The world holds its breath as they watch the oldest modern continuous constitutional democracy being rapidly and systematically dismantled in favour of an imperial presidency.

The man who would be autocrat of a reformed nation has directed a legion of lackeys to find all possible precedents buried in 250 years of historical legislation — no matter how tenuous — that might justify the concentration of unilateral decision-making power into the office of the president.

These questionable justifications underwriting his executive orders have been fired out with such rapidity that the institutions traditionally responsible for acting as a check and balance on the executive branch have been overwhelmed – if they had not been already subverted by the appointment of one or more presidential loyalists to the helm.

Inundated by these dubious claims, intimidated by a weaponized Department of Justice, attacked by the Department of Homeland Security through ICE, threatened by mobilized military troops and a federalized National Guard in their neighbourhoods, witness of gerrymandering to marginalize the African American and Latino vote, and watching the institutions of higher education, legal firms and the media being muzzled and emasculated, has taken a toll on the American people.

Even when eight million people took to the streets in the No Kings protest, they were largely ignored and maligned through the president’s social media platform Truth Social — a name eerily reminiscent to that of Russia’s state media Pravda Network or, in English, the Truth Network.

Many have sounded an alarm regarding the threat to democracy in the United States (e.g. Fareed Zakaria’s “The Imperial Presidency” aired on PBS and the Center for American Progress’ Aug. 12 report “The Trump Administration Is Interfering in the 2026 Midterm Elections To Entrench the Imperial Presidency”) but most American citizens have remained remarkably docile in their apparent belief that “this too in time shall pass.”

Unfortunately, there is every chance that they will wake up one morning to find that what has passed is their hallowed democracy.

Here, Ontario has Premier Doug Ford who, lacking President Trump’s power to simply deny access to any media outlet that he deems is not “loyal” to his administration, has resorted to holding public appearances carefully staged and produced for social media to appear as press conferences but the media is actually not invited.

In the most recent example, on Sept. 3 in Mississauga, Ford was caught on a hot mic stating, “Thank God we don’t have the media. No questions, no answers. We’re good to go.”

Much like other autocratically inclined politicians, the premier is all about controlling the narrative while assuming the creditability of a traditional press conference to subliminally influence its acceptance by the public.

This type of behavior is completely reflective of Ford’s attitude toward the electorate in this province. His “ah shucks, I’m just a regular guy” populist presentation is simply a facade behind which his government diligently works to centralize power, control and decision-making in the premier and cabinet ministers’ offices.

There are many examples of this hidden away in legislation passed by his government during their terms in office however, given the upcoming elections in the fall, let’s just focus on two.

With the passing of the Better Regional Governance Act in April of this year, Ford effectively took control of the Niagara Regional Council.

This legislation eliminated the 19 independently elected regional councillor positions thereby denying the electorate their democratic right to choose and vote for the individuals they felt would represent them best.

The new council will consist only of the 12 mayors of Niagara’s municipalities who, according to the legislation, will be vested with a weighted number of votes reflective of the population size of their respective jurisdictions — essentially handing regional decision-making authority to the mayors of St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland.

Further, the regional chair will not be elected but rather appointed by the Ford government — to all intents and purposes a Ford employee that is paid for by the region’s taxpayers — and, this appointee will have executive powers similar to “strong mayor” powers allowing them to propose budgets, veto certain bylaws and hire or fire regional staff.

In practice, the chair will not be responsible to residents of Niagara for the actions and decisions that impact us; they will be accountable to the Premier and his government.

Which brings us to the importance of our local governance — since the councillors and lord mayor are the only folks who we can actually vote for and hold accountable vis-a-vis NOTL’s future — and the fact the current council, led by the lord mayor and deputy lord mayor, reduced voter representation by eliminating two council positions thereby enhancing the facility of exercising strong mayor powers (the lord mayor plus two councillors can carry the vote against the majority of council).

This, if for no other reason, is why it is vital that each and every resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake needs to conduct due diligence on every one of the individuals registered to run in this election and then vote for who you believe will serve this community best.

There are candidate forums running on Sept. 14, 25 and Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. in Crossroads Public School, plus on Sept. 16 beginning at 7 p.m. at St Davids Lions Club. I urge you to attend.

Brian Marshall is a NOTL realtor, author and expert consultant on design, restoration and heritage.