980s to lead duties on Hockey Night in Canada).

On the occasion of this bestowal, there’s really one thing to say: “Oh baby!” does he deserve it.