Tory Whanau clear leader in straw poll for Wellington Mayoralty
A straw poll of Wellington mayoral candidates has first-time runner Tory Whanau with a huge majority over her two main rivals, Paul Eagle and Andy Foster.
The Stuff poll, which has been open since Thursday, had 5251 votes cast by Sunday morning. It is intended to give an indication of which candidates are viable shortly before voting documents get sent out.
Tory Whanau is part of the woke identity politics Professional Managerial class so her candidacy for the Wellington Mayoralty Race is being closely watched by political commentators and pundits to see if this new political movement has real power or is just a Paper Tiger with a Twitter account.
Stuff’s bewilderingly false ‘straw poll’ showing her dominating is probably the most stupid thing Stuff have ever published in their history.
It’s reminiscent of when Woke Twitter demanded Red Peak as our flag and it was included because they made such a fuss.
What happened to Red Peak? It was so unpoioplsr it got voted out in the first round.
Red Peak is a reminder that if Twitter loves it, the rest of the population won’t.
Stuff is the official newspaper for the woke identity politics Professional Managerial class, so a transitioning cucumber could win a straw poll on Stuff. That Tory is winning by such huge margin should surprise no one, but it’s an open Poll that isn’t restricted to Wellington and doesn’t even pretend to take into account Wellington’s stupid voting system.
The tragedy would be if Tory and her team believe the hype and are lulled into a false sense of superiority by this stupid poll, which is ironic because reading middle class virtue signals masquerading as journalism in Stuff tends to lull their woke readers into a false sense of superiority as well.
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It’s not Andy Foster ‘s fault that he is one of that threatened species, a white male, nor the most charismatic of politicians, but he has a proven track record on environmental issues, unlike Stuff’s pretty preferred candidate may have.
Foster must always be thanked for his work in protecting Wellington’s green belt from avaricious developers. They were bigger battles than many know about. Similarly, his stance trying to save lovely Shelly Bay from being turned into a Soviet style apartment development has to be saluted, and
commands respect. I daresay that his hand was forced with the dopey rainbow pedestrian crossings, but it’s a good idea not to offend stroppy alphabet people and even the cops had a rainbow car…
I see PJ has withdrawn his financial support for foster his lapdog…failure to deliver PJs movie and military museums promptly would be my guess.
The candidate Wokeington deserves. Please make it happen
Well, of course a self selected poll of the average Stuff readership will come up with that. Most will be woking class student snowflakes, not working ratepayers funding their fantasies.
Wokeing class students maybe, they loathe the working class.
Dont worry. Wellington is about to fall off the North island and into the sea.
Amene.
I had never heard of her until I read the above article, and I would guess that her problem is that nobody else has either. Looking at her policy blurb sheet I suspect she would be worth a vote but I can’t see her winning against the two heavyweights. I hope she’s standing for council as well.
Wellington. Where the cocks go to snoot.
My thoughts as well!
Being from the region, I have to say that the mayoralty line up is shudder inducing. Andy Foster is not well regarded having presided over some pretty unpopular approaches of late, not least of all the lets get Wellington moving? debacle where after decades of ignoring the regional bottleneck that is Wellington city, they have decided after very costly consulting to kill off traffic into the central city completely ensuring that the very few businesses that remain after Covid, are or will be closing their doors.
Jacinda and Andy a dream team! Thank goodness I am not voting in Wellington City!
Don’t worry. We’re pretty broadminded in this part of the world. We won’t turn you away.
@ Mikesh. It’s not you or even Wellington. It’s more the company you must keep.
all I know eagle as a local MP is a grinning no mark unlike his predecessor who was a good CONSTITUANCY MP
he’s done a grand total of zero.
Is that a real picture in the middle? Paul someone? Has he got his teeth out? No offence meant to the guy but it looks pixilated or something? Looks like a characateur
Capital cities are rather known for being populated with Officials, Diplomats, Politicians, and the various crawlers and underlings that serve them.
Wgtn. has had its share of characters for Mayor even in recent years…Fran Wilde, Mark Blumsky, Kerry Prendergast, Celia Wade-Brown and Justin Lester, so lets not be too hard on Tory.
Believe it or not Wellington is also home for a number of working class people too. Because even the bourgeois among us need transport, accomodation, tech support, places to stuff their faces and buy shit. Which means workers.
