Weston Miller knocked on 5,056 doors.
Steve McGuinness challenged incumbents on their voting records.
Vaughn Goettler listened — and listened some more.
Different strategies, same result: all three won seats at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s council table, a first for each candidate. But how did these newcomers get voters to take a chance on them?
For McGuinness, it was a mix of making his case to voters and tapping into frustration with the outgoing council.
“I would say half and half,” he told The Lake Report.
He said development decisions, particularly the controversial Parliament Oak hotel approval, were a major source of voter dissatisfaction.
“I found there was a lot of appetite for change and people were very receptive,” he said.
Some were so frustrated they told McGuinness they wouldn’t vote for a single incumbent.
He pushed back, arguing council needed a balance of new and experienced voices.
As an openly gay candidate, McGuinness said he was pleased by the reception he received, particularly after reading about other Niagara candidates facing homophobia.
“So I was proud of our community in terms of being receptive and inclusive of diversity in terms of who they would vote for as a candidate,” he said.
Unlike some candidates, McGuinness wasn’t born or raised in NOTL.
He described himself as the “Johnny-come-lately or new-kid-on-the-block candidate,” relying instead on his background in finance and accounting to earn voters’ trust.
Earning that trust also meant hitting the pavement. He used social media and print advertising, too, but said face-to-face conversations on residents’ doorsteps proved most effective.
Miller took a similar approach — knocking on 5,056 doors and earning 4,948 votes.
“Whether there’s a direct correlation, I don’t know,” he said of the near-matching figures.
“In a local campaign like this, door-knocking just seems to be completely essential.”
Miller’s campaign had about 25 regular volunteers helping cover neighbourhoods three to five times a week for months.
And he made a point of being there himself.
“I never sent the team out without me when I was door-knocking,” he said.
Despite growing up in town and being a prominent figure in the Chautauqua neighbourhood, Miller discovered many residents had no idea who he was.
But being unfamiliar came with an unexpected advantage.
“The winds of change were blowing,” he said.
Some residents even mistook Miller for an incumbent and began airing their grievances — complaints he could quickly distance himself from.
Goettler, meanwhile, says his successful bid for lord mayor — his second attempt after an unsuccessful run in 2022 — came down to hearing what voters were saying.
“I actually listened and paid attention to what voters were telling me,” he said in a message to The Lake Report.
Some questioned his lack of government experience, but Goettler said hundreds of conversations with voters helped him understand their expectations and make up for his lack of experience in municipal government.
“If you respect the voters and listen, you can’t go wrong,” he said.
“My advice to newcomers to the process would be to start early, get a great team and execute on everything — from door-knocking to meet and greets and events in general. And finally, listen, listen, listen.”
Now, with the election behind them, the newcomers will have the opportunity to put their campaign promises into action.
McGuinness says if they fail to deliver, future challengers should hold them to the same standard he applied to outgoing councillors.
“Elections are the ultimate way of holding elected representatives accountable,” he said. “If they ran the same kind of campaign against me that I ran against incumbents this time, that’s entirely appropriate.”
