Some Hamiltonians are watching the U.S. presidential election campaign with a sense of awe. Some are dismayed by its numerous controversies. Some are disgusted.

But on the weekend, half a dozen with local Liberal ties got involved by driving to Pennsylvania to campaign for Hillary Clinton.

Led by former Liberal candidate Anne Tennier, the group knocked on doors in Erie to encourage current and former Democrats to get out and vote. It was Liberals this time, Tennier said, but some active NDP members will join her in two weeks.

"Today it just happened to be Liberals," Tennier said on the phone from Pennsylvania.

Tenner and other local volunteers door knocked for Clinton on the weekend. (Anne Tennier)

The Canadian volunteers know it's not their election, Tennier said. For them, she explained, watching the campaign drummed up their sense of civic duty — especially after the debates.

After the first one, Tennier put out a call on Facebook. Then she waited for the Clinton campaign to check election laws and OK their volunteer involvement. Then they made the drive.

"This is a historic election one way or the other," Tennier said. "The results will obviously have an impact far beyond the U.S. borders."

It's hard to say how a Trump presidency would impact Hamilton, she said, because there's been so little talk of policy in this election. And his campaign is light on details, she said.

"There's a lot of stuff that will happen, if he became president, that we haven't thought of yet," she said, acknowledging she's "clearly biased toward Hillary."

Pennsylvania is commonly considered a battleground in presidential elections. While September polls showed them as nearly neck and neck, a recent Bloomberg poll from early October shows Clinton with a nine-point lead over Trump.

Tennier's group included Jennifer Stebbing, who ran for the Liberals in Flamborough-Glanbrook during the last federal election.​

The group spent Sunday knocking on doors for Clinton. These were people who had voted Democrat in 2008, Tennier said, but hadn't voted at all in 2012.

Some had since gone Republican. Some were enthusiastic Clinton supporters. No one asked Tennier where she was from.