Tiger M Fran Wilde was good, she helped kill the 1994 attempt to commercialise the Wellington Town Belt. Think it was Blumsky who sold the power lines to the richest man in Hong Kong then buggered off to bask in the Cook Islands, warmer than those on his former home patch can afford to be now.
The guy in the middle says that he is going to fix the crumbling Boer War vintage water supply, so it could be bye bye to weekly street geysers. What Wellington needs now are some non-invisible buses and folk paid a decent wage to drive them.
Well at least the much maligned Govt. has legislated so that bus drivers can be paid better (previously local Authorities had to accept the lowest tender), and opened up the prospect of public ownership again of bus transport.
The “broken shift/no comfort stops for driver” model of bus operation is all about the owners not the workers or public needing reliable transport.
Local knowledge is good, so I will give you Fran Wilde! From a distance Wade-Brown looked ok, but Mayors are always subject to the Council member makeup in their term as well.
Good news about central government raising the lid on bus drivers pay so not being forced further into a downward ‘efficiency’ race.
Tiger M. My knowledge of Fran Wilde may be a bit prejudiced, but she was always good to meet, and I tape-recorded her at a Sat morning clinic without her knowing, but that particular issue, with Wellington’s green lungs being made into a mini Battersea fun fair, and the recreational facility for all of our kids being at future risk was a big thin end of the wedge issue; Foster got involved apres moi, but he did/does seem to be aware of the future implications of current action which far too many politicians aren’t, or don’t care.
Another quiet one was Lawrence whose darling old mother I assisted when she shunted a whole row of cars parked on Kelburn Parade, about 10 cars in all. One witness thought it was a student committing suicide. When I helped this shaken little lady from her vehicle, she opened her bag and asked did I think it would be ok if she had one of Valium, and I said, better not. I feel mean about that now, but at the back of my mind was the possibility of police and drug testing. Mrs L said she was going into a rest home that day, and drove up to Kelburn to say goodbye to one of her friends, and on the way back, she unfortunately pranged her car. From what she said, she had oodles of grandchildren students at Victoria which was rather nice, as back then universities were places of learning and scholarship.
Bellich was mayor during the first fight for the Welllington Town Belt in 1987 and I remember nothing about him, except that we won, and back then, WCC councillors were partisan, including one of Kerry Prendergast’s husbands, but nobody thought that the would-be developers would rear their heads again. Talkback radio was on the side of the developers, surprise surprise.
“Please explain’ what is woke identity politics? The term woke has many different meanings seemingly.
no rightard who uses it as a slur can actually define it…
that’s the beauty of it for them, just make a list of ‘fings wot I dun loike’ and label that list ‘woke’
Of course any misunderstandings are going to be used as a weapon (see comment from gagarin) so it pays, if you are confused (and who isn’t) to get up too speed with the terminology used in the wall of BS. There’s a very handy translation https://newdiscourses.com/translations-from-the-wokish/
“In brief, “woke” means having awakened to having a particular type of “critical consciousness,” as these are understood within Critical Social Justice. To first approximation, being woke means viewing society through various critical lenses, as defined by various critical theories bent in service of an ideology most people currently call “Social Justice.” That is, being woke means having taken on the worldview of Critical Social Justice, which sees the world only in terms of unjust power dynamics and the need to dismantle problematic systems. That is, it means having adopted Theory and the worldview it conceptualizes.
Under “wokeness,” this awakened consciousness is set particularly with regard to issues of identity, like race, sex, gender, sexuality, and others. The terminology derives from the idea of having been awakened (or, “woke up”) to an awareness of the allegedly systemic nature of racism, sexism, and other oppressive power dynamics and the true nature of privilege, domination, and marginalization in society and understanding the role in dominant discourses in producing and maintaining these structural forces. Furthermore, being woke carries the imperative to become a social activist with regard to these issues and problems, again, on the terms set by Critical Social Justice. This—especially for white people—is to include a lifelong commitment to an ongoing process of self-reflection, self-criticism, and (progressive) social activism in the name of Theory and Social Justice”
that maybe an ‘academic discription’ david but it’s not how the word is actually used is it? like socialism and fascism it’s constant use by the dim actually dulls it’s meaning.
