Yesterday James Cooper, the UUP candidate for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, was dogged by reporters anxious for his comments on the re-entry of an anti-agreement unionist, Jim Dixon, into the election. Over the weekend his only unionist opposition had been an anti-agreement pooch.
"That dog has been trained to bite compromisers," shouted a man angrily as the terrier barked loudly and nipped Cooper's heels in the largely unionist townland of Laragh, outside Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
Cooper had just embarked on his first full day of canvassing. "Don't be like that. I haven't done any compromising," retorted the solicitor as he beat a hasty retreat down the sloping garden path to his shiny Jeep.
It was a case of once bitten, twice shy.
"He must be an ex-policeman," he said of the angry man, putting the less-than-welcoming reception down to the changes to the police service.
"We haven't had much of that, but some policemen are very bitter - and rightly so - about the way they have been treated," he says.
Cooper has a PA system on his Battle Jeep, which blares out his pledge that he can provide "progressive and dynamic leadership". He thinks it's "pathetic" that the DUP put pressure on Dixon, an Enniskillen bomb victim, to stand so that it did not have to field an anti-agreement candidate itself. Originally the DUP's Maurice Morrow entered the fray before stepping down to leave a clear path for Dixon.
But last week Dixon withdrew amid allegations of a "dirty tricks" campaign orchestrated by "fellow unionists". He reversed that decision yesterday after receiving what he described as a flood of support.
And while Cooper admires Dixon's work on behalf of victims of violence, he does not feel he is a viable candidate for this crucial seat.
"The man patently isn't fit," insisted Cooper as he powerwalked up the driveway of the next house. "I mean, could you see him out doing this? This is an important seat because it is probably the only seat we have a chance of winning west of the Bann. "It is a case of flying the unionist flag in the west of the province. Unionist morale would be very dented if we lost."
Cooper's canvassing dictum is `'Keep moving". He doesn't stay chatting for long. He knocks doors and presses leaflets into hands before doing a cursory check that they will be out on June 7th, "but I don't like to ask them how they are voting. Some people don't like to be pressured".
At almost every house he comments "The grass is looking well" or "Your house is looking nice". Cooper clearly isn't comfortable with small talk. He was an election agent for the UUP during the 1981 general election when, in an emotional contest, the hunger-striker, Bobby Sands, was elected MP for the constituency.
"It's different when the focus is on you. I'm just trying to keep smiling," he said.
Fermanagh-South Tyrone is emerging as one of the most open electoral seats in Northern Ireland. The four candidates - Cooper, Dixon, Sinn Fein's Michelle Gildernew and the SDLP's Tommy Gallagher - have everything to play for.
For the past 18 years the UUP's Ken Maginnis has been the MP, but he is now out of the race, having decided to step down. Maginnis gained a 13,688 majority over Sinn Fein in the last election but now, with two unionist candidates fighting for the same seat, the chances of both the SDLP and Sinn Fein have been greatly increased.
At the 1998 Assembly election Sinn Fein won 27 per cent of the vote; the UUP 25 per cent; and the SDLP 22 per cent.
Dungannon-based, Gild ernew's approach is more relaxed than Cooper's and she spends longer at the doorsteps, gently persuading locals she deserves their vote. The Sinn Fein Assembly member's vehicle of choice while touring sunny Irvinestown, an SDLP heartland about 10 miles from Enniskillen, was a white delivery van.
Gerry Adams has been supportive of the candidate, travelling from Belfast to accompany her, but today she is on her own. Gildernew takes a brush to her shoulder-length brown hair, pushes her handbag over her shoulder and prepares to tell the people of Irvinestown the reasons they should put an X by her name.
"We tried to get the SDLP to form a winning pact with Sinn Fein, but they wouldn't," she tells one man who accuses her party of splitting the nationalist vote.
"We are the ones who are going to win this seat because we know we are the party to end 18 years of unionist misrepresentation in this constituency. I'll get in, wait till you see."
At a nearby housing estate she tells one woman that it will come down to a couple of hundred votes, a two-horse race between her and Cooper. Sinn Fein hasn't had an MP for the area since 1983.
"I can be the first republican female MP since Countess Markievicz in 1918," she tells the housewife, who has never voted in her life. "I am asking you personally, will you come out and vote for me on June 7th? Make history and get me elected." The woman makes no commitment but says she will read Gildernew's election leaflet.
Gildernew claims many traditional SDLP voters have told her they plan to switch their allegiance to Sinn Fein. "They see we are working harder. They see we can represent them better. I know I can win this seat," she says.
Tommy Gallagher, the SDLP candidate, was first off the mark when it came to putting up election posters. He says Gildernew is politically naive. He has just attended the Fermanagh v Donegal football match. Fermanagh won. Delighted fans have taken all the seats in the bar of the Ashberry Hotel in Enniskillen so Gallagher sits sipping a celebratory bottle of beer on the stairs.
"You need to know the people here to read how things will go," he says. "They are pretty realistic, very astute but a bit cagey, and no harm in that."
This is the third time for Gallagher to contest the Westminster election. "The response on the ground has been very good for the SDLP. People are making that very clear to me that they think the SDLP are the party who can build on the agreement."
His website, tommygal lagher.com, has been attracting young voters, anxious to win the tickets he is raffling for U2 at Slane.
As nominations close today the only thing that seems certain about Fermanagh-South Tyrone is that it will be one of the livelier battles to be fought.