Rodney Hide: Too close to call after roller-coaster campaign

The 2017 campaign has become a political and emotional roller-coaster. Photo / Supplied

It's been the wildest of election campaigns and this week's polls make it even wilder.

Look at the Greens. Six weeks ago they were polling 15 per cent and on track to have 18 plus MPs. This week's Newshub poll had them out of Parliament. From big in government to oblivion ... in 42 days.

And that's before anyone has voted.

It's not just the Greens; it's every party. We have never seen anything like it.

I know what it is to suffer bad polls. It's dreadful. They demoralise your team and your supporters. You spend precious campaign time explaining away the bad results. The campaign becomes very hard work.

Politicians tell me that good polls create their own difficulties. I have had no direct experience but am told high polls breed complacency. Again, it becomes hard to motivate volunteers and voters.

So bad polls make it tough and good polls make it tough. Yo-yo polls must make it exceptionally tough. The 2017 campaign has become a political and emotional roller-coaster.

And where once we had confidence in the polls, both Brexit and Donald Trump confounded the pollsters, making us no longer sure.

The yo-yo polls make us even less trusting. Are voters really changing their mind with that rapidity? That would make the most important factor the mood on the day. Is it for change? Or do we stick with what we know? Is it experience? Or something new?

The election is looking very much like an impulse buy. What's on special? Wait there's more!

I like it. Previous elections have had a feeling of inevitability about them. That's meant a lack of passion and excitement. Not this time around. It feels more like the Rugby World Cup and America's Cup than boring old politics. That's a good thing.

People are engaged. They're talking, they're watching, reading, listening. They feel their vote matters. They're seeing the election swing through the polls week to week. They know it's going to the wire.

Thank Metiria Turei and Jacinda Ardern. They took what was shaping up to be the most boring election ever and made it a six-week nail-biter.

We can pick and choose among the polls for the one we like. We can explain away the bad results. But one thing we can't do is predict the result.

We are going to have to wait for the day. And that too will be a great sporting, political and media spectacle. This isn't about who gets to keep a cup. This is about the country's future direction - it's the biggest game there is.

My only suggestion is to ignore the polls. Let the politicians explain why they're the best for us, then let's choose who we think is best irrespective of what the polls say. And let's celebrate the result, whatever it is.

Ignoring the polls is good politics. And when they're this wild it's a matter of Health and Safety.