Surprise Labour Government!

I will preface this post by again acknowledging my ignorance of political systems, and by asserting my intention to make up for this shortcoming by providing you with links.

So here is what I understand: After the election that ended on the 23rd of September, National (more conservative) had a larger percentage of the votes than Labour (more liberal), with New Zealand First and Green both having a small but meaningful percentage. I mistakenly thought that this would mean that National would be mostly in charge, and that their party leader, Bill English, would continue to be Prime Minister. Wrong! In NZ, after the election, the parties go into negotiations where they discuss their policies and form partnerships to combine their percentages and get a majority. This means that for this election, where National and Labour (the two biggest parties who always get the vast majority of the votes) were fairly close, either of them could form the majority by joining up with New Zealand First. So the debates were apparently about which of them New Zealand First could collaborate with to achieve their goals. People seemed to be assuming that they would side with National as they have done in the past (hence the disappointment in the education sector), but they didn't! They chose Labour, and so we're going to have a Labour-lead government! Yay for education, healthcare, and the environment!

You can read more about New Zealand's First's decision at this link. Feel no obligation to watch the video, which is half an hour long, but the summary below it is helpful.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/10/nz-s-new-government-nz-first-chooses-labour.html

You can read more about Labour's policies and intentions at this link. If you're going to read any of them, I'd read this one, as it is so encouraging - if they're really able to get all this stuff done, it's going to be fantastic!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/97964558/labours-top-priorities-and-those-wholl-make-it-happen

I like the video on this link, which is Jacinda Ardern, our new Labour Prime Minister, responding to some questions. I appreciate the respectfulness across party lines.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/10/pitfalls-and-benefits-in-nz-first-labour-coalition-government.html

Speaking of Jacinda Ardern, I am very excited to have a young woman as our Prime Minister, and I think that she's going to do a wonderful job. You can read more about her at this link. The more I read about her, the more I like her.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_Ardern

How exciting that she's our Prime Minister!

I think that all of this is still technically subject to confirmation, as official ceremonies and swearing ins and such have not yet taken place. But I also think that it is unlikely to change. So I'm going to be happy about it starting now.