Do celebrity candidates actually win votes?

He was very entertaining and lively, just as you would expect him to be.

Paul Henry is very comfortable in front of the microphone, in front of the camera, and in front of the crowd.

He worked the crowd well.

It was a crowd that was friendly and predisposed to him.

They were all your friends, right? Friends, some staff, business associates, business colleagues.

So there was about 80 people in the room.

The audience would tend more conservative than libertarian.

But Paul Henry was pretty clear why he was running for act.

This is something that he has considered.

I did ask him who was his favorite Hayek.

He had to be prompted.

Um, but when given the choice between Salma and Frederick, he chose Salma.

But, um, and he wasn't, he, um, the instinctive reaction, his instinctive, his instincts are not libertarian.

I think that that's, that's fair to say, but his instincts are certainly not in the direction of New Zealand First.

But there's a, there's a wider question here though, Oliver, is do celebrities, when they go into politics, are they successful?

What

do you think?

The empirical evidence is absolutely yes.

I mean, you look at Donald Trump, you can even become US president.

And actually, he's not the first celebrity, of course, to become US president.

Many decades before him, we had Ronald Reagan, and he was quite a successful actor, of course.

So it seems to work.

Well, it works in terms of the political party getting into power.

Exactly.

Are they effective? I didn't want to say that they are effective, but no, I mean,

He was very entertaining and lively, just as you would expect him to be.

Paul Henry is very comfortable in front of the microphone, in front of the camera, and in front of the crowd.

He worked the crowd well.

It was a crowd that was friendly and predisposed to him.

They were all your friends, right? Friends, some staff, business associates, business colleagues.

So there was about 80 people in the room.

The audience would tend more conservative than libertarian.

But Paul Henry was pretty clear why he was running for act.

This is something that he has considered.

I did ask him who was his favorite Hayek.

He had to be prompted.

Um, but when given the choice between Salma and Frederick, he chose Salma.

But, um, and he wasn't, he, um, the instinctive reaction, his instinctive, his instincts are not libertarian.

I think that that's, that's fair to say, but his instincts are certainly not in the direction of New Zealand First.

But there's a, there's a wider question here though, Oliver, is do celebrities, when they go into politics, are they successful?

What

do you think?

The empirical evidence is absolutely yes.

I mean, you look at Donald Trump, you can even become US president.

And actually, he's not the first celebrity, of course, to become US president.

Many decades before him, we had Ronald Reagan, and he was quite a successful actor, of course.

So it seems to work.

Well, it works in terms of the political party getting into power.

Exactly.

Are they effective? I didn't want to say that they are effective, but no, I mean,