Word: christchurch
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John Key can thank many things for his rise to New Zealand's top job - not least the receptionist skills of his sister. Liz Cave was the face of a large Christchurch clothing company in late 1998 when the then president of the governing National Party, John Slater, came visiting on business. Knowing him a little, she summoned the courage to say, "Would you mind if I asked you a personal question?" Not at all, replied Slater. "I have a brother who lives overseas," Cave told him. "He's planning to come back and he may be interested in going...
...Like many on the left, Clark isn't much reassured by the fact that Key himself once relied on welfare. Seven years old when his alcoholic father, George, died of a heart attack, young John and his two elder sisters were raised in a state-provided house in Christchurch by their Austrian-immigrant mother, Ruth, who made ends meet by working long hours as a cleaner. "We always ate and we were always happy," says Key's sister Sue Lazar, "but there wasn't a lot of money for clothes or anything like that...
...country to speak to men and women from all walks of life, TIME found that while many are fed up with her government, nearly all concede a grudging respect for Clark. "She hasn't dropped a pass," says Stuart Wright, a sheep and potato farmer in Sheffield, west of Christchurch. Like Wright, Ken Arthur, a winegrower in Blenheim at the top of the South Island, wants Labour ousted. But he respects the P.M. as a straight talker. In 2003, Clark declined to involve New Zealand in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. "I would have to say she did well...
...background is in finance, he's taken on the air of a man for the times. Born in 1961, Key hadn't long started school when his father died from a heart attack. His immigrant mother raised him and his two sisters in a state house in Christchurch. Though money was tight, young John excelled at school and university, and in the 1990s made a fortune as a foreign-exchange trader. Recruited by National in 2001, he won the newly created Auckland seat of Helensville the following year. By the end of 2006, he was party leader...
...Time" Factor The brewers arms in the Christchurch suburb of Merivale attracts a range of patrons, from high-fliers to battlers and everyone in between. In the evenings, the genial publican Wayne Williams likes to move among them, to hear their stories and their gripes. "My gut feeling is we're going to get a change of government," he says. Williams hopes his feeling is right. He respects Clark - he once watched her in a meeting "cut through the bulls... in no time flat" - and voted Labour in 2005. "But not this time," he says. "The place needs an overhaul...