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Download AudioAuckland mayoral candidate Craig Lord is discovering his Māori roots.
The engineer turned motorsport media mogul is having a second run at the supercity’s top job, after finishing a distant third in 2019.
He told Radio Waatea talkback host Shane Te Pou he considered the last election the start of a four-year job application, and believes it gave him a solid foundation to build on.
He says as an adoptee he didn’t know who his birth parents were, and it’s only now at 50 years old that he took an ancestry test which confirmed his assumption he was Maori through his father.
“So 39 percent and then I got an expert in DNA to do some analysis, money well spent because I found out I’m Hawera, Taranaki so for the last couple of weeks I’ve found out that’s where I’m from and I’ve actually found a link to family so I’ve made contact in the last few of weeks and they’re saying ‘you’re who?’ and then they google, ‘hey, you’re running for mayor,'” Mr Lord says.
He’s running on a platform of ensuring council sticks to core services, dropping things like council housing and public art.
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