Canvassing

Yesterday was our first day of election canvassing. Until now we've been keeping up our year round issue-based canvassing - talking to people about local issues that we've been campaigning on and taking up casework on their behalf. Over the past few weeks more and more people have been assuming that we were electioneering and with the announcement less than a fortnight away we've decided to make the switch.

Canvassing some streets is like calling on old friends. Many of the residents are people we've spoken to several times over the course of the year's canvassing and they're happy to talk to us about the election precisely because we don't just come round when there's an election on.

Unsurprisingly a lot of people are undecided at this stage. Although we've been thinking about the election almost constantly for months, for most people it's only just coming onto the radar. The signs are good though - a lot of Labour voters can't bring themselves to vote for Blair and there's a lot of dissatisfaction with the LibDem council - we're offering the option to vote for rather than against something. Add in the fact that we polled over 20% in Islington North in last June's GLA and Euro elections and we seem to be on track for a significant increase in our vote.