Born into a South Canterbury farming family, educated at Christ's College and at a rural co-ed high school in the USA as one of the first AFS students, Burdon then put himself through law school at Canterbury University before going into business: mushroom farming in Cyprus then New Zealand, establishing Meadow Mushrooms. In politics from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Philip Burdon was the voice of common sense and business pragmatism for the National Party, being instrumental in finalising the GATT negotiations, the consolidation of CER, and, with New Zealand's economic focus turning from Europe to Asia, the establishment of the Asia 2000 Foundation. This is a review of the career and achievements of Philip Burdon, a passionate - but never jingoistic - republican Nationalist New Zealander; a businessman with an acute social conscience and a commitment to his community and a liberal politician who fought relentlessly against the right-wing ideologues of his own party.