Prime Minister

"Prime Minister" (2025) depicts an ideal politician, but one that was rejected by her constituency.  The subtitle is appropriate. "To rule is easy.  To lead is hard."  Mistakes are unavoidable.

To become Prime Minister required a lot of details to fall in place.  The Labour Party was trending downward in polls and the leader decided it would be better if he resigned, so he did.   Jacinda did not want the responsibility of party leader although she had earned the respect of the members.   She once said "...that's the power of saying yes, because there will also be a moment when someone will ask you to do sometihng beyond your comfort zone.  I am not unique."

New Zealand has a proportional representation system and the Labour Party finished second, however there was no majority.  This meant the third party could decide who would be the Prime Minister.  The top two parties negotiated with Winston Peters and he decided in favor of Jacinda.  One consequence reported in her book is that she decided not to legislate a capital gains tax.

Another challenge for Jacinda was that she was pregnant.  From the book again, she pointed out that both she and her partner Clarke Gayford had wanted a baby, but after some medical procedures were not able to.  As she was in her late 30's they were both pleasantly surprised.  This led to some adjustments.  Clarke handled many of the household and parental chores.  Jacinda had decided she wanted to breastfeed and with awkwardness was able to do so in Parliament, but did cut out after awhile.

She brought baby Neve to the United Nations and heard one of Trump's rants.  The camera showed some of the other members reaction and it was mostly negative.  A bit later Stephen Colbert asked her about the laughter, prompting her to say that question could provoke a diplomatic incident.  She did point out that after Trump had said, "I wasn't expecting that.  But that's okay" the laughter was mostly with him and not so much at him.

As a progressive she was able to help steer legislation towards dealing with climate change, mental health and parental supports.  New Zealand improved access for abortions.  But soon enough crises took up much of her time and energy.

In 2019 a terrorist massacred in Christchurch 50 Muslim worshippers.  She flew down and did her best to comfort the survivors.  Jacinda felt even if they were refugees they were New Zealanders.  She refused to name the murderer, but made efforts to remember the victims.  Donald Trump, like other national leaders phoned to express his sympathy.  After he asked if there was anything he could do she told him sympathy and love for Muslims were what was needed" the response was silence

Jacinda was aware of a conflict between police procedures and Muslim burial customs.  She was able to be diplomatic to everyone's satisfaction.   A personal note, when my brother in law Ali, died after visiting family in Morocco, his wife, my sister Rebecca and one daughter were in Montreal. They had to quickly cut though some red tape so they could get over in time for Ali's burial.

Another consequence was to tackle gun laws.  In the book she recounts there is a strong cultural tie for hunting, but she checked hunters and resolved that some firepower was not needed.  The film shows people turning in the newly banned guns. 

A relatively minor crisis was a volcano that killed a small number of people and required evacuation.  New Zealand has been formed by volcanic activity.  The city of Auckland is built on extinct volcanoes.

 

 To the left is me, inside an extinct volcano in Auckland.  A bit of a tourist attraction.

 

 

 

 

 The Covid pandemic was global and New Zealand was not spared.  Jacinda took decisive action including shutdowns.  Masks were required in some situations and when vaccinations were available some employees were required to get them.  Another consequence was inflation.  Protests soon started and some became violent with fires.  She found herself viciously verbally attacked.  In the film she explains that they may have done too much instead of doing too little, but the difference was lives.  In fact New Zealand did relatively well compared to other nations.

Polls were against Jacinda even as the pandemic wore down.  Protests continued and she admits that she was worn down and concerned she might not have enough to handle another crisis.  Clarke felt she should stick it out, but she made a decision to resign.

As the pandemic wound down she decided to make a trip to the Antarctica.  She was interested in the failed trip by Ernest Shackleton, but was struck by the fact that all the participants returned alive.

Joe Biden took over a mess mainly a direct result of Covid and Trump's poor management of it.  One unavoidable result was inflation.  Of course shutdowns and health restrictions hurt many and they were quick to blame Biden.  In fact the United States did better than all of the G7 nations, but the irony ended up that Trump with a sorry record was able to become president again.

Afterwards she and Clarke got married, an event that had been postponed for political crises.  They both ended up at Harvard University where she could lecture and take part in some climate change projects.  One statement shown from her university lectures where she pointed out that there is too much binary partisanship that blocked solving global problems.  If one side strongly feels they are right and the other side is wrong there is little chance for dialogue. 

