Out of the Mouths of Babes
This Sunday, Father's Day, spring arrived. Like many others, we enjoyed the sunshine at the beach with our four children. There were no politics, dirty or otherwise to be found. On such a beautiful day, it was a timely reminder of what an incredible country we live in and how important that it is kept in good hands.
My beautiful wife and I decided to undertake an informal poll of our family to find out who they, if they had the choice, would choose to run the country.
We have a blended family of two girls, aged 11, and two boys aged 9; we'll call them Helen, Judith, Geoffrey and Jim. This is the first election in which they have taken any real interest in politics and they were unaware of our political leanings. Individually, we asked them: who they would vote for Prime Minister and why? I had anticipated overwhelming support for John Key considering his popularity, however, the results surprised me.
Helen responded with David Cunliffe as she wanted a change of government and agreed with Labour's policies. Likewise, Judith preferred David Cunliffe because he seems like a nice man and answered questions well during the political debate. However, she also stated that she wouldn't vote for National because they were selling the power stations, meaning we wouldn't have any internet. Unfortunately, we had to point out the error in her logic.
Geoffrey voted for Labour, he liked David Cunliffe better than John Key. When pressed though, he admitted that he thought David Cunliffe bore a resemblance to Louis van Gaal, manager of his favourite football team, Manchester United. Yes, yes, I know. Of our four children, only Jim said he would vote for John Key. When asked why, in what we hoped was a neutral tone, he answered, John Key is 'epic'.
Our children's reasons for choosing who they would vote for may seem ridiculous. However, is the general voting public's choice any more sound? People I have spoken with are, often, making their decisions based on misinformation; wrong information or simply no information at all. They may be choosing the next Prime Minister based on nothing more than their perception of that person's public persona.
Are we anymore politically informed than children?
If we are making decisions that affect our country, we should be.
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