I went out door-knocking Tuesday night in Lawrence Park with two volunteers. They were asking people to vote Liberal — not because they think Marco Mendicino is the best candidate, but because they think he's got the best chance to beat Joe Oliver, the Conservative finance minister.

They were strategic voting lobbyists with the non-partisan, grassroots group called Leadnow.

"You have to think of the long term outcome, versus the short-term pay-off," explained Kelly Graham, a 26-year-old urban planning student.

Her partner-in-crime was Norm Beach, a 61-year-old ESL teacher who likes the Green Party best, but won't vote for them again this election. "The only way the Green party has any chance in Canada, is if we reform the voting system," he said. "And for that, we need to get Harper out."

In years to come, we'll remember this election for many things: its exhausting length, the niqab, maybe the Duffy trial, definitely Alan Kurdi. I predict we will also remember it as the election when strategic voting came of age.

My inbox has been jammed for weeks with group letters from professors, Chinese workers, feminists, all denouncing Conservative campaign tactics. The subtext seems clear: "Get these guys out." A bouquet of different campaigns has sprouted, each urging Canadians to vote with their heads, not their hearts.

None are as organized as Leadnow. They have lawn signs, voter lists and canvass routes. At the prep meeting before the volunteer teams set out on Tuesday, the local campaign organizer went over a script on how to persuade people to vote Liberal when they prefer another party.

They were also armed with the results of the latest riding poll, conducted by Environics Research, which shows Mendicino ahead by five percentage points.

In past elections, voting strategically required making a crude guess, based on past election results, national polls and a wander around the riding counting lawn signs. Leadnow has commissioned local polls in 37 swing ridings across the country, all crowdfunded by its members — now numbering some 500,000.

In Eglinton-Lawrence, it has commissioned three polls.

The organization was formed four years ago by disheartened environmentalists furious with the Conservative government's inaction on climate change. They've hosted hundreds of community meetings since then and broadened the scope to include changing the first-past-the-post electoral system and a "fair economy." There's a staff of 18, many of whom have been focused on this election for two years.

Two days after the election was called, Leadnow canvass teams were out in 12 ridings. Already, they claimed 44,000 signatures on their pledge to "vote with people across Canada to defeat the Harper Conservatives and move Canada forward."

Last Saturday, Leadnow posted the names of candidates in 16 swing ridings across Canada that its members agreed had the best chance to do just that. Nine are Liberal, seven are NDP. (The plan is to endorse 14 more by week's end.)

Most of the ridings saw the Conservatives win or lose by a small margin in 2011. Eglinton-Lawrence is an exception. Oliver trounced his Liberal opponent, Joe Volpe, by 4,000 votes. But this had been a Liberal stronghold forever, and honestly, a sitting minister seemed too delicious a target to miss.

Some 200 volunteers have canvassed here a few times a week for months now.

"Yes, yes, yes," said one woman, opening her door with a kid on her hip. "You guys have contacted me three times today. I'm committed. I'm voting for the Liberal guy."

Other porches were less welcoming.

"I don't talk to solicitors or people I don't know at the door, and I don't know you," pronounced one man. Slam.

Despite social media, elections are still won at the door. That always astounds me, because canvassing is so much work, particularly in a lofty riding like Eglinton-Lawrence, where the houses are big and the front doors distant. In two hours, the duo bagged just eight commitments.

I wondered aloud if they were wasting their time, particularly since the latest predictions call for a red sweep across Toronto.

"Last time, the polls predicted a Conservative minority, and it ended up being a Conservative majority," Beach responded. They kept knocking.

Even if Leadnow is successful in all 11 ridings where its members have been canvassing furiously, who could say that it was their campaign that cinched it? Local wisdom has it that a local candidate's popularity can only offer a boost of 5 percentage points, says Wilfrid Laurier University political science associate professor Barry Kay. Strategic voting campaigns haven't worked in the past, he says, but they've never been this robust.

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If nothing else, Leadnow has increased political engagement, which won't stop after this election. In fact, if a minority government forms, organizers plan to lobby hard for many changes, particularly dismantling the first-past-the-post voting system.

"I don't want to do this. I think this is crazy that we have to vote for a party we don't completely agree with," Beach said. "If the Liberals win, Leadnow will have to ... hold their feet to the fire."