John Key has experienced unprecedented popularity for any Prime Minister in the modern age. It is difficult to compare him with some of the greats like Seddon, Savage, Kirk, Holyoake because his access to social media has meant that he has enjoyed the ability to mix and meet with so many more of the population than would have been possible for a previous PM.
Seddon, Savage and Kirk all died in office, too - so who knows what wave of popularity they would have enjoyed if they had lasted.
We have to acknowledge that anybody following on from John Key would have more than just big boots to fill. There will be inevitable comparisons made and it will be difficult indeed for the next PM to measure up.
I have thrown my support behind Bill English because he has previously backed me as an individual and Whanganui as an electorate. As Finance Minister he found money for Collegiate School integration because closing the school would have had devastating flow-on effects through the city.
He has backed us on the Sarjeant Gallery refurbishment and extension to the tune of $10million and the Whanganui Regional Museum to the tune of $400,000 just two weeks ago.
And we are hopeful serious support will come through for roofing the velodrome to the tune of between $6 million and $7 million.
I concede that Minister of Sport and Recreation Jonathan Coleman, another contestant for Prime Minister, is also massively supportive of the velodrome project, but Bill English also gets the urgency of dealing seriously with those trapped in poverty, those in our prisons and people who struggle to make ends meet.
Having been through the "mother of all budgets" approach to fiscal decline, he and John Key cut another track in dealing with the global financial crisis and the Canterbury earthquakes which followed.
They borrowed $18 billion to keep businesses functioning and households afloat and it has paid off in spades.
It has been a privilege to work with John Key who obviously has a huge heart which he wears on his sleeve. No doubt that from his childhood in a state house to delivering papers to studying at university and, later, being a success in merchant banking, he kept close those memories of tough times.
For a multi-millionaire, the most frequent descriptions of him refer to his common touch and ability to relate to all New Zealand.
Bill English was the tag-team partner of John Key. He ran the books and shares the values, beliefs, and aspirations for New Zealand that I share, and the people of Whanganui tell me that they want to see a caring government.
Whanganui and I are backing the right horse.
■This column was written before Jonathan Coleman and Judith Collins pulled out of the leadership contest.
