New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern: Things you need to know about her

Jacinda Ardern, full name Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, was born on July 26, 1980 in Hamilton, New Zealand. She became the politician in August 2017 and then in October 2017, at age 37, became the country's youngest prime minister in more than 150 years, reports Britannica.

In New Zealand's general election on Saturday, Jacinda Ardern's center-left Labor Party won a landslide victory by rewarding voters for her decisive response to the Covid-19.

Early Life And Start In Politics

Before earning a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies (2001), Ardern began her association with the Labour Party. In 1999, at age 17, she joined the party and, with the help of an aunt, became involved in the reelection campaign of Harry Duynhoven, a Labour member of parliament (MP) in the New Plymouth district. Following graduation, Ardern became a researcher for another Labour MP, Phil Goff. That experience would lead to a position on the staff of Prime Minister Helen Clark, the second woman to hold New Zealand's highest office and Ardern's political hero and mentor.

Ardern worked for two and a half years in the cabinet office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, serving as an associate director for Better Regulation Executive with the primary responsibility of improving the ways in which local authorities interact with small businesses. In 2007 she was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), a position that took her to destinations such as Algeria, China, India, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.

In 2008 Ardern was chosen as Labour's candidate for MP of the Waikato district, a seat that historically had been beyond the party's reach and that Ardern lost by some 13,000 votes. Nevertheless, she entered parliament as a list candidate. New Zealand's mixed member proportional (MMP) election system allows candidates who run for a district seat also to be on a party's list of candidates, from which 49 MPs are chosen in proportion to the number of votes received by their parties. 

At age 28 Ardern entered the House of Representatives as its youngest member. In her maiden speech she called for the introduction of compulsory instruction in the Maori language in New Zealand schools and she castigated the New Zealand government for what she characterized as its "shameful" response to climate change. In addition to being named Labour's spokesperson for Youth Affairs, Ardern was appointed to the Regulations Review and the Justice and Electoral select committees.

In 2011 she ran for the seat representing Auckland Central that was held by another of New Zealand politics' brightest young stars, Nikki Kaye of the New Zealand National Party, who was just five months older than Ardern. Kaye narrowly (717 votes) won the race, dubbed the "Battle of the Babes," but once again Ardern returned to parliament as a well-placed list candidate. Ardern's support for David Shearer in his successful quest for Labour leadership won her a high profile assignment as Social Development spokesperson. 

In 2014 Ardern once again faced off with Kaye for the Auckland Central seat, this time losing by only 600 votes. Nonetheless, ensconced at the number five position on Labour's list, Ardern easily returned to parliament. Labour leader Andrew Little expanded her portfolio to include positions as spokesperson for Arts, Culture, and Heritage, Children, Justice, and Small Business.

As Ardern's political profile increased in prominence, the details of her personality and personal life became better known. Opposed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' stand on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, Ardern became a lapsed Mormon. She gained notoriety by performing as a disc jockey. She was also involved in a romantic relationship with broadcast personality Clarke Gayford, who in 2016 became the host of Fish of the Day, a part-fishing, part-travel television program that took him to exotic island locales throughout the Pacific. Ardern bridled at media attention to her physical attractiveness, characterized herself as an "acceptable nerd," and described her approach to life as "relentlessly positive."

Ardern Becomes Party Leader

In 2017 Ardern registered a landslide victory in the parliamentary by-election for the vacant seat representing the solidly Labour district of Mount Albert in Auckland. When Labour's deputy leader, Annette King, announced her resignation, Ardern was unanimously elected as her replacement. Meanwhile, as the general parliamentary election scheduled for September 2017 approached, Labour's showing in preference polling was abysmal. 

Even after some nine consecutive years with the National Party in power, there was seemingly little interest among voters in trying Labour Party rule. A pair of polls in July found Labour Party support to be less than 25 percent—some 6 percent worse than the party's standing in a June polling. With fewer than two months left before the election, Little stepped down as leader but not before securing Ardern's pledge to stand as his replacement (reportedly, she refused seven times before agreeing). Running unopposed, Ardern was elected leader on August 1.

The 2017 Election

Thus began a spirited sprint by Ardern to replace the National Party's Bill English as prime minister. Her charismatic optimism, strength, and down-to-earth charm quickly energized voters—especially women and the young—and, in response, Labour's preference polling numbers climbed. In terms of the issues, Ardern called for free university education, reductions in immigration, decriminalization of abortion, and the creation of new programs to alleviate poverty among children. 

More broadly, she promised a "fairer deal" for the marginalized. As "Jacindamania" swept the country, pundits began characterizing Ardern as a "rock star" politician in the mode of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former US president Barack Obama.

She also became something of a feminist icon after her response to an interviewer's question about whether she planned to have children. Initially, Ardern said that she had no problem answering the question. The next day, however, when another interviewer implied that employers had a right to know whether prospective female employees planned on taking time off from work to have children, Ardern responded much more forcefully:

I decided to talk about it, it was my choice…, but for other women it is totally unacceptable in 2017 to say that women should have to answer that question in the workplace. It is the woman's decision about when they choose to have children. It should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have job opportunities.

English accused Ardern of lacking foreign policy experience and encouraged voters to look beyond the "stardust" she spread. In the event, the National Party was the biggest vote getter, winning some 46 percent of the total (excluding special votes), and Labour's share was about 36 percent. Based on those results, the National Party stood to hold 58 seats and Labour 45 seats, not enough for either to attain a majority, even with the Green Party's seven seats in support of a Labour government. When the special votes (those cast by New Zealanders who were overseas or who had registered to vote on polling day) were tallied, Labour and the Green Party each gained a seat at the expense of the National Party.

Forming a coalition government

All of this left the centre-right New Zealand First Party, which won nine seats, in the kingmaker role. New Zealand First's 72-year-old leader, Winston Peters, kept the country in suspense for weeks as he negotiated with both the National Party and Labour over New Zealand First's potential participation in a coalition government. 

Finally, on October 19, Peters went on national television to announce that he had chosen to go into a partnership with Labour that would be further dependent on "supply and confidence" support from the Greens. "Far too many New Zealanders have come to view today's capitalism not as their friend but as their foe," Peters said in announcing his intention to govern with Labour. 

Ardern found out at the same time as the rest of the country that she was about to become its 40th prime minister, and she was sworn in on October 26.

In June 2018 Ardern gave birth to her first child, a girl. She thus became the first leader of a country in nearly 30 years to give birth while in office.