Author: Chris Trotter
Chris Trotter
*Chris Trotter has been writing and commenting professionally about New Zealand politics for more than 30 years. He writes a weekly column for interest.co.nz. His work may also be found at http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com.
By Chris Trotter – OPINION Power, if it is to have any lasting legacy, must be seized. Not inherited, not bestowed, but taken. Those who seize power do so for many reasons: self-preservation; personal aggrandizement; to effect changes long desired or too long delayed. Power stripped of the crucial element of conscious personal purpose is reduced to mere placeholding, and placeholding represents the end of politics, the final step taken before all power is lost. Christopher Luxon did not seize power; he inherited it from a National Party caucus at its wits’ end. His colleagues bestowed the party leadership upon…