Candidates for Plymouth Select Board: Kevin Canty and Wrestling Brewster

Part II in a Series

(PLYMOUTH) — When Plymouth goes to the polls for its Town Election on
May 20th, voters will be asked to vote for two candidates for the open seats on the Select Board. This article will examine two of them, Advisory and Finance Committee Chair Kevin Canty; and Precinct 15 Town Meeting Member Wrestling Brewster.

There are six candidates in the race in total. In the order that I heard of their announcements, they are: Planning Board Member Frank Mand; School Committee Member Vedna Heywood; Mr. Canty; Mr. Brewster; Precinct 2 Town Meeting Member Everett Malaguti; and present Select Board Vice Chair, Richard Quintal, seeking reelection.

We covered Mr. Mand’s and Ms. Heywood campaigns in January, when they announced their candidacies; I will be expanding on that article to give Candidates Mand and Heywood space equal to that which I give Candidates Canty and Brewster, and re-running it before the election. We will likewise be covering Mr. Malaguti and Mr. Quintal in an upcoming article. My ultimate goal is to be procedurally fair in covering what will no doubt be a closely contested race.

( The view from Plymouth Town Hall; photo credit — J. Benjamin Cronin. )

Kevin Canty: Candidate For Select Board

Kevin Canty, a lifelong Plymouth resident, currently serves as the Chair of the Plymouth Advisory and Finance Committee, a body which he joined in 2014, and which he has Chaired for four years. In a conversation with The Plymouth County Observer, Mr. Canty spoke of the importance of that Committee for Plymouth’s governance, noting that in Europe, “all roads lead to Rome,” and in Plymouth’s government, much the same can be said of the Advisory and Finance Committee, which must consider each Article that comes before Town Meeting. In his view, this long experience of Plymouth Town Government is a compelling argument for his candidacy.

Mr. Canty grew up in West Plymouth, where his parents still live, and presently resides in North Plymouth. He attended Sacred Heart Elementary School in Kingston, Rising Tide Charter School in Plymouth, and Plymouth North High School. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Northeastern University, and a J.D. from Northeastern University. He presently works as a trial attorney for The Committee for Public Counsel, a state body that provides legal counsel to the indigent.

( Kevin Canty; photo credit — Kevin Canty for Select Board. )


He joined the Advisory & Finance Committee in May, 2014, and currently serves as the Chair of that body. Mr. Canty was 28 years old when he first joined that body; he is currently 37. I asked him what caused him to get involved with Town Government at a comparatively young age.¹

“I got involved because I believe strongly in public service, and because I love Plymouth. I'm from here. Most of my friends are from here, and many still live here. My parents live here. I wanted to help make my hometown better for all of them and give other local kids the opportunity I had to grow up in this great town. And I thought I had something to offer Plymouth. I still do,” he said.

Long-term, strategic planning constitutes one of Mr. Canty’s foremost concerns.

“For too long, Plymouth has failed to plan for the future. The Town has repeatedly put off until tomorrow what needs to be done today, and then been forced to react to the consequences. That needs to change,” said Mr. Canty.

“As an attorney who has served on the Advisory & Finance Committee for 9 years, and been its Chair for the past 4 years, I have the legal, financial, and local governmental experience to develop needed strategies and the knowledge necessary to get them implemented,” he said.

Mr. Canty has outlined a specific platform on his website outlining his vision for governing. It is centered around three main ideas: the necessity for strategic planning; implementing smart, balanced development for the Town; and reducing the burden on residential taxpayers.

Discussing the need for planning, Mr. Canty argues that the Town needs to get in front of problems, rather than react to them.

“Plymouth needs to start being proactive and stop being reactive,” said Mr. Canty. 

“We need to get ahold of our problems so we can get ahead of them. We can stop preventable surprises from derailing us and start controlling Plymouth’s future,” he said.

Pursuant to that, he pointed to issues around maintaining what the Town already has, and the importance of having “a comprehensive plan to maintain our Town buildings and infrastructure. We must stop paying for massive repairs, refurbishments, or complete rebuilds by maintaining our buildings, facilities, and infrastructure to prevent these issues before they start.”

Ultimately, Mr. Canty calls for the creation of “a comprehensive and consolidated Town building maintenance department,” which he argues “will be much more efficient in the long-term. With proper oversight, we can to pay for oversight and upkeep of existing facilities than to constantly pay multi-millions to replace them.”

