Sunday 2 August 2009

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

We watched with interest and dismay that Wira Gardiner was not elected as President of the National Party.

Whale is gleeful that Wira didn't get elected. Cactus reckoned that Wira has been a bit of the fair weather friend.
We were with some high profile and well connected Maori on Friday and they were pretty sure that Wira was a shoo in and they were very proud of their Toa.

We first met Wira when he was head of Civil Defence in the early eighties. He is a good bastard.
Tough and uncompromising and I salute Michelle Boag for for having the courage and foresight to back him. He is the homogenised face of the new New Zealand.

Yes as Cactus rightly points out there would have been conflict issues with having a wife as and MP. But they could have been managed.


We are saddened that he did not win let alone did not make it on the board.

Now we can see that Peter Goodfellow has his merits. He comes from one of the most powerful families in this country and its a family that enjoys being puppeteers. He will marshall funds and support for the party and that is a good thing. But will his presidency be remembered for uniting and growing the support base of the party to give it a stronger future ? Sadly we think not.

3 comments:

Cactus Kate said...

RP

How would Wira have "grown the support base of National"?

Who in their right mind thinks that sticking Wira as President would have lead to a (first time) resurgence in support for the National Party among Maori?

Anonymous said...

the minute he aligned himself with Michelle Boag it was all over for him. Put her name near anything to do with the Nats and your toast.

barry said...

One thing we HAVE to get away from in New Zealand is the choice of somebody for a public job(public meaning very obvious and with influence) BECAUSE they belong to a certain race (or culture.
When will people learn that choices on this basis are doomed to failure.
Its all about merit.
And Gardener did have real conflict with his wifes position - and its not enough to say that 'It could be handled' As the Tui add says "yea right".