Tim Shadbolt

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Tim Shadbolt - Mayor of Invercargill

Timothy Richard Shadbolt (born February 19, 1947) is the mayor of the city of Invercargill, New Zealand, and former mayor of Waitemata City.

He was a founding student of Rutherford College, Auckland, and attended Auckland University from 1966 to 1970, taking a year off in 1967 to work on the Manapouri Power Project in Southland. He was a member of the Auckland University Students Association executive, and editor of Craccum in 1972. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was prominent in the Progressive Youth Movement, a radical organisation, and was arrested 33 times during political protests, most famously for using the word "bullshit", this incident influenced the title of his autobiography (see bellow).

After 1970, he founded a commune and concrete cooperative at Huia. He wrote an autobiography, Bullshit and Jellybeans. He stood for Mayor of Waitemata city in 1983 because he did not want the incumbent to be re-elected unopposed and surprisingly won the election. He won again in 1986 heading a political ticket called "Tim's Team", but lost the following election in the newly-formed Waitakere city (an enlarged Waitemata city) in 1989. During his reign as Mayor he became infamous by losing the mayoral chains at a party.

In 1993, he ran successfully for the position of Mayor of Invercargill. He celebrated, much to some people's disgust, by towing his trusty concrete mixer behind the back of the Mayoral car.

In 1994, he contested the Selwyn by-election as a candidate for New Zealand First, but was placed fourth, and remained Mayor of Invercargill. He was defeated in 1995, but remained on the council. As a result of the defeat, the mayoral Holden Calais was taken off his hands and he was given a Lada instead.

In 1998 he was re-elected to the mayoralty (and given back the mayoral car) and has been the mayor ever since. In 2001 he was re-elected unopposed, and in 2004 he won his fourth term by a huge margin.

He has presented several television documentaries, and the series That's Fairly Interesting.

He is famous for the phrase ‘I don't care where, as long as I'm mayor’, which was later part of a cheese advertising campaign that involved people repeating things that they wished they had not said.

In 2005, New Zealand Toastmasters awarded him the Communicator of the Year award. He also played in The Worlds Fastest Indian as an organiser for most social events and a good friend of Burt Munro.