Cherry was born in Christchurch on 29 September 1946.[1] His parents were James Conrad Cherry and Mona Hartley, who had married in 1940.[2] Cherry could trace his ancestry back to the Cressy, one of the First Four Ships that started the settlement of Canterbury.[2]
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At the 1987 election he stood for the Labour Party in the Christchurch electorate of Fendalton. He boosted Labour's vote by 6.73%, but fell 311 votes short of defeating the incumbent MP Philip Burdon.[4] Ahead of the 1990 election he put himself forward to replace former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer as the Labour candidate for Christchurch Central. He lost out on the Labour nomination to Lianne Dalziel but was, by his own estimation, the second preference and pledged to campaign for Dalziel.[5]
^Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington Press. p. 225. ISBN0-475-11200-8.
^Malthus, Nigel (20 September 1990). "Cherry says he was 'runner-up'". The Press. p. 7.