Swaying Voters

I have been canvassing a few times for the NDP in my riding. It has really been an interesting experience. Canvassing, for those who don't know, is when you go door-to-door to the addresses that have voted in the last federal election and try and find out if they will vote for you. The main goal is to have a list of NDP supports so that you can call them on voting day and remind them or offer help to get them to the polls. But inadvertently there is also the opportunity to convince some people. The canvasser has the opportunity to have a 1-on-1 with the voter, unless there aren't hope or just slam the door in your face. You will never be able to convince the decided voter who doesn't talk to you, that's a given, but the ones who talk to you are easily swayed. It is probably the fact that just like the personal contact since you talk exclusively about issues that concern them (they parent holing a baby is informed about the daycare, child tax benefits, GST reduction etc) whereas if they watch a debate or get a flyer if they actually read it they have to sift through and may also hear some stuff they disagree with.

But the oddest part of this is the minority voter. Most of them won't open the door for you (all you see is the eye piece get darker then lighter again and here the TV in the background) mostly because they can't speak English I imagine. But once we went with an Indian guy who spoke the language. He would not only get the or open they were completely swayed by him. He said that it was only a matter of someone talking to them in their language.

This makes me wonder if the problem with our democracy is the communication, not just the language but the one-on-one. But in a country of 30 million is it a fixable problem?