In a month's time Kiwis will be voting in the New Zealand General Election. I was not too keen on watching this coming Election thinking that it will be between PM Bill English and Labour's Andrew Little. With the latter's abrupt resignation giving way to Jacinda Ardern as the leader of the Opposition Labour party things suddenly went into a tailspin. I don't ever remember that changing of leaders brought about 9 percentage points boost in the polls within days. Jacindamania has surely taken hold and a Labour victory so remote only 3 weeks ago is now a possibility and in another 3 weeks of campaigning could lead to a change of government, the first in 9 years.
Leaders are meant to inspire their troops and obviously Ms Ardern had managed to rally her troops in view of the overflowing crowds yesterday at the Auckland Town Hall. How boring and tiring if leadership fails to inspire. John Key, one of the most popular PMs in NZ history resigned abruptly last December thinking that his successor would be a shoo-in this September GE. Now with proportional representation, smaller parties could be king makers and put Labour across the line. I suppose even in the world of politics efficiency and fine running of bureaucracy are not all there is - there must excitement and vision coming from charismatic leadership. Every institution, church or secular suffers when leadership fails to ignite hopes and envisions a better future for its followers. Even as Jesus said "My people are like sheep without a shepherd" (Matt 9).
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