Life After Politics
He retired as MP for Taranaki-King Country in 1998, prompting the 1998 by-election and was subsequently appointed to the position of Ambassador to the United States. On his return to New Zealand in 2001, he was appointed Chairman of the state-owned New Zealand Post and its subsidiary Kiwibank. He also chairs Express Couriers Ltd, Trustees Executors Ltd, the Gas Industry Company Ltd, the Advisory Board of the World Agricultural Forum, St. Louis, USA, the New Zealand United States Council, and the Board of Directors of the Ian Axford Fellowships in Public Policy. Bolger was made a member of the Order of New Zealand in 1997.
Bolger was elected Chancellor of Waikato University on 14 February 2007, succeeding John Jackman. In April 2007 Bolger revealed at a conference that he suffers from the painful nerve disease trigeminal neuralgia, which is not life-threatening.
On 1 July 2008, almost 15 years after his National-led Government sold New Zealand Rail Ltd, the Labour-led Government repurchased its successor Toll NZ Ltd (less its Tranz Link trucking and distribution arm), having repurchased the track network in 2003. Bolger became chair of the company, renamed KiwiRail, a position he held until 1 July 2010. Some people, including Winston Peters, view this as hypocritical. In response, Bolger acknowledged his involvement in privatising New Zealand Rail, remarking that "my life is full of ironies."
Bolger and his wife Joan are Roman Catholics with nine children. Bolger voted pro-life whenever the issue came up in a conscience vote. He is a member of Collegium International.
Retiring politician journalist Peter Luke said that Bolger was "he most under-estimated prime minister I have come across. He made up for his lack of education by having an innate ability to relate to the aspirations of ordinary Kiwis. And, as many civil servants discovered to their cost, his image of being a simple King Country farmer did not mean that he would not understand their reports and unfailingly point to the flaws in them."
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