The leader of the Nova Scotia NDP got off to a rough start in the legislature last month.
Gary Burrill has been reprimanded for tardiness.
As Lieutenant Governor Arthur LeBlanc was delivering his speech from the throne inside the house, outside Burrill and the NDP Labour Critic Tammy Martin were addressing those gathered to protest Bill 148.
That’s the legislation which set limits on how much an arbitrator can award during labour negotiations.
Burrill says it’s important for a leader to listen to the people.
“Honouring and respecting the gathering of a thousand people by addressing them, is every bit as important as far as democracy is concerned as attending to the pomp and ceremony having to do with the entrance of the Lieutenant Governor in the chamber of the house.”
Burrill feels his reasons were valid.
“It is also not nothing that a thousand citizens have assembled because they are incensed about an undemocratic piece of legislation.”
A memo issued by the speaker didn’t name Burrill specifically, but calls the lateness by members of the house, “disrespectful”.
