Dem
51
GOP
49
Louisiana wasn't the only place where voters headed to the polls on Saturday. Half a world away, it was time for New Zealanders to pick a new parliament and with it, a potential new leader. As it turns out, it was time for a change, as the governing liberal majority took a thrashing, while the conservatives won a comfortable victory. The result is that the nation's new prime minister will be Christopher Luxon.
The 53-year-old Luxon spent most of his career in the private sector, most notably as CEO of Air New Zealand for 7 years. He was first elected to Parliament in October 2020, became leader of the opposition a little over a year later, and now he's PM. So, it's been a meteoric rise. He is an evangelical and he is opposed to taxes, abortion, and welfare. In other words, if he was an American, he wouldn't have a hard time deciding which party to join.
Labour's big loss was not a big surprise. The party lost its leader several months back, when Jacinda Ardern stepped down due to exhaustion. There was also much resentment of the strong anti-COVID measures imposed by the government during the pandemic. Add that to certain evergreen issues like crime, inflation and government waste, and Luxon had an easy and obvious recipe for victory. And now, New Zealand's problems are his problems, and everyone will get to see how he does when he has to govern, as opposed to just griping. Sometimes these businessmen-turned-politicians don't work out too well, as you might have heard. (Z)