On top of the usual problems mayors face - such as being unable to please all ratepayers all the time - there are the challenges of rebuilding New Zealand's second-largest city and the frustrations associated with the delay of insurance payouts and dealing with the Government.
But as we have said before, quoting Dame Margaret Bazley and others, the current council has at times appeared dysfunctional at best and incompetent at worst. Given that, it was inevitable a strong candidate would challenge Bob Parker at this year's local authority elections.
It should be remembered that former MP Jim Anderton was widely thought to be on track to defeat Mr Parker at the last election. In the end, it was probably the earthquake that defeated Mr Anderton, with Mr Parker's skills from his past career coming to the fore when he fronted television cameras, helping soothe worried ratepayers. But stepping in front of cameras is not a continuing panacea. Ratepayers want action, and so does most of the country.
Many believe Mr Parker is not up to the job. This may be unfair, given Mr Parker is but one vote on the council. But where Mr Parker does have failings is in providing leadership. Chief executive Tony Marryatt is a lightning rod of discontent, some of which has rubbed off on Mr Parker. The mayor has had six years to gather an elected team of councillors to drive through necessary changes to ignite the rebuilding effort. He has not done so.
Into the contest has stepped Christchurch East Labour MP Lianne Dalziel. In what must be one of the most expected moments in local government history, Ms Dalziel has officially launched her campaign after weeks of speculation.
It was almost a given Ms Dalziel would seek the mayoralty after Labour leader David Shearer pushed the capable MP to the backbenches, despite keeping her on as earthquake recovery spokeswoman (the fact two hard-working Christchurch-based Labour MPs were relegated to the backbench when slow progress in the damaged city had become a regular headline was inexplicable).
Many believe Ms Dalziel needs to ensure party politics are not part of the local authority election, but this will be near impossible. While professing loyalty to Christchurch, Ms Dalziel, a Labour MP for 23 years, says Labour values will always remain at her core. It is also likely Green activists will provide people power to see the forces of the left combining against Mr Parker, who will struggle to match the feet on the ground Ms Dalziel will be able to muster through a long career in national politics.
Ms Dalziel has indicated she will resign from Parliament to campaign, saying the city must come first. She has said she was ''very clear'' the council had failed to play its property recovery role. There was a problem of a lack of leadership and a dearth of any strategic plan, she said.
The great unknown is how Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee will react during the campaign. There was something of a game changer announced this week with Mr Brownlee, Prime Minister John Key and Mr Parker combining to announce the Government will pay $2.9 billion towards Christchurch city centre's $4.8 billion post-earthquake big ticket blueprint projects.
The Government will bankroll all of the $284 million convention centre; the council the bulk of a stadium. The deal comes after months of negotiations between the two parties. The council met behind closed doors last week to vote on whether to sign off the deal. Cynics might think the Government would rather have Mr Parker as mayor than Ms Dalziel, and the announcement was timed to partly spike her first week as an official mayoral candidate.
Leadership does seem to be the factor most lacking in Christchurch. Given the talk about taking party politics out of the Christchurch mayoral campaign, Mr Brownlee and Prime Minister John Key need to be the first movers. Again, that is unlikely to happen. The campaign will become a contest between Labour, the Greens and National. This situation may allow Mr Parker to come through on votes from those dissatisfied with political interference.
