Keith McNenly
Special to The Lake Report

Late October to early December carries a special gravity in this community. Many turning points in our history meet here as fall turns to winter.

It is a season of transition: a time when decisions made earlier show their consequences, a time when darkness takes a greater share of the day. 

This year, the season is marked by a convergence of local memory and continental danger. 

In late October 1812, Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock was killed at Queenston Heights amid war between rival empires. His loss was deeply felt, and the battle helped shape the political future of the country that became Canada.

The Brock Monument above us on the Escarpment is a reminder that global rivalries and continental struggles can arrive suddenly on local ground. 

In early December 1813, the Americans set fire to the town of Newark, now Niagara-on-the Lake, as our soldiers forced them to retreat from Fort George, leading to retaliatory conflagrations of towns on both sides of the border, and ultimately to burning the Whitehouse.  

A battle in early November 1942 in Egypt marked a turning point in the global war against  fascism. Churchill’s response to that first solid Allied victory of the Second World War was celebratory but restrained: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

His speech immortalizes the moment. The direction of that human conflict had begun to change, but the greater challenge still lay ahead. 

We watch the undoing of the great democracy across the Niagara River; feel its cost in our pocketbooks, at the pumps and grocery store; truckers and farmers face the high cost of diesel fuel. We have heard the insults and threats to our sovereignty, and many now refuse to buy American goods or cross the border. 

American congressional elections occur every two years, halfway through a four-year presidential term: the midterms. Apart from the astonishing re-election of the convicted felon in the first place, this midterm promises to be the most consequential election in our lifetimes.

As the seasons shift again in Niagara, its ramifications will have profound consequences. In Churchillian prose, this is only “the end of the beginning.” 

The survival of democracy on our continent may ride upon the outcome as America abandons its history. But that central question will not end when ballots are counted. The Trump presidency’s first two years were the campaign cycle: performance, and promises. 

The next few months will be fought over process and ballot counts. Will the result be respected? Will those elected be permitted to take office and exercise the authority voters entrusted to them? What follows is the crucial part. 

On this American battle rests the survival or demise of democracy. I cannot dress that up any further. We will remain in our seats until one of the actors — Democrats or Republications — leaves the stage, one far bigger than the Shaw. In Niagara-on-the-Lake, we once again have front-row seats. 

The lesson remains that all elections matter: local, national and international. We might view it akin to the proverbial “butterfly effect,” except here the winds flutter a ballot paper. Our democratic systems require us to elect representatives, still a stable institution here in Canada,  and in those men and women we place our confidence.

After votes are counted and oaths sworn, our job as citizens is still not done. The work of our representatives begins, but vigilance is required: watching for drift, as the elected representatives reveal whether our faith in them has merit. 

Our history, heritage preservation, was a central question in our local fall campaign, citizens having found the previous council’s performance wanting.

If asked by a stranger what our town represents, my answer would be: a place where great geologic forces converged, drawing first Indigenous and then European settlement; where empires collided in the War of 1812; and where buildings, landscapes and institutions connect our present community to that past. 

The local, national, and continental are part of the same story here — links in the same chain — as developers arrive carrying bolt cutters, and former allies across the river decide finally whether to be friend or foe.  

The Great Lakes waterways; first as highway for early navigation, then as climate modulation for viniculture; the Falls as nature’s power, but also as spectacle; all combine in tourism, and with tourism comes pressure for economic exploitation. 

We have played our part as citizens, though we remain vigilant, and now will hunker down and bundle up against the coming cold and dark as the seasons shift. 

Niagara-on-the-Lake resident Keith McNenly was the chief administrator of the Town of Mono for 41 years.