WELLINGTON: Jacinda Ardern took office three years ago promising “relentless positivity,” and the New Zealand leader has needed her in abundance as a succession of catastrophes besieged the nation and tested her mettle.
In a hectic first term, Ardern has faced New Zealand’s worst terror attack, a deadly volcanic eruption, the country’s deepest recession in more than 30 years, and the shared global threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Along the way, she also had a baby and became the international standard-bearer for progressive politics in an era of right-wing populist strongmen.
Ardern had been in office for just 18 months when a white supremacist gunman opened fire at two Christchurch mosques during Friday prayers, killing 51 Muslim worshipers and wounding another 40 on March 15 last year.
His skillful and compassionate response to the gunman’s hateful rampage defined the image of the charismatic center-left leader around the world.
When he put on a headscarf and comforted the families of the victims after the shooting, it resonated around the world. He would later describe it as a spontaneous gesture of respect for the Muslim community.
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But it also won praise for decisive political action, including swiftly enacted gun law reforms and a push to force social media giants to tackle hate speech online.
The New Zealand public used the October 17 general election to emphatically endorse the performance of the 40-year-old woman, giving her a second three-year term in office.
Ardern’s campaign speech focused heavily on his government’s success in containing the coronavirus, with New Zealand recording just 25 deaths out of a population of five million people.
She argued that only her center-left Labor Party could be trusted to keep New Zealanders safe with a combination of strict border controls and widespread testing for COVID-19.
“This has been a really difficult time for New Zealand – we have had a terrorist attack, a natural disaster and a global pandemic,” he said.
“But in these difficult times, we have seen our best. We have been able to overcome great obstacles and face great challenges because of who we are and because we had a plan.”
Life within New Zealand has largely returned to normal after a strict shutdown earlier this year, barring a brief outbreak in Auckland that has now been contained.
The success helped Ardern win a poll he called a “COVID election” and the 55 percent personal approval rating he recorded in opinion polls before the vote demonstrates the bond he has forged with his fellow Kiwis during tough times.
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gestures as she delivers her victory speech to Labor Party members at an event in Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday, October 17, 2020 (AP Photo / Mark Baker).
“JACINDA-MANIA”
Ardern grew up in the interior of the North Island, where his father was a police officer. She attributes the poverty she saw there shape her beliefs.
She was raised Mormon but left the faith in her early 20s due to her stance against homosexuality.
After completing a degree in communications, Ardern began her political career in the office of former Prime Minister Helen Clark before heading to Britain to work as a policy adviser in the Tony Blair government.
She was elected to parliament in 2008 and in March 2017 she became the deputy leader of the Labor Party, saying at the time that she was not ambitious and saw herself as a secret employee.
Ardern transformed from self-described “political nerd” to prime minister in a wave of “Jacinda-mania” after being pushed into Labor leadership just seven weeks before the 2017 election.
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She made headlines again a year later when she became the world’s second prime minister to give birth while in office, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
After Christchurch, he returned to offer comfort to the nation, when the White Island volcano (also known as Whakaari) erupted last December, killing 21 people and leaving dozens more horribly burned.
Ardern has consistently urged New Zealanders during the coronavirus crisis to “be nice,” calling for a unified approach to what she calls a “team of five million.”
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One high-profile fan is American talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who last year saw Ardern as a model of compassion and grace under pressure.
“We have to make the decision every day to channel our own inner Jacindas,” Winfrey said, advice that many New Zealanders appear to have taken seriously in Saturday’s election.
