The countdown to the election campaign begins this Sunday with the kickoff of Labour's run for the Treasury benches - and the playing field's become much more level than it was just a month ago.
Labour's poll-driven decision to dump Andrew Little, thanks to the benefit fraud admission by Metiria Turei and the rocket launch for the Greens at the time, has paid off.
The Jacinderella effect for a party that seemed to be going nowhere is just the adrenalin shot they needed with last night's poll rating putting Labour at 37 per cent, now just seven points behind National.
The next five weeks will tell us whether the woman who has never been in a government, let alone led one, is up to the task. But then again the same could have been said of John Key, who had three years less political experience than Ardern when he became prime minister. And look where it got him.
The unravelling of the opposition over the past month seems not to have only paid off for Labour but has played right into the hands of that wily old silver fox Winston Peters, who'll huff and bluff his way to September the 23 before blowing one of their houses down.
