"NOW, ladies, this is a one-issue constituency. Make sure you impress on them on every doorstep where we stand on it and how hard we have been fighting on their behalf!" Prof Monica McWilliams told her canvassers. "And don't get held up with too much chit-chat!"
Pep-talk over, the sisters of the Northern Ireland Woman's-Coalition swarmed out, negotiating their way past shiny Cabriolets and top-of-the range children's tricycles in immaculately paved driveways to tackle the residents of Newtownbreda's "Nappy Valley", one of South Belfast's newest, upwardly-mobile "residential areas". Residents reportedly object to the term "estate".
The mostly young families emerging from their detached red-brick homes were indeed only concerned with one issue. "It's disgraceful," said a young woman in a black sun-dress and gold jewellery.
"I cannot believe the council wants to sell off the playing fields to have a supermarket built there. Surely, around here, they can't be needing the money that badly!"
"And even if they did, I wouldn't mind paying a few pence more in rates to save the playing fields for our children, would you?" one of the Coalition's councillors, Ms Eileen Cairnduff, chipped in.
Next door a young man in a Hawaiian shirt told Ms McWilliams how he tried to address a recent public meeting on the issue but was cut off after less than a minute.
"They are the last public playing fields left in south Belfast. If they get sold off, my wee lad will have to travel for miles for his soccer practice," he complained, tussling the hair of his 10-year-old son, whose school uniform still looked immaculate at nine o'clock in the evening.
As the evening sun began to set behind the neatly trimmed rhododendrons one could have been forgiven for thinking that the future of the Belfast Agreement or the decommissioning issue was "old hat".
"You just have to go with the flow," explained Ms McWilliams as she dutifully patted next door's sheepdog. "In this area, this is what young families care about, which is good for us as we are perceived as doing a lot of hard work on the ground on local issues."
An elderly woman said she had "a lot of time" for Ms McWilliams. "I used to vote for the Rev Martin Smyth, who is a decent man but past his sell-by date, as are so many of them and their ideas."
No, she could no longer get excited about whether there would be a United Kingdom or a united Ireland in 30 years' time. "Sure, we are all mongrels anyway," said Ms McWilliams, causing everybody to giggle.
As party workers made their way back to their cars they compared notes on their blisters as well as on the response on the doorsteps.
"Maybe Alisdair McDonnell [the SDLP candidate who has called on Ms McWilliams to withdraw to avoid a split in the pro-agreement vote] should come up here and talk to people instead of telling them they are wasting their vote on us.
"Maybe then he would actually stand a serious enough chance for us to consider withdrawing," Ms McWilliams commented as Cllr Cairnduff, in a less than elegant three-point turn, reversed her car into a nearby hedge.
"Eileen, you will never get that woman's vote if you take her bushes away!" Ms McWilliams shouted after the disappearing car.