Howard’s personal story is that of a survivor, the defier of odds, the man who never gave up… Apart from tenacity, central to Howard’s mature political persona has been a commitment to the ideology of economic reform, spliced with pragmatism, an acute sense of tactics, and an ordinariness that, while ridiculed by critics, enabled him to tap into ‘mainstream’ voters. By the mid to late 1990s he had turned this ‘ordinariness’ into a political virtue and claimed, as had Hawke before him, a special relationship with the Australian people… He entirely lacked the larrikin streak that made Hawke so popular… But he had no tickets on himself: he was the man next door, except for voters living in ‘yuppie’ suburbs. (Source: Michelle Grattan, ‘John Winston Howard’ in Grattan, Michelle (ed.), Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland, Sydney, 2000, pp. 438-9)
Did you know?
John Howard joined the Young Liberal Movement at the age of 18.
He was given his middle name after the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
He is the only Liberal Party prime minister to be educated in a state school.
On 21 November 2004, he became the second longest-serving prime minister, the longest
serving being Sir Robert Menzies.
He is an avid, life long, follower of cricket.
He likes to play tennis and golf and also keeps fit by power-walking every morning.
He supports St. George Rugby League football team.