Supporter leaves dying message
A passionate Labour supporter died less than two weeks before voting opened, but his message has reached thousands.
Rangiora community stalwart Peter Allen – who suffered from motor neurone disease – died on August 30, 12 days before early voting began.
The highly respected former Rangiora High School principal and Waimakariri District Councillor left a video message on Facebook as a ‘‘last time voter’’ voicing his support of Jacinda Ardern and her party.
It has been viewed more than 7000 times, even by the Labour leader herself.
Allen explained why he was going to vote for Labour, with a framed caricature of Ardern propped beside him.
The 71-year-old, breathless but staunch in his delivery, said he saw Ardern’s leadership potential a year ago.
‘‘I’m a motor neurone disease sufferer and as such I will be a last time voter at the coming elections,’’ he said.
He finished the message with the words, ‘Let’s do this’’.
Ardern commented on the post on his son Michael’s Facebook page the night of his death.
‘‘So moved by your dad’s passion and focus on others, and on our environment,’’ she wrote.
‘‘From the messages I can see he was a really special person.
‘‘My thoughts are with you and your whanau.’’
Allen’s daughter, Catherine Bish, said ‘‘he would have been pretty thrilled by that’’.
Cartoonist Jeff Bell, whose caricature featured in the video, also commented on the post saying Allen was his principal at Rangiora High.
‘‘[He] gave me my first cartoon commission as a third former for the school calender. A smart, kind man.’’
Bish said she found out only recently that her lifelong Labour-supporting father had once put his name forward for nomination for the party.
‘‘He said it was the best thing that never happened to him.’’
He became involved in local politics instead, where he could help people at a more grassroots level, particularly through the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes.
‘‘He believed very strongly in social justice, collective power and in the individual’s power to make a change within our democracy.’’
He wanted so much to vote in the 2017 election, she said.