Municipal elections are the lowest-profile, most mundane and least sexy democratic institutions we have.

They’re also arguably the most important, the ones that affect our lives most directly and the elections over which we can have the most influence if we decide to cast a ballot.

That’s because decisions made by town council literally hit you where you live. And in most municipalities only a fraction of eligible voters bother to get out and vote.

Niagara-on-the-Lake tends to be an outlier, as it is in so many other things. Here, in the last election in 2022, about 48 per cent of residents voted, town data shows.

That was more than anywhere else in Niagara Region, the town bragged in a news release. For instance, in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, only 26 to 28 per cent felt voting was worth their while.

In 2018, NOTL’s turnout was even more astounding, at 59 per cent, according to a summary by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

In that election, Betty Disero took half the votes cast for lord mayor and handily won.

Four years later, the electorate turned its collective sights on Disero and rejected her by giving Gary Zalepa 49 per cent support. The incumbent lost by 1,200 votes.

And this year, Zalepa is not running, after four years of leading what many people in town viewed as a pro-development council. He hopes to be appointed chair of Niagara Region.

So, as has been the case for the past 16 years, the fickle voters of NOTL will install someone new in the lord mayor’s chair. And hope they made the right choice this time.

The options for mayor are interesting — and starkly different. We have:

• Vaughn Goettler, a millionaire philanthropist and former CEO with a strong record in the corporate world, but no prior municipal government experience. He promises to do the job full-time but accept no salary and put a stop to what many residents call inappropriate development. He finished a distant third in the mayoral race in 2022.
• Andrea Kaiser, a winery owner and the town’s regional councillor (a job eliminated by the province’s meddling in the regional governance model), she is running on her record representing NOTL both at the region and town level for years, with promises of smart growth and respect of our historic and agricultural heritage.
• Erwin Wiens, the deputy lord mayor, a grape grower and retired police officer, he supports balanced growth that’s in the interests of long-term residents and aims to build a strong, year-round economy for NOTL. He has the ear of Premier Doug Ford, which can be a positive or a negative, depending on your perspective.

On top of everything else, the idea of amalgamating Niagara into two or three or more larger municipalities is a non-starter for all the mayoral hopefuls. They recognize it would spell the end of NOTL as we’ve always known it.

However, the municipal election is more than just deciding who should be mayor.

Despite the so-called strong mayor powers bestowed by Ford, the person who becomes lord mayor still holds just one vote, and the members of council can override what he or she does. Nothing happens without council’s input.

So, as always, there are many other names on the ballot, with a wide range of candidates for council and school board.

While candidates from Old Town and Virgil tend to outweigh those from other parts of NOTL, because council is elected at-large, whoever is chosen will be representing people across town.

You owe it to yourself and your family to take a few minutes to learn about candidates’ platforms, watch the excellent NOTL Residents Association debates, or greet the candidates on your doorstep.

And remember: despite their low profile, municipal elections are our most relevant form of grassroots, representative democracy.

So, what direction will NOTL voters choose?

That’s impossible to predict but what we do know is it has never been easier to exercise your democratic franchise.

Whether that means hitting the polls on election day, getting out to one of the advance polls or — because it’s 2026 — opting for online voting, there is no excuse for not voting this year.

The Town of NOTL has made it easy and convenient.

Now it falls to you, the voter, to decide who is the best choice for our town for the next four years.