It was my first election campaign. Heavily contested. I needed exposure.

“Would you like to be the celebrity judge for the baby contest?” the fall fair organizer asked.

Stupidly, I agreed. After all, people would be watching me — 30 sets of parents, plus a big audience of relatives. Visibility, just when I needed some. What could go wrong?

Lots. I picked one jolly infant. And pissed off 29 moms. Argh.

Well, this post may be like the baby parade. You might despair I’m not picking your fave candidate. But here goes. This is how I’m voting.

The context is simple. First, NOTL must hit the brakes for a while, lest we lose the very authenticity of a bucolic, beautiful, peaceful, historic and iconic small town that roots the economy. We need leaders who understand that, can stand up to developers, real estate promoters, the pressures of the GTA and the province. So, time for change. But experience also matters. Just throwing the old bums out is not a good strategy. Some of those bums are okay.

Second, I won’t judge candidates I’ve not spent time with.

Third, if we elect the same people (and most are reoffering) we’ll get the same result. More hotels. More bending over for tourism. More construction. More old buildings razed. More density. More compromise. More loss.

Some of that is inevitable, of course. But first, let’s brake. Absorb what’s already been pushed through. Ensure citizens are heard and that we have enough pipes, wires and resources to handle what’s already coming. The Parliament Oak hotel will be a shock when completed, while the Royal George complex will forever disfigure Queen Street. The Clayfield complex is a blight on that end of town. New threats include the Rand-Ritz, more Glendale towers, potential casinos, airport eruption plus townhouses and a roundabout in St Davids. Enough already.

My choices for council are simple.

Support goes to those brave three who tried to temper the conversion of a wee downtown theatre into a multi-story, 50,000-square-foot industrial complex and, in the process, demolish four old landmark buildings. Gary Burroughs, Andrew Niven and Sandra O’Connor stood up for heritage. If NOTL is not all about preserving the past, it might as well be Mississauga.

Yeah, Burroughs is an old guy now. He’s also wise, with an institutional memory and deep experience. His best-before date has yet to arrive. O’Connor is a caring, responsible woman. Niven is decent and earnest. They all stepped up when it mattered.

We need new, as well. Steve McGuinness is perhaps the biggest nerd I have encountered in decades. He knows more about the town budget, infrastructure, admin and challenges facing us than the people running the place. If he throws himself into this awful job as he did the campaign, things will not be the same around here.

And to add a true cowboy flavour to council, we need Nick Colaneri at the table. He’s young, controversial, despised by the developer-elite class in town and frequently unbearable. But he has passion and guts. He was David to the Shaw’s Goliath.

And what of the lord mayor’s job? It means running the place while being our sole rep at the region — which will he headed by a Doug Ford pro-growth disciple. Who will be our champion?

Andrea Kaiser, former regional councillor, wine entrepreneur and marketer is also a serial local and federal campaigner. I dissed her in this column for saying she’d be a part-time mayor because the pay sucks and questioned her lack of passion. She responded to me with grace, poise and professionalism. She has much to offer. But this is not her race or time.

The current deputy mayor, Erwin Wiens, is a big man, which probably helped him be a great cop. He’s rules-based, procedural and pro-development, believing in the system and structures, yet can engage and captivate with boyish charm. He also has a busy life with his farm and seems to harbour federal ambition. A good man. But he is not change.

In contrast to the others, Vaughn Goettler is older, iconoclastic and a whole lot richer. The former entrepreneur and HVAC exec built and sold an empire, has donated millions locally and is ready to devote a frenetic retirement to NOTL.

He’d chill development, corral town staff, be an alpha male cowboy, break some stuff and stand up to the pro-tourism forces.

He’s not a perfect man, of course, with a penchant for silly cars and a tendency to shun socks. With Goettler, we’d also get a twofer — his wife and partner, Lauren, is a force of nature.

He’s change. We need him.

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