@Power+man ‘Woke’ Has a history long before it was adopted (co-opted?) by intersectional activists and then became a pejorative for the same. It has more recently become a neoliberal virtue signal to indicate superficial social responsibility. Further is used by some as a term for anything on the left they dislike.
However the contemporary use of ‘Woke’ as a movement is for the applied or ‘street’ version of the various schools of Critical Theory. This can be seen as a form or cultural-marxist conflict theory which pictures society as a dichotomy of oppressor/oppressed divided along intrinsic lines of race, gender, sexuality etc. So male/female, white/black, cis/trans, straight/gay, colonial/indigenous. ALL relationships across those lines from macro to interpersonal are oppressive power dynamics.
These domains intersect and one’s identity is thought to confer individual privilege or victimhood due to social norms. This ‘intersectional’ model then carries an ethical interpretation where privilege is ‘sin’ and victimhood is sanctified, a source of clout or social status.
One’s intersectional identity determines ‘positionality’. For example if someone has an oppressed identity they have an “authentic voice” (clout or status, even a moral right) to speak on issues relating to their own or more privileged identity groups due to their ‘lived experience’ (regardless of expertise), so long as they agree with ‘Theory’.
Someone who sees society as this oppressor/oppressed dichotomy has a critical consciousness (‘woke’ on an individual level). If one does not see the world in this way one has a false consciousness. This in-group/out-group dynamic is the core of woke politics, identity is merely the mobilising ploy. Supposedly oppressed people are simply leverage for advancing Theory. A straight white male (sinner) can be woke (pious) and therefore completely acceptable. However a black lesbian who is anti-woke is an identity traitor (heretic). By disagreeing with Theory a member of an oppressed group no longer has an ‘authentic voice’ so no moral right to speak regardless of how many domains of oppression they have.
The moral standing of individuals based on belief and identity sets Woke out as a kind of secular religion and like all religions there are those more concerned with respect, acceptance and lifting people up. Then there are those who are zealous and seek to punish oppressors. The puritans who believe the solution to past prejudice is present prejudice and the solution to present prejudice is future prejudice, the ends (equity) justify the means.
Woke ideology tends to ignore or de-emphasis a socio-economic analysis, unless it is downstream of identity. This is partly why traditional leftists and marxists dislike woke identitarians. Evidence of oppression is taken to be a lack of equity (not equality) between identity groups. Therefore it gives rise to a narrowly defined identity based equity politics which means it is very easy to game the system and neoliberal corporatists have taken full advantage. There is virtue theatre (such as union busting Amazon’s support for BLM, Ratheon’s LGBTQ+ friendly environment) and a kind of anti-politics where advancing anyone who is not cis, straight, white or male feels highly progressive but does nothing to challenge underlying neoliberal power.
A more than fair summary Tui.
Can I just add Power Man and gargarin, the only people I see online struggling to understand the perjorative use of “woke” are those most likely to fall within its definition.
Sometimes the puzzlement is genuine.
It’s not nice to call each other names but I guess that’s precisely where identity politics ends up.
so tui are we a society or a venn diagram?
@Gagarin
For social justice activism a society, for “critical” social justice activism a venn diagram.
Hard to thing of anything that epitomizes woke identity politics better than union-busting Amazon’s support for BLM.
Meanwhile, back in Aotearoa Inc., the NZ Rugby Union has been fined $280,000. Must have done something heinous, right? Their crime – not having enough women on their board.
parity is not equality
Having heard them speak here is my assessment:
Paul Eagle – no substance
Andy Foster – weak
Tory Whanau – will unify council around the issues for better or worse.
I’m voting Tory Whanau
She looks prettier than Paul Eagle. And has a nice shade of red lipstick – outward appearances. Inwards …?
What have you got against Tory whanau? I’ve got a few Tory whanau myself, and they’re lovely people – most of them at least.
I’ve been out of the loop for a while so was a but surprised by the name Tory Whanau – thought it was a joke name but no one else seems to be laughing
What was the point of Paul Eagle being in Parliament?
what’s the point of paul eagle..full stop.
A- promoting Paul Eagle.
Listen to Tory on the free speech union pod cast and I found her to be one cliche after another
You can abstain.
Tory Whanau – unfortunate name – must have a big following on instafacetok
I started reading these comments and hit what seems to me to be a wall of vitriol. Time for a long black, a lie down and a smile