Talk:Helen Clark/archive01

message: I deleted the "first popularly-elected female Prime Minister" reference. It's often stated but not accurate. Prime Ministers aren't elected by popular vote in New Zealand so this comment is misleading. The actual process is far more indirect. People vote for a party at an election. Parties then organise with enough likeminded parties to get the support of 50% of MPs. Part of that organisation involves determining the senior partner in any coalition. That senior partner's party leader becomes the Prime Minister. Ben Arnold
:Perhaps, then, it could be changed to something like: "She became the first female leader to become Prime Minister as the result of a general election." This removes the reference to direct election (which is indeed an error), but still distinguishes her elevation from that of Jenny Shipley (as they did indeed gain the premiership in different circumstances). -- Vardion 23:49, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: That seems fair enough. It's probably worth expanding too, to explain the contrast. "Jenny Shipley had become Prime Minister two(?) years earlier after a leadership coup in the National Party." Ben Arnold 02:44, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: That sounds fine. (And it was indeed two years earlier - almost exactly two years, in fact). Feel free to add that in wherever you think is best. -- Vardion 06:11, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Prime Minister and Elections

message: Does anyone else think it's rather strange to have the infobox which requires her nationality to be listed as "non-american" and her husband listed as "wife"? I have no problems with the way the infobox appears, only with the markup. This looks like a kluge layered over a template intended for US Presidents. Surely we have a more appropriate template to be used for leaders of other countries.-gadfium 20:02, 13 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, it is rather silly, and the fixed pixel size of the template streches the picture larger than the original size. Onco_p53 23:42, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

text: Yes, I found that rather jarring as well. However, I intend to create an Infobox PM soon. It would apply to all heads of governments in parliamentary systems - well, those that have constituencies at least.--Cyberjunkie | Talk 15:14, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

text: I've added the NZ PM infobox - taken from the Jim Bolger page.Tobit 23:45, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Infobox President?

message: Don't be inhibited about replacing this but try not to just add your POV. The comments re micro-management and smoking in bars are just someone's point of view. 
The personal criticism is just petty. All PMs in every country are involved in controversy. Clark's involvement in Corngate was marginal. She herself did not receive a driving conviction for Motorcadegate. Paintergate seems long forgotten -- politicians and other celebrities often sign things for auction at charity, (although it is usually assumed that a signature on a painting indicates that the signer painted it, whereas signing a football shirt isn't usually interpreted as indicating who the tailor was), and there is no evidence that she was trying to defraud anyone. There is also Christmastreegate -- she was criticised for not putting lights on the trees outside Premier House one Christmas --  and apparently gracebeforemealsinparliamentgate too.
Neil Leslie 02:59, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticism removed 

message: My edit summary when I reverted to include Clark's IMDB entry said if someone has their own entry in a different area of Wikipedia, then we should link to it. I meant if they had an entry specifically about them outside Wiki, like the IMDB page. Don't know that she merits an IMDB entry, but it exists so it is reasonable to link to it. Now, is there such a thing as a IADB? (Internet Artists Data Base)? Moriori 19:00, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Outside, not inside

message: It seems a bit misleading to have a section entitled "Leadership Style" that just highlights the bad things associated with Ms. Clark? Does signing artwork etc. really have much to do with her style of leadership? Surely a section labelled such should also include information actually about her leadership style, or how her MPs see her as a leader? --Loopy 18:34, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Leadership Style"?