There was a little snippet showing her watching the Kamala Harris/Donald Trump debate.

When there is a challenge such as Covid everyone might have to sacrifice, but unfortunately there always seems to be a minority that resents any restrictions and will stir up others.  In Canada this resulted in the Freedom Convoy that disrupted life for many others.  Now to maintain our sovereignty, sacrifice is necessary and our Prime Minster, Mark Carney has pointed that out.  Hopefully that will work.

The filming was mostly in New Zealand, truly a beautiful country with an emphasis on the capital city of Wellington including the beehive that is the office section of their government headquarters.  Cambridge, Massachusetts was shown at the beginning and the end.  The United Nations was also shown.

Some crew members who made this documentary worth watching

Clarke Gayford, her husband was a key crew.  A lot of family time films provided some intimacy.  He was also a producer. He has 2 credits as a writer, 2 as a director and 1 as an editor.

Gigi Pritzker was another producer with 40 credits as producer and 1 for writing including "21 Bridges" (2019) and "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" (2021). 

Linsday Utz was a director.  She has 13 credits as editor, 2 for producer and 2 for directing including 2 episodes for Frontline.

Sofia degli Alessandri composed the music.  She has 35 credits for composing, 18 for the music department and 2 for producing.

I watched the American television premiere and assume it will soon be available for streaming and at your local library or video stores.  Jacinda Adern is a politician like we need more of.

To get more details check out http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2025/08/a-different-kind-of-power.html

Another post about her earlier:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/03/a-better-way-to-deal-with-sick-shooters.html

A Different Kind of Power

Jacinda Ardenne is in so many ways a uniquely positive leader. She was born in Hamilton, New Zealand but her father became a sergeant and gained a position in charge of a small town police station.  She has been raised as a Mormon. 

 Her mother complaining about flyer delivery got Jacinda her first job, something my mother did for me.  

She was studying at Arizona State University at the time of 9-11.  While many were condemning all Arabs as terrorists, Jacinda asked  "Why?"  

New Zealand has an electoral system different from America or Canada.  Voting districts are decided by whoever gets the most votes.  Each voter also a chance to vote for a party.  Most often there is a disparity between the parties of winning candidates and the party preferences of the other pooled vote.  To reflect that differences other Parliamentarians are selected to better represent the will of the voters.   Their system is more democratic than ours.  A politician can be elected by winning in a district or off a party list if their party gets enough votes.  The parties negotiate to decide how decisions are to be made.

Jacinda at an early age proved to be talented and conscientious and found herself being ranked high on her Labour party list.  In her first two elections she was successful  at getting elected to Parliament on the opposition side.  After negotiations with two other parties she was able to be the Prime Minister.

Just another personal note.  During the inaugural celebrations one of the performing bands was Fat Freddy's Drop that I discovered while visiting New Zealand and still listen to them.

Notably she was the first Prime Minister to give birth while in office.  As an unwed mother it was assumed it must have resulted from an accident.  Not so,  She had become conscious that time was running out and with her supportive boyfriend Clarke Gayford she made attempts to become pregnant and consulted with infertility experts.  She had given up hope, but the day she was declared Prime Minister she learned she was pregnant. 

A crisis occurred when a terrorist killed 50 Muslims and injuring many others in Christchurch.  She visited to give comfort to the survivors and their families.  She was expecting anger and grief from an Iman, but was told he thanked the people of New Zealand for supporting his community.  

New Zealand did not have as much gun violence as many other countries, but she felt something had to be done to curb guns.  She called together the first responders who were familiar with pump action guns and asked how many were hunters and then asked them to differentiate between five and ten round guns.  They admitted for hunting ten rounds were unnecessary so the government banned the ten round version and set up a recovery program to encourage citizens turning in their 10 round pump action guns.  Jacinda also campaigned to restrict violent messages on social media with some success.

Another strategy was to not mention the name of the killer and give more emphasis to the victims.  Donald Trump called and asked why she was calling the killer a terrorist.  She pointed out that the killer was trying to spur more violence.  When Trump asked if there was anything he could do, she responded "You can show sympathy and love for all Muslim communities."  Not recorded his response, but I imagine it was silence.

Another personal note.  My cousin Linda and her husband Derek happened to be in New Zealand at the time with a pet care program that allowed them to get free room and board in return for looking after pet needs.  They had been in Christchurch about two weeks before the killing, went to a nearby community and returned about two weeks after the killing.   

