These days, in politics, you know you've made it into the national consciousness when someone creates a webpage of animals that resemble you.

Now there is a "Weasels That Look Like Colin Craig" tumblr page, it's clear the Conservative Party leader has arrived.

The other thing that sets the Conservatives apart from the Pirate Party, Legalise Cannabis, the Libertarianz and other fringe parties outside Parliament is that National leader John Key is less-than-subtly signalling it is a potential coalition partner, after next year's election.

That and a steady support of around 2 to 3 per cent, when other minor parties are tanking, meant that in recent weeks Craig was talked about as a dead-cert for election next year.

It was widely accepted that National would gift him a newly created Upper Harbour seat and, on current polling, he could coat-tail in four MPs.

However, the Representation Commission thumbed its nose at political pundits last week by redrawing boundaries - replacing Waitakere with Kelston, a new electorate which is Labour's for the taking.

Swiftly, Waitakere incumbent Paula Bennett, the social development minister, stomped on that scenario by announcing she would stand in Upper Harbour.

What doesn't change is that National still needs to stitch up a deal with Craig to cling to power. Political pundits have switched their Craig focus to East Coast Bays, which would mean Foreign Minister Murray McCully would have to move on to the National list.

Craig agrees this is "more astute". His family home is within the newly drawn boundaries.

"It's grabbed me and my family, as well as mum and dad . . . this is an interesting change. But look, if that is not going to be, it's not going to be."

He says "politics-wise never say never", but Epsom, held by ACT's John Banks, is not on his radar. His first priority is getting above the 5 per cent threshold.

"We are polling double what NZ First were polling at the same time heading into the last election . . . in terms of the history of small parties, any party that can pull the percentage that we are pulling now usually manages to get in and with more than 5 per cent."

To boost his party vote, Craig will embark on a tour of the South Island next year - "some of those very conservative parts of New Zealand" - which the party has until now neglected.

After personally funding the last election campaign to the tune of $1.6 million, he is still ploughing a "few hundred thousand" a year into the machine, but hopes contributions from around 6000 members and a team of volunteers will lighten the burden.

Party chief executive Christine Rankin is a more sensible option for Upper Harbour.

"She is always the highest selected member to the Upper Harbour local board . . . I guess people had built up the story ‘ah, gee this is going to be Colin's seat'.

"Obviously, now that will be a fight. I wouldn't be the right person to carry out that fight. Christine Rankin is extremely popular [there] and to be quite honest North Harbour people do not consider themselves Westies and Paula Bennett has staked her claim as a Westie."

The other - less palatable - coalition option for Key is NZ First. And Craig, at 45, sees himself as a fresh-faced alternative to political warhorse Winston Peters, 68.

He claims to be eating solidly into Peters' core constituency of the older, socially conservative voter.

Members have switched allegiance, particularly after NZ First's annual conference in October, he says.

"We are enjoying seeing Grey Power no longer invite Winston, but invite me instead . . . there is a sort of transition. We are slowly taking over that space."

Craig says one of the reasons Peters is in decline is that "he's lost the mojo".

"He's not the Winston he was . . . and I know he thinks he is going to be here till whenever, but there is a point at which you start to lose credibility . . . my impression is that he was, last time, the protest vote. Now we have offered that opportunity in a similar policy space."

Senior citizens appear to like Craig's morally conservative views combined with an anti-asset sales stance.

"A lot of them think I'm a lovely young fellow, and I get told I'm a good boy! I don't mind, if they want to think of me as some sort of adopted son."

Craig's opponents clearly now see him as a rival: David Cunliffe repeatedly refers to him as Crazy Colin. UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne launched an astonishing attack yesterday on some of his former MPs, now with the Conservatives.

Craig shrugs this off. Perhaps Labour is worried that he is gaining ground among Pacific Islanders in South Auckland, he wonders.

"I noticed that he has adopted a slightly anti-Colin Craig rhetoric which I find interesting given that I've never met him . . . maybe it's just because I am going to support National and it has just become politically the thing to say."

He's also not upset by Dunne's insults, saying it is unfounded criticism from a "struggling" politician.

"He is talking out of a lot of disappointment. I mean it can't be easy when at one stage you had eight MPs and he was really in the middle of it then. A lot has transpired, self-inflicted by and large, and now he struggles to get an annual conference together. As one person said to me: it's not an annual conference, its a support group."

But the question remains, is Colin Craig crazy?

Much ridicule is directed at his unfashionable views on climate change, gay marriage and smacking. Among the more eye-popping of his opinions are that Kiwi youth are "the most promiscuous in the world", that he could choose to be gay if he wanted to and that children sent to school without lunch should go without.

"I don't know if I am a creationist or not," he said.

"I've been told that I clearly am not, because I have to believe the world was here in seven days to be one. I, frankly, don't have any idea. It's not something that keeps me awake at night."

