Tim Shadbolt
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Timothy Richard Shadbolt (born February 19, 1947) is the mayor of the city of Invercargill, New Zealand, and former mayor of Waitemata City.
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[edit] Activist: 1960s and 1970s
Tim Shadbolt was a founding student of Rutherford College, Auckland, and attended The University of Auckland 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 below).
After 1970, he founded a commune and concrete cooperative at Huia. He wrote an autobiography, Bullshit and Jellybeans.
[edit] Local politician: 1980s-
Tim Shadbolt 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 celebrated, much to some people's disgust, by towing his trusty concrete mixer behind the Mayoral car. 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. 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 the 1996 general election he stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
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.
In October 2002 Tim Shadbolt told a conference of New Zealand's Disabled Persons Assembly that Invercargill had "an innovative approach to public transport, currently centred on 'Freebie the Bus' travelling the 'Purple Circle'". He said he hoped that in future all buses in Invercargill would be free and accessible. [1] (The Freebie and Purple Circle are zero-fare bus routes in Invercargill.)
In 2004 and 2007, he won his fourth and fifth mayoral terms 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 World's Fastest Indian portraying a good friend of Burt Munro who organised social events for Invercargill's motorcycling community.
He also participated in the New Zealand version of Dancing with the Stars where he placed 3rd. In 2006 Tim played the part of the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show by the Invercargill Musical Theatre. He continued his theatre experiences by appearing in 2007 in the Invercargill Musical Theatres production of Sea Cruise.
