Doorstep challenge: FG teaches art of canvassing

HAVE a target that you try to achieve. Knock on the door rather than ringing the bell.

Don’t waffle. And for God’s sake, don’t go drinking beforehand.

It sounds like a guide for a door-to-door salesman. In fact, it is Fine Gael’s guide to its canvassers.

The party has produced a booklet, complete with rhetoric from leader Enda Kenny, outlining the dos and don’ts for members seeking votes on doorsteps in the run-up to the summer election.

In a positively startling revelation, the party tells readers: “The more effectively we canvass, the better the result.”

It then offers advice on precisely how to achieve effective canvassing.

The party recommends that canvassers smile and appear interested, be positive, always ask for first preference, seek support for the FG team and warns them to always close gates behind them.

But the party also gives a long list of don’ts. It tells canvassers not to get involved in arguments on the doorstep or make promises that cannot be fulfilled.

And, in a sign that the doorsteps can, occasionally, be a frightening place, the booklet adds: “Beware of spoilers [supporters of other parties] and don’t let yourself get trapped.”

Most crucially, however, it adds: “Don’t waffle. Don’t take shortcuts over walls or hedges. Don’t smoke at the door. Don’t go drinking beforehand.”

The booklet then tells canvassers to remind potential voters of “FF-PD failures in government” and lists them accordingly.

It also outlines Fine Gael’s past achievements in government, as well as its plans for the future.

The booklet then lists ‘key messages to get across’ in the areas of health, crime, housing, childcare, and the environment.

The booklet was handed out to party members at an election rally in Cork this week, the first of 10 such events the party is holding to kick off its campaign.

Mr Kenny raised laughs at the event when telling members: “I want your enthusiasm to be infectious. And every time that you pound the pavement, knock on a door, kiss a baby, shake a hand, or run from a dog, I want you to remember that the right man and the woman is the one who will seize the moment, and I want you to seize that moment for Fine Gael.”