But he showed Thursday why he’s a little smarter than the average feathery fowl.

Manitoba’s PC party had been planning for at least a week to dress up a Tory volunteer in a chicken suit at a Doer announcement to poke fun at the premier for his refusal to participate in a single, traditional-style TV election debate.

Trouble is, Doer – who’s been keeping an extraordinarily low profile this campaign – has been doing many of his election announcements on private properties, like homes, which are off-limits to Tory hacks in chicken suits.

The Tory chicken makes its splash

But the Conservatives finally got their chance Thursday morning when all three party leaders were scheduled to show up at the CBC TV studio on Portage Avenue to tape an election “forum” – not a debate open to non-CBC journalists.

The Tory chicken and a gaggle of placard-wielding Conservative supporters arrived early at the CBC studio, chanting Crocus slogans and uttering various “Doer-is-too-chicken-to-debate” ditties in front of the building.

It wasn’t much of a chicken to tell you the truth – a scraggily, emaciated bird coloured in a sickly shade of faded yellow sporting bad shoes. He didn’t even have chicken feet.

These feet aren’t made for cluckin’

It wasn’t long before the Tories were joined by a spirited band of sign-waving New Democrats, though, who challenged and even dwarfed a somewhat deflated-looking chicken.

They jostled, jockeyed and sloganeered for about an hour – all the while waiting for Doer to arrive. But still no Doer.

Was the premier going to sneak in the back door and duck the chicken? Was he not man enough to confront this furry, feathered foe and clear his path with a good ol’ fashioned Jean Chretien, Shawinigan handshake?

Was Doer simply trying to avoid the unenviable newspaper headline: “Gary Doer chokes the chicken?”

Not at all.

While the chicken and the partisan enthusiasts were all facing west expecting Doer to arrive from that direction, the premier – coming from the east down the sidewalk – casually walked through the front doors of the building undetected.

He didn’t have to choke the chicken, he outsmarted it.

And he outsmarted the Tories, too.

Tory chicken outsmarted by NDP.