By this she meant that when choosing Labour candidates I should be thinking about a government in six, nine or 12 years into the future.
I recalled Helen's advice at the dozens of selection meetings I chaired over three parliamentary cycles and I think I did pretty well with this aspect of the job.
More than half of the members of the Cabinet were initially selected as parliamentary candidates on my watch.
This includes an NZ First Minister, Shane Jones, who was originally elected as a Labour MP.
After a year in the job with polls pointing towards a second term, this government has made the most of its opportunities, tackled knotty problems and done well by almost any measure.
Though I avoid predictions about election outcomes, my suspicion is that the next general election will see National's hold on provincial New Zealand heavily weakened, with chunks of its former support bleeding off to Labour, and especially to New Zealand First.
In recent weeks I've visited Whangarei, Palmerston North, Greymouth, Hokitika, Hastings, Napier, Hamilton, Dunedin and Gisborne.
In all these places I've noted a positive buzz with lots of main streets getting flossied up and long planned projects finally getting under way.
In Whangarei, Shane Jones' Provincial Growth Fund will be bridging a financing shortfall and getting the long-mooted Hundertwasser Art Centre built.
This is a delightfully eccentric building designed by an internationally renowned architect who lived much of his life in Northland.
It's exactly the magnet that's needed for well-off art-loving Aucklanders to give their credit cards a work-out in a delightful provincial city which hasn't till now attracted its fair share of the visitor dollar.
There's no doubt that the politician of this year is Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. She made the very best of an opportunity she didn't seek, built an unlikely but stable government and has galvanised progressive forces locally and internationally.
With a depressing international trend towards right-wing authoritarianism, her Labour-led government has turned New Zealand into a social democratic beacon of hope in a benighted world. Again.
Her support in the preferred PM stakes speaks for itself and she inspires and deserves the kind of affection I suspect we haven't seen in this country since the time of Michael Joseph Savage.
Given that every commentator is going to reach the same conclusion as me, I've decided that the accolade in contention this year is the silver medal.
For this runner-up position, there is intense competition.
New Zealand First Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has to be a contender. Given the choice of becoming "a midwife or an undertaker" as one Wellington wit put it, he chose the former, perhaps without realising just how literally true the "midwife" epithet would be. He brings wisdom, stability and his own grace and style to this government.
Those in National who pray that this will be his last term would be well advised to note his Cheshire cat grin when posing with the Prime Minister of Malaysia - Winston's senior by nearly two decades.
Labour Party Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis is also in the running. He too was thrust into a job he didn't actively seek and he struggled at first.
He's quickly grown into the job and already stemmed the rising tide of prisoner numbers without stirring the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" brigade. Kelvin's a success in two cultures. With more than half of our prisoners identifying as Maori, he offers insights into a truly shameful aspect of 21st century New Zealand.
Phil Twyford, successfully juggling two massive portfolios, Stuart Nash helping to take the heat out of the ever-volatile crime issue and Damien O'Connor - a master of the rare plain-speaking approach to politics - are also contenders.
It's a crowded field, but my silver medal goes to Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
All successful governments need a trusted senior figure to perform the function of a kind of a glue.
Michael Cullen and Bill English filled this essential slot in previous governments, but neither faced the multi-party challenges that Grant Robertson makes look easy.
The target of a "Big Lie" strategy by the unlamented Steven Joyce, Grant's numbers passed all scrutiny and form the bedrock for what's looking like a long-term government.
And he's a nice bloke!
Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
