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NDP's Chicken Cracklings Raise Fowl Tone In B.C. Over Liberal Lobbyists

The Canadian Press, 24 Feb, 2015 04:21 PM
    VICTORIA — There's trouble in the hen house at B.C.'s legislature, with politicians beaking off at each other and a cabinet minister clucking like a chicken.
     
    Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson apologized for his fowl tone after he made chicken clucking noises during question period.
     
    The Opposition New Democrats have been crowing about the thousands of dollars paid by at least three post-secondary institutions to hire Liberal-connected lobbyists that could be placed at the top of the government's pecking order.
     
    NDP Leader John Horgan says post-secondary institutions should be spending their money on students and programs instead of lobbyists such as Wilkinson, who lobbied Simon Fraser University before being elected.
     
    Wilkinson vowed to instruct institutions that they don't need to hire lobbyists to influence the government, but not before he called the NDP's questions chicken clucks and referred to the Opposition benches as a chicken coop.
     
    The NDP is citing documents that detail lobbyist deals with Vancouver Community College, Royal Roads University and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

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