A nice tribute to Don McKinnon

The Herald editorial plays tribute to Don McKinnon.  Some extracts:

There are more Don McKinnons in politics than we usually acknowledge – capable, dependable men and women who could have made a decent Prime Minister and might well have been given the chance in different circumstances. They are typically too loyal to try to topple an incumbent and do not need higher status anyhow to derive immense satisfaction from their public service.

Mr McKinnon can look back on 30 years in public life, the last eight in London leading the Commonwealth Secretariat, in the knowledge that he has always worked to bring people together, not divide them.

… His election made him Deputy Prime Minister when National returned to power in 1990 and he took the job of Foreign Minister. The country has possibly never had a better one. He served longer in the job than anyone before or since and his sure diplomatic touch was never more apparent than when he presided over talks that brought the Bougainville rebellion to a ceasefire that has stuck.

He did not grandstand, as he could have done, when the disputants were brought to a military camp near Christchurch and did not try to make political capital out of the result. He would be the first to share the kudos with his ministry officers.

He was a team player, not a force for change. Had he been more forceful he might have convinced the Bolger government it did not need to parrot Labour’s nuclear policy for political safety. He had a more realistic view of defence.

… Not all members of the Order of New Zealand have seemed worthy of such select company. Don McKinnon is.

A fitting tribute.

I also remember with fondness the story that on the day in June 1984 when Muldoon called the snap election, and was a bit ahem under the weather, McKinnon arranged for all four tires on his car to be let down so Muldoon couldn’t drive himself home!