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

NEW ZEALAND PART 1

Scarcely anything is more boring than someone back from holidays with a lot of photos.  For me there were a lot of joyful memories I would like to share for those who might be interested.  New Zealand was about as far away as I could imagine, but our son Michael lives there and we felt it was past time to visit.

Auckland consistently is voted one of the top 5 most desirable cities to live in in the entire world. After spending a week there the reasons are not difficult to find.  The setting is like a fantasy--water is on just about all sides (a harbour on two different major bodies of water). My experience was during their winter, but the weather was like our middle spring.  One house near where we stayed was growing oranges on their front lawn.  Built on volcanoes there are a few notable viewing points right in the middle of town.  More on why people like Auckland in a future blog.

One visit was to Mount Eden, also known as Mangawau.  When you reach the top perhaps the first thing that strikes you is the grassy crater in the middle.  The second is the view.  You are in the midst of Auckland so you see the bustling modern downtown, but you can also see water in different directions.  One harbour faces the Pacific Ocean while another faces the Tasman Sea.  Boating is very popular and the evidence is plain to see.

Auckland has a world class museum.  You learn a lot about their Maori heritage.  It still baffles me the courage and skill required for the Maoris to sail and settle in New Zealand or as they call it, Aotearoa.   Their wood carvings are stunning.  Dinosaurs were not thought to be part of their heritage, but scientists have discovered otherwise.  They also display geological and ethnic developments over the South Pacific.  Lots of information with one section devoted to odd facts.

The Auckland Art Gallery is also impressive.  You can get a feel for how art developed from colonial times heavily influenced by Maori artistic notions.  You can also see European and American artwork.


Devonport is a part of Auckland that can be driven to, but for many people is more convenient to take a ferry ride.  We took the ferry to visit a boutique village as well as climb another big hill, Mount Victoria which at one time had some historic military facilities.

Downtown Auckland is very modern and diverse.
The diversity comes mainly from Asia and the south Pacific Islands, but includes the rest of the world including the established European colonists.  Buildings include classic older buildings and a variety of modern architecture.  There is park space and a number of interesting sculptures.

While window shopping downtown a sign that mentioned possum wool caught my attention.
We decided to investigate and learned that the possum was not our Canadian possum (who have invaded our backyard), but an Australian immigrant that loves to eat Kiwi eggs.  Some bright person figured that the fur of the dreaded Possum was actually very light and durable and so combined it with Merino wool.  We enjoyed the story and were impressed by the quality and ended up buying some yarn for a friend who knits.


On our last day we visited two unique parks. The first is called One Tree Hill.  Again in the middle of the city with a monument at the top and a volcano crater but what may catch your eye are dozens of sheep.














The other park was Western Springs.  Bearing in mind this was during the middle of winter it was a very pleasant display of nature.  Lots of not too shy birds.  What got our attention were eels which we had always thought of as gross, but having never seen one did not appreciate their beauty.







A special day for us was to visit our son's school where we were allowed to participate.  Sharon got to read two stories and talk to the students. We were impressed at how the youngsters responded to requests to tidy up and generally were well behaved and enthusiastic.







Another stop on our Auckland travels was The Big Picture, a restaurant with special wine tastings.  I had stumbled on them back home surfing the net.  We had developed a little taste for New Zealand wines and thought our vacation would be a great time to expand our knowledge.  Lisa is just as charming, enthusiastic and helpful as she is in her video which you can check out at:  http://www.thewineexperience.co.nz/  You smell a lot of specific odours (some pleasant, some not so) and then get to taste six different wines while watching a movie explaining the choices.  Lisa admitted that wine is very subjective, but there are details that can add to your enjoyment.  She explained some of the logic behind how some wine drinkers can tell what field a particular bottle was drawn from after tasting.  We both developed some new likes and have a bit better understanding about wine.

Just one of many interesting buildings downtown.  Old and modern mixed.






There is so much more to New Zealand than Auckland, but this is too long already.  You can read about our 1600 kilometre trek around the North Island including the Waitomo Caves at http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2013/07/new-zealand-part-2.html and the last is about comparisons and hopefully some insights into what New Zealand offers the world at http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2013/07/new-zealand-odds-ends.html.