{"id":15317,"date":"2025-09-11T05:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15317\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T05:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:35:08","slug":"the-secrets-of-one-of-new-zealands-most-enduring-political-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/15317\/","title":{"rendered":"The secrets of one of New Zealand\u2019s most enduring political tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the shifting sands of local politics, the longevity of The People\u2019s Choice in Christchurch is an outlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around \u014ctautahi, there\u2019s one reliable aspect of election season: dozens of hoardings around the city emblazoned with the logo of The People\u2019s Choice (TPC). More than a statement of democracy, the name belongs to one of the biggest, most consistent local elections tickets in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big-tent progressive ticket with a focus on community, environment and public ownership and social justice,\u201d says Paul McMahon, co-chair of the group. He is also campaigning to retain his role on the Linwood community board, one of 35 TPC candidates across Christchurch City Council, Environment Canterbury and Christchurch community boards. McMahon has been part of The People\u2019s Choice for two decades, back when it was known as Christchurch 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a political context, a ticket is a loose grouping of aligned candidates, like a party but less formal. They\u2019re common in New Zealand local body politics, which national political parties have traditionally tried to distance themselves from to varying degrees<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"aPaul McMahon has been involved with The People\u2019s Choice (formerly Christchurch 2021) for two decades. (Image: Shanti Mathias)<\/p>\n

Formed 30 years ago, to contest the 1995 local elections, The People\u2019s Choice has variously been affiliated with Labour, the Alliance and the Green Party. Currently, it\u2019s strongly aligned with Labour \u2013 it gets support and volunteers from local Labour electorate groups \u2013 and has a memorandum of understanding with the Green Party, and several Green Party members running under its banner. Candidates who are Labour members will have \u201cThe People\u2019s Choice \u2013 Labour\u201d listed as their affiliation on voting forms, but the central Labour Party doesn\u2019t decide policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The alumni list is distinguished. Megan Woods was The People\u2019s Choice\u2019s mayoral candidate in 2007, and Jim Anderton (whose fingerprints are all over much of Christchurch politics<\/a>) suggested the rebrand from Christchurch 2021 in 2010, when he was running for mayor too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"aFormer minister (and People\u2019s Choice candidate) Megan Woods, photographed in her Beehive office by Michelle Langstone<\/p>\n

Local politics is changeable: it has neither the budgets nor the prestige of central government elections. How, then, has The People\u2019s Choice lasted this long?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Money is one reason. Part of agreeing to be a People\u2019s Choice candidate is a commitment to give part of your stipend as a councillor\/community board member back into the organisation. \u201cYou\u2019re expected to pay into that fund,\u201d McMahon says. To Melanie Coker, current Christchurch councillor for Spreydon and People\u2019s Choice campaign chair, that leads to better political representation. \u201cWe give opportunities to individuals to run for election with fewer resources who wouldn\u2019t run by themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have a wider range of candidates, more women and people of different ethnicities.\u201d<\/p>\n

New candidates are given advice and support on campaigning \u201cto have the confidence to really connect with voters\u201d, Coker says. McMahon is big on candidates meeting people in person as much as possible. \u201cYou need to disabuse candidates of the idea that spending a bunch of time on social media is worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work begins nearly a year before elections \u2013 for 2025, The People\u2019s Choice convened a strategy panel in November, which called for nominations and selected Coker as campaign chair. April, May and June are for confirming selections. \u201cEvery time, we say we should do it in March,\u201d says McMahon. \u201cBut that never happens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"aNathaniel Herz Jardine is running as a People\u2019s Choice candidate in Heathcote (Image: Shanti Mathias)<\/p>\n

Nathaniel Herz Jardine is one new candidate, campaigning for a council seat in Heathcote. He says the selection process was fairly straightforward. \u201cIt was sort of like a job interview,\u201d he says. Candidates gave a speech to the selection panel, who then decided which candidates they would support. While candidates agree on core policy \u2013 The People\u2019s Choice has a 2025-2028 vision<\/a>, featuring pest control, te Tiriti partnership, mass rapid transit, and publicly owned water and electricity assets \u2013 candidates can decide on local issues to champion without the need to caucus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve decided on most of my priorities from doorknocking,\u201d says Herz Jardine. \u201cRates are really high for people who have retired, people are frustrated there aren\u2019t enough transport options.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

McMahon is acutely aware that \u201cthere\u2019s a smaller chunk of people who vote in the body election and they skew a bit more to the right\u201d. The People\u2019s Choice and its Labour affiliation won\u2019t win everywhere. In Harewood, for example, where right-wing councillor Aaron Keown was reelected unopposed, \u201cI don\u2019t think a People\u2019s Choice branded candidate could win,\u201d McMahon says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group tries to be strategic about its campaigns. \u201cWe don\u2019t think it\u2019s an imperative to run everywhere \u2013 we\u2019re prioritising areas which we think are the best use of our resources.\u201d The People\u2019s Choice has nine candidates running for Christchurch City Council, where there are 17 total seats, and five Environment Canterbury candidates running in Christchurch seats. Altogether, this covers much of the city, sticking to Christchurch and not extending into other areas like Selwyn or Waimakiriri councils. If past elections are anything to go by, their success is likely: in 2022, The People\u2019s Choice ran 30 candidates, winning all but one community board position, six city councillor roles and two seats on Environment Canterbury.<\/p>\n

Does it actually help to have the name recognition of a ticket? After all, most people don\u2019t vote in local elections, and The People\u2019s Choice has limited visibility between campaign seasons. \u201cMost people don\u2019t know much about The People\u2019s Choice,\u201d says Herz Jardine, who is doorknocking when I call him, somewhere on a windy hill that keeps nearly snatching his words away. He estimates that only 5-10% of people recognise the affiliation when he introduces himself. All elections in Canterbury are first past the post, so each contest runs separately.<\/p>\n

Maybe the name recognition of The People\u2019s Choice is less important than the institution itself. McMahon points out that a key difference between local and central politics is that no matter who is elected, there\u2019s no opposition and governing parties on opposite benches. No matter how bitter the disputes, \u201cyou\u2019re all in governance together\u201d. So perhaps the most useful part of joining The People\u2019s Choice is what happens after an election. Coker says it makes a difference knowing there are other elected members who will support her at the council table. \u201cIt can get stressful,\u201d she says. \u201cIf we get elected we can advocate together.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the shifting sands of local politics, the longevity of The People\u2019s Choice in Christchurch is an outlier.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4487,17578,17579,14329,17580,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":["post-15317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christchurch","tag-christchurch-city-council","tag-environment-canterbury","tag-local-elections-2025","tag-megan-woods","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}