The Covid pandemic caught everyone off guard, but Jessica had been monitoring developments and when it hit New Zealand had to make some difficult choices.  Lockdowns and other restrictions were part of the defense.  When vaccines became available the government did what they could to expedite distribution.  Jacinda noted the "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa, Canada that marked resistance to vaccines.  New Zealand achieved a high rate of inoculations and were relatively safe, but with long lasting effects.  On the positive side they managed to increase life expectancy.

On the brighter side her government declared a new national holiday, Matariki , the Maori New Year.  The government had made the teaching of New Zealand history compulsory in schools.  She felt all New Zealanders had to appreciate how the country was founded and be conscious of mistakes that had been made.  Quite a contrast to Trump who wants to downgrade the horrors of slavery.

There were many ups and downs during her administration but her popularity started to decline and she became sensitive to criticism and started to think someone else could better represent the Labour Party.

A couple of instances triggered the decision to resign. During a medical exam in preparation for a trip to the Antarctic a small lump was discovered and she started to think if it was cancerous she would have to leave.  It turned out to be insignificant.  During Parliament an exchange with an opposition member led to a remark that was captured on mike where she called him "an arrogant prick."

On the other side she was feeling guilty about being a too often neglectful mother.  She decided to resign.

Her administration did many good things for New Zealand that resulted in social benefits.  One goal had been to create a capital gains tax, but was unsuccessful.  Asked many times what she hoped to accomplish as Prime Minister, one striking response was "I want people to feel {this government} that it is open, that it's listening and that it's going to bring kindness back."  She chose the word "kind" for her title.  Being Prime Minister in the best of time you have to make difficult choices.

She and Clarke did get married.

Jacinda was able to move to Boston and work on fellowships with Harvard University allowing her to interact with students on case studies.  She also is very involved with a Climate Change project led by Prince Andrew.  She endorsed Kamala Harris for U.S. President.

We need more politicians like Jacinda who are not afraid to ask "WHY?"

Another blog on Jacinda Ardern  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/03/a-better-way-to-deal-with-sick-shooters.html

A book I read awhile back helps explain a difference between America and New Zealand.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2012/06/fairness-and-freedom-book-review.html

Abundance

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describes themselves as liberals, but in examining the future realize that liberals have gotten mired in regulations trying to make everything fair and environmentally friendly.  They don't spare conservatives very much either. 

The future has its share of problems caused in part by how we have muddled this far.  The title "Abundance" is meant to contrast with Scarcity.  Problems might be solved by restricting or expanding.  This post deals with a few issues, but there are many others discussed and more in depth how to approach them.

Home ownership as an investment depends on scarcity.  Zoning laws have been designed to exclude.   Home owners are careful about who and what they allow in their neighborhood.   These factors have contributed to an increase in homelessness in developed countries.    see http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/02/excluded.html

Although manufacturing productivity has dramatically increased construction has not.  Many construction projects not only end up costing more, but many of them are not completed.  The reason is for the increase is regulations and procedures.  Important adjustments will have to be made, but many of them will be very difficult if we aren't able to cut through a lot of red tape.  "There will be billions of equipment and appliances that will have to be replaced with renewables."

Science research is mired in bureaucracy, yet it has been fundamental to the economy.  Immigrant scientists have been an important part of American progress.  The book was published after the 2024 election and since then Donald Trump has made a big point of cutting a wide range of programs including for science research and attacked universities including foreign students.  Scientists and science students are starting to look elsewhere.

Operation Warp Speed illustrates contrasting perspectives.  It was one of the most successful national projects that saved countless lives, but Republicans who could take much of the credit for implementing it do not want to credit government with managing anything that important and it also ran into a segment of their supporters who were against vaccines.  Democrats do not like to credit Trump with anything good. 

The over riding reason that it worked was that key decision makers realized the Covid Pandemic was a real emergency and were able to cut through a lot of procedures.  

Republicans have been criticizing government- as "the problem"  and not a desirable place to work.  This contrasts with a very progressive Singapore where there is heavy competition for government jobs

Some new pathways to solve our current issues are discussed and I hope that more people become aware of the choices to be made.  We will need more than a few intelligent decision makers.

Both authors have attracted my attention and brought up worthy ideas for blogging.

Another post on Ezra Klein:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/05/why-were-polarized.html

Another post of Derek Thompson:   http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2018/02/hit-makers.html