Miss Stafford was a canvasser for the Liberal candidate for the seat of Weatherfield in the 1964 general election. Along with the other candidates, she canvassed the residents of Coronation Street, putting leaflets through their doors and calling to their houses in person.
One residence she called at was the vestry where Ena Sharples asked her return at 8.00pm. She did so, not knowing that Ena had already made similar arrangements with Nigel Hunt and Fred Marsh, respectively the canvassers for the Labour and Conservative candidates. All three turned up within a moment of each other and were equally surprised to see the others there. Ena announced she was off to the Rovers Return Inn and was leaving them to "argue, insult one another and set the world to rights" between the three of them and she would be voting for the first one to put £2 on the old age pension. She then left, singing Land of Hope and Glory and chuckling to herself as she walked down the street.
- This was a rare storyline involving national politics since the 1964 general election was the first one held since the programme began and the production team felt it couldn't be ignored. The storylining decision to show Ena's contempt for the candidates and the political system was illustrated in a statement later made by H.V. Kershaw in his 1981 autobiography that, "knowing how difficult it is to please everybody the only alternative is to displease everybody and this we did", thus showing scrupulous impartiality in the process.