Photo: The Canadian Press

Conservative leadership candidates at April debate.

The 13 candidates vying to lead the federal Conservatives make their final pitches to party faithful today — at which point, the marathon leadership race will be all over but the crying for 12 of them.

Indeed, it will likely be over even before the leadership hopefuls make their swan-song speeches tonight.

The vast majority of party members will already have voted by mail-in ballots, although they can still cast ballots in person Saturday at the Toronto convention site and at polling stations across the country; polls close at 4 p.m.

For the winner, however, the hard part is still to come: uniting the party and getting it in fighting form in time for the next election in 2019.

"This has been a long leadership race, but the hardest work is still ahead," said former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore.

The preferential ballot being used to select the next leader could help ease some tension since every voter can rank their choices from first to 10th. None of the 13 is expected to win on the first ballot, which means there'll be several rounds of counting before the winner is finally announced Saturday night.