MP Nick Smith said a chance meeting with Joe Biden in 1983 helped kick-start his own political career while on a school-exchange in 1983.
A chance encounter with a future president helped inspire one of New Zealand’s longest-serving Members of Parliament to pursue a career in politics.
In 1983 while on an exchange programme at Wilmington Friends School in Delaware, 17-year-old Rangiora High School student Nick Smith met then-Senator for Delaware Joe Biden – who is set to be inaugurated as the 46th US President on Thursday.
The Democrat Senator had been invited to speak to students at the school’s American Politics class, and Smith took the opportunity to introduce himself to Biden afterwards.