English hits home run on big city ‘walkabout’
ANALYSIS: Bill English is a man on a mission.
With only three days to go, the National leader’s ‘‘walkabout’’ in Auckland yesterday was less a walk and more a runabout as English threw his hand out to everyone he passed and only stopped long enough to get a quick photo before moving on again.
The only time he did stop was to look back and check wife, Mary English, was keeping up.
He went through blocks of streets, up escalators, across food courts, back down escalators, and around another block and every time he slowed and the media contingent thought he might be done, he was off again.
Given the rather balmy temperature in Auckland yesterday afternoon and the pace he was setting, it was no wonder when he finally did stop it was at a cafe to refuel on hot chips and a cold drink.
English is not holding back on the final stretch and was clear in his stand-up with media at the end of the day that he had visited ‘‘a lot more places’’ than Labour’s campaign.
While his scheduled visits had taken him to Vodafone, ASB and lawyers’ office Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, he said that was ‘‘probably the first time’’ he’d been to corporate offices, and there was nothing wrong with that because ‘‘there’s votes there as well’’.
English has filled up every day on the trail - on Tuesday he crammed in seven events. . It’s a somewhat different strategy to Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, who has done fewer events in favour of more media, and focused a lot on school and university visits.
The only downfall in English’s strategy was running into a considerable number of tourists while out pacing the Viaduct - not a surprise on a sunny Auckland day - but their inability to vote didn’t deter him.
The feedback on his walk-run was all positive, including a Samoan construction worker telling him he thought all of Samoa would be voting for him - though that might have more to do with English’s Samoan wife.
In the past week, English has found a new gear and has a real spring in his step - you sense the leader who already knows what it’s like to lose a campaign isn’t going to leave anything in the tank.
He’s throwing the kitchen sink at the remaining days of the campaign and, despite the exhausting pace of it, his face would suggest he’s genuinely enjoying the experience.