The Parliament Oak hotel would never have been approved.

The hulking condo towers of Glendale never contemplated.

The ambitious scheme to beef up our wee airport for tourist-laden jets never embraced.

The St. Davids roundabout never planned.

The Royal George mega-complex never rubber-stamped.

And, if Vaughn Goettler were mayor, Ontario would have to invade NOTL to make us amalgamate with the heathens in the Falls. Because we might well be an independent state.

At least, that’s the rhetoric. The defiance. The swagger of a 74-year-old, self-made, wealthy, philanthropic Old Town resident who’s spent the last four years shaking his head.

He ran to be mayor once before. He lost. Actually, he hints, we all did when Gary Zalepa was christened our master.

“I’m really disturbed at what I’ve seen coming out of this council,” he says. “They’ve been too lenient with developers. With Parliament Oak, for example, the hydrological issues of the property were never addressed. And it doesn’t fit with the neighbourhood. I never would have approved it — that space would have been perfect for seniors’ housing, so people could age in grace, in town.”

The local council, says the entrepreneur, is not transparent enough. Current politicians let people “put shovels in the ground without permits.”

There is too little transparency. Too much dependence on tourism and wineries. Too little care about quality of life.

And we need to stop running scared from the region’s threat of sucking NOTL into the black hole of bigger government, says the man who came third in 2022 and vows to change that.

“We should separate as opposed to amalgamate. We pay a disproportionate amount of tax relative to what we get in return. This is not Niagara Falls. We’re not Los Vegas North — and if we let that kind of thinking invade the place we might as well throw up a Ferris wheel behind the cenotaph.”

One issue, the candidate says, is that NOTL has a part-time mayor. It shows.

“There is a lot of cleaning-up to be done in this town. For example, staff need to remember they do not run this town. Council does and staff report to it. The mayor should be our CEO.”

To that end, Goettler says — unlike the current boss — he won’t be a part-time politician. He has stepped back from the HVAC empire he and his wife built. He’s selling his seasonal home in California.

His family foundation will continue to spread its wealth around, as it did with a million dollars to help the Niagara Foundation buy the historic Wilderness property.

By the way, he says he kept news of that gift quiet while he was running in the last election — for political reasons: “I didn’t want people to think this is just some wealthy jerk trying to buy votes.”

But Goettler is a one percenter, without a doubt. He built a successful home comfort business, sold it, bought is back, expanded it, scaled it and flipped it to hungry Americans from San Francisco.

Over 20 years he partnered with his wife, Lauren, and embraced his mistress, ambition.

Now the two of them are among the largest donors to local causes. Lots of headlines and pictures in the town’s media. Some people call the Goettlers showboats. No surprise. It’s always easy to stereotype and diss those who live in the big house down on the water.

But elections are levelers. Money won’t buy you one. Support is earned, and in NOTL these days, we’re a polarized society.

Many are desperate to preserve its uniqueness while others see the town as a movie set or heritage theme park — a backdrop for yet more growth. More tourists. More gelato, hotels and cash flow.

“If I win not everyone is going to like what I do,” vows Goettler. “They won’t. But if we don’t grab hold of this town now, we will lose it forever. This is my one chance.”

Garth Turner is a NOTL resident, journalist, author, wealth manager and former federal MP and minister. garth@garth.ca