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Speaker's Corner: On Anmore and America

by Joerge Dyrkton
Former Chair in the History of European Thought, Oxford University

Donald Trump's second term in office as president of the United States may signal to a great many of observers — particularly here in Canada — a degeneration from liberal political values that once defined the West. The American Revolution has ended. It was the best of times; and now we are in the worst of times. The shackles of the English monarchy had been cast off in the name of "No representation without taxation". But today a new monarchy in the name of Trump is mounting efforts to end presidential term limits while dispensing with the federal bureaucracy and judicial independence. We may need to prepare in years to come for the unfathomable: a Baron Trump of Canada, leading us with our newfangled flag and Republican constitution.

But is it all that bad? Can over two centuries of the world's greatest democratic experiment be overturned on the whims of an ambitious megalomaniac, or two? Have Americans simply unlearned the habits of their political past? Have they finally and utterly succumbed to what Tocqueville and others warned about in their writings — the bane of all democracies — otherwise known as the "tyranny of the majority"? As an aspiring optimist, I think there is still reason for hope.

In Canada we can take cold comfort from the fact that there is no equivalent to Donald Trump — no, not even Pierre Poilievre — but Elon Musk does have a Canadian mother, which makes him something of a Quisling figure for those of us who care about our nation's sovereignty. Yet, if we look instead to local democracy, beneath the headlines of Trump's gravitational-sucking news, I find reason to be encouraged.

Consider, for example, the Town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, whose most famous inhabitant was the painter, Norman Rockwell. It is a community of 2,000 residents, quite similar in size to Anmore's approximate 2,500 residents. Just as Anmore can be found among the Coast Mountains, Stockbridge — on the eastern limits of the continent — is nestled in the Berkshires.

The official website for Stockbridge is pretty easy to navigate: front and centre is the heading for "Boards & Committees". Click on the link, and you get a list of twenty-seven — yes, that's 27 — entirely different committees, all with Agendas and Minutes posted and available to the public. Unfortunately, there is no list of committees on the front page of the Village of Anmore's website. Our committees never meet, apparently because the mayor and council haven't given them direction. This raises the question: What is the point of volunteering for a committee in Anmore if you're there only to serve council's wishes? So, in terms of local politics, we have here an example of top-down authority in Anmore which appears to be absent in Stockbridge. Moreover, Stockbridge holds an Annual Town Meeting (this year it's on 19 May). But in sleepy Anmore, mayor and council are resistant to any Town Hall Meeting over the Anmore South property proposal — save for Councillor Richardson.

What does this say about politics in Anmore? It says that we are more prone to being hoodwinked than is Stockbridge, just one random example of local American democracy. My suggestion to residents of somnambulant Anmore is to make yourself alert to local politics, not just global media. Maybe form your own parallel committees? Show up as a delegation to council? Stage an independent Town Hall?

Political moderation follows from the free expression of thoughtful disagreement. While America needs to exercise its "checks and balances" in a most proverbial way — and to draw from the wellspring of community politics, Anmore needs to improve on local democratic processes. Just as a nation cannot survive without ongoing consent, so, too, a Village administration mustn't take it for granted.