"Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians."
Phillipa Judge of the Whangarei branch of the National Council of Women echoed the words of Charles de Gaulle as she welcomed 11 of the Northland candidates to the "Meet the Candidates" hotseat yesterday.
Ms Judge reminded the candidates, and the audience of about 60 people who had filed into the May Bain Room at the Central Library, that the most important political office was still that of the private citizen.
"If we don't take an interest in politics, it doesn't mean it won't take an interest in us," she said.
Candidates had just four minutes to declare their two main priorities for their electorates and their proposals for action.