When then-mayor Jono Naylor announced in 2014 he was standing for the National Party and pinning his colours to a certain mast, he felt in some people's eyes he became the Devil overnight. Photo / Judith Lacy
When then-mayor Jono Naylor announced in 2014 he was standing for the National Party and pinning his colours to a certain mast, he felt in some people's eyes he became the Devil overnight. Photo / Judith Lacy
Louisa Wall had the guts to ask the question many wanted the answer to.
Why did then Palmerston North mayor Jono Naylor give up his mayoral chains to run for Parliament?
And even more so, why did the former social worker who had been a swing voter stand for the National Party in the 2014 general election?
Wall asked him while they were on a select committee trip. “‘So how come you ended up in National Jono?’ and I said ‘it’s really simple Louisa, they asked, your guys didn’t’.”
And the blue team really did ask Naylor to be its Palmerston North electorate candidate.
“I said ‘no, don’t be silly, I love what I’m doing’. And then they said ‘are you sure’ and I said ‘yes, I’m really sure’ and they said ‘are you really, really sure’. This is over the case of a number of months and they said ‘are you really, really sure’ and I said ‘oh wait, let me think about this for a minute, no I don’t’. And they said ‘are you really, really, really, really sure’, and I went ‘well I guess if I’m ever going to do this now is the right time in life to do this’.”
The youngest of his three children was in Year 12 so he thought if he was ever going to have a tilt at national politics it was probably the best time.
He did not want to be on his deathbed asking himself “what if”.
Until then Naylor had no party affiliations and had to join the National Party to become its Palmerston North candidate. He didn’t win the seat but at 51 on the party list made it into Parliament.
Jono Naylor enjoyed the breadth of stuff he got to do during his time as mayor of Palmerston North.
He says as mayor he must have walked a good line because all the people on the right perceived him as a leftie and those on the left as right wing.
Naylor had not been impressed with the Labour Party’s behaviour the previous year. He thought the party hung then-leader David Shearer out to dry and after watching the process to replace Shearer thought he could never be a part of “that lot”.
“When the Nats approached me I thought well, it’s clearly never going to be Labour and I had had enough to do with a number of the senior people within the National Party at the time that I respected them enough that I thought I could work with those guys.”
In October 2013, he had been re-elected as mayor but by May 2014 was the National candidate.
Jono Naylor aged about 4. He went on to attend Wairarapa College and Massey University.
People asked why he bothered standing for mayor if he knew he was going to run for Parliament but he says he wasn’t thinking that far ahead.
“I am a person who has taken opportunities as they have arisen rather than set out with a great strategy and a plan for life. And a lot of people don’t believe that about me because of the things that I have done. They kind of assume that since a boy I’ve wanted to be a politician or something like that.”
It was more a case of “why not”.
“I’ve never been an ideologically driven person. I don’t even think of myself as left or right, I generally think of myself as a pragmatist and doing what works. So I’m not for big government or for small government. I‘m for government being involved when it makes most sense for them to be involved to deliver good outcomes for communities.”
Naylor, 56, doesn’t regret resigning as mayor, saying he is grateful for the opportunities he has had since.
“It was really just a situation presented itself and I had to make a choice rather than any kind of preplanned or preconceived stuff.
“But boy, you go from being this person who is generally and reasonably widely accepted to becoming almost like the Devil overnight as soon as you pin your colours to a certain mast. I had people who suddenly because I was the National candidate just would barely speak to me any more. They started seeing me through this other lens and yet nothing has changed about me but people’s perception of me changed almost overnight because they went ‘oh, I didn’t realise he was one of them’ and I was going ‘I didn’t realise I’ve changed’.”
The grandfather of three reckons he will go to his grave believing being mayor was the best job he ever had. He felt like he fitted perfectly into the puzzle.
Next week: Jono Naylor has some advice for local and national politicians.