But he insists the Conservatives are not a Christian party - and says religion and politics should remain separate.

"We are clearly not . . . nothing in our policies, or that I have ever said, has been religious as far as I'm aware and many of the people in our party would be alternative religions or not a religion at all."

He is strongly opposed to carbon taxes, but his views on climate change are not as black and white as often painted.

"I don't think that my view, which is that climate change comes from many factors of which the manmade impact is only one very small factor, is a particularly radical view at all," he said.

"The ETS [emissions trading scheme] policy is one I would have got rid of. This idea of people paying more for power and petrol and we pat ourselves on the back, say aren't we doing great, taxing everybody more. But we are not reducing carbon.

"To me, I would have said let's clean up our rivers or get toxins out of our food and the environment as much as we can. Those are tangible."

Largely, he's unapologetic about his "passe" views because he know they appeal to a constituency. Just like Peters, he knows he can survive without the acceptance of the liberal media.

"I find those labels kind of quickly thrown around and I guess I don't do a lot about it because I figure the more people I meet and the more people we talk to - those people get a real idea of who we are.

"In a way, the sensationalisation of those being extreme points of view works for us because half of NZ is sitting at home saying I agree with that guy."

Because of his "way out there" ideals, some commentators have labelled Craig as a political risk for Key.

"Every political party is probably going to have demands they want to make. He vaguely knows me because he is the MP for Helensville and there have been a couple of business issues that have gone across his desk.

"He will have done the homework and figured out this guy has been pretty reasonable and sensible. I've got a whole business career for 20-odd years . . . he will know the sort of person I am and he's probably pretty comfortable with that."

So what does Craig want from a coalition deal? While he's too canny to negotiate through a reporter, he expresses an interest in housing. He owns a company which manages high-rise buildings and assets worth $1.3 billion.

"If I was put on housing for Auckland I'd be very happy with that because of course I know an awful lot about housing in the Auckland market . . . it is a chance to make a difference."

He is also conscious that in coalition ACT has made little progress with its economic goals.

"They have been parked out of that space to a certain degree. At the end of the day it is about can we get something to happen . . . there has got to be a certain amount of flexibility . . . and where we stand in terms of votes and seats has a bearing on how much you can ask for."

CRAIG'S LIST

Who are the Conservative Party - and what do they believe? Steve Kilgallon comes up with 10 of their more interesting policy platforms:

1. Spending beyond their means: Leader Colin Craig says he'd like to match Australia's defence spending at a "percentage level". According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's figures, Australia's defence budget is US$26.1 billion. Ours is $1.358 billion. If Craig's sums are based on GDP, it means an extra $1.55 billion; if it's on population, it means another $4.87 billion. Either way, it's a lot of guns.

2. If it wasn't immediately obvious, more guns: Craig would consider introducing national service in return for free tertiary education. And let everyone else have a gun too: the right to bear arms, and the "Castle Doctrine" (basically, the right to shoot burglars).

3. Freedom of choice: a powhiri or a cup of tea (no confirmation on presence or otherwise of gingernuts): Craig, after the outcry when a visiting Danish MP felt intimidated by a powhiri: "Not all visitors to New Zealand are impressed by a bare-bottomed native making threatening gestures . . . if guests choose not to be welcomed in this way, I'm sure a handshake and a cup of tea would go a long way."

4. Keep on burnin': Climate change isn't our fault. Instead, says Craig, volcanoes and sun flares are to blame. "Globally, our influence on temperature is very, very small. New Zealand's influence is infinitesimally small." Therefore, as night follows day, they would scrap the emissions trading scheme.

5. Freedom to rot your teeth: Fluoride, says Craig, is "a poison put in the water supply supposedly to improve dental health. No medical treatment should ever be given to a person without their explicit permission." Here, he notes the vital impression on medical science made by the good councillors of Hamilton, who voted to remove this poison from municipal water (it was overturned in a recent referendum).

6. Grow yer own, toddlers: "I am 100 per cent behind schools teaching children how to raise/tend a garden."

7. Investment in paper shredders: "Governments are prone to making unnecessary and sometimes quite ludicrous laws. I have a personal goal to scrap more legislation than I approve."

8. Close yer legs. It's cheaper: Craig, in April 2012: "We are the country with the most promiscuous young women in the world. This does nothing to help us at all." This may go hand in hand with dumping the "frankly terrible" Working for Families.

9. Binding citizens-initiated referendums and a 100-day delay on initiating legislation to allow it to be overturned by the public: A deal-breaker in any coalition. "Although other parties might not like the idea much, if it is a choice between government or not, I expect them to be receptive to the idea," Craig said. This appears to be a not-so-sneaky way to make gay marriage illegal again.

10. And a few other things too: Closing the Waitangi Tribunal; work for the dole; a lot less tax: a tax-free threshold of $25,000 and a flat rate of $20,000; cutting the education department budget by 50 per cent and giving half the saving direct to schools.