The man was so thrilled he was blathering. Even the maths are peculiar here. Trimble holds the seat for the Ulster Unionists by 9,252, but that's meaningless. Last time the SDLP came second and Sinn Fein third, but Protestants outnumber Catholics two to one in Upper Bann, so nos two and three can't beat him. In the 1998 assembly elections the DUP were very close indeed.
People expect neighbours to drop by.
When they see it's the first minister, well, that's a surprise. Mostly a nice one. But that's because this is sanitised canvassing. Trimble can't go into strong Catholic areas, of course. He can't now go into the fiercest Protestant areas either.