Spent last night canvassing for the Lisbon Treaty on Ratoath Road, Swilly Road and Pinehurst. Overall the Yes vote had the majority however the lead is narrowing. This can also be seen in the MRBI poll over the weekend. Fewer and fewer people are uncertain as they make their mind up with polling day approaching. This whole FAS mess is a factor in the undecideds making their mind up. People look at payoffs for failure and ask why should they trust people involved in these kind of decisions? You just have to spend as much time as you can asking people to seperate domestic issues from the Lisbon Treaty. Sadly, the old dictum is true though …’when you’re explaining you’re losing’.
Met a lot of other canvassers out last night. One on the Yes side ‘Generation Yes’ and then one out for SF and one for a local Independent political group. We’ll continue canvassing and stick up our final posters. The worst thing now will be complacency. We just have to keep canvassing and talking to people to the very end.
Best part of last night for me was meeting a couple of lads who were having a drink at their home. They were both my age and were leaning towards a No. I spent 20 minutes answering all of their questions. Think that I might have swung one Yes vote out of them. Hope so.
Also spent a lot of yesterday on a transport issue that I am about to raise. More to come on this!