Mr. Canty likewise described his views on commercial development.

“We need to attract the right businesses to Plymouth. We can be an epicenter for medical business by leveraging our relationship with Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital and our geographically advantageous position between Boston and the Cape,” he said.

“We can attract trades to open and operate in Plymouth by working with our own high school tech programs,” he said.

The Town’s position in a state that is a global center of higher education is another potential advantage, said Mr. Canty: “We can draw from Massachusetts’ tremendous higher education institutions to bring tech and bio-tech firms into Plymouth,” he said.

( Mr. Canty at his campaign kickoff event in March; photo credit — Kevin Canty For Selectman.)

Mr. Canty called for responsible management of Plymouth’s growth, arguing that it is possible to balance development and conservation.

“We can provide more opportunities for people to work in Plymouth, raise a family in Plymouth, and retire in Plymouth. We can improve quality of life for our residents by providing places to work, shop, eat, and relax here,” he wrote on his website.

“We can balance the need for conservation with smart residential growth, while also improving the utilization of our industrial and commercial zones,” said Mr. Canty.

“Proper utilization of our existing commercial and industrial zones will ease the burden on residential taxpayers. Guiding residential growth through planning can help reduce the burden on our services, and therefore the burden on our tax rate,” he said.

At the same time, “properly planned conservation can protect our water and natural resources,” said Mr. Canty. Water, he told The Plymouth County Observer, was of deep and obvious importance, given the 199 square mile Plymouth-Carver Sole Source Aquifer from which the Town, and many of her neighbors, draw water. The Town should identify areas of critical importance for the aquifer that must be preserved, he said.

Mr. Canty’s campaign website is https://www.votekevincanty.com.

The Plymouth Town Election is on May 20th. According to the Town Clerk’s Office, the last day to register to vote in time for the election is Wednesday, May 10th, at 5 p.m.

Wrestling Brewster: Candidate For Select Board

Precinct 15 Town Meeting Member and Candidate for Selectman W. Wrestling Brewster was born and raised in Plymouth, three miles from the Mayflower, by his parents, Ben and Anne Brewster. He hails from a long line of Plymoutheans, being a tenth generation descendant of Elder William Brewster, the elder statesman and religious leaders of the Mayflower Pilgrims.²

“The epitome of effective public figures are known for fair and balanced governing, the ability to listen, [and] the ability to get people together to formulate the best outcome for the future. I want to be that good,” said Mr. Brewster.

( Wrestling Brewster; photo credit — Committee To Elect Wrestling Brewster. )

Mr. Brewster has served as a Town Meeting Member for more than ten years, serving, with redistricting, as the representative of three different precincts. He has served for six years as precinct chair, as well as on the Committee of Precinct Chairs (COPC).

He has been involved with the Town of Plymouth’s Charter for the last four years, with two of those devoted to gathering over 7,000 signatures to get the Charter on the ballot. He subsequently was elected as a Charter Commissioner in 2021. On that body, he and his fellow commissioners were tasked with “coming up with the best government we could,” said Mr. Brewster.

“While collecting those signatures we asked how the citizens felt about our town government,” continued Mr. Brewster.

 “The thousands of people we spoke with feel the current government is not working for them. They are not happy with how the local government is governing. They want something that is not dysfunctional`and will listen to them. They want transparency, civility and decorum, with more checks and balances,” he said.

“They feel the legislative body is not respected and has no voice. They feel they are being told they are not smart enough to understand, and [are] being told ‘we know better than you do’ from their elected officials. We were told resoundingly they are not being heard,” said Mr. Brewster.

Mr. Brewster said he understood how the public felt. He noted that when he went before the Select Board, he had a similar experience.

“I could see what they were talking about. On behalf of the Committee of Precinct Chairs, I went to the Select Board to represent the public, because they were not being listened to on the redistricting. I was told by our Select Board, ‘I don’t know why [the] Committee of Precinct Chairs is getting all riled up, they are just an advisory board.’ It was tantamount to the Senate telling the House to sit down and be quiet. This is why I decided to run — the town needs someone to stand up for them. I can be that voice,” he said. 

Regarding the balance between conservation and open space, on the one hand, and development, on the other, Mr. Brewster said: “We need to be smart about development and open space because both are complex issues that I want to look at and help solve.”

With regard to spending, Mr. Brewster said: “I’m not going to say I’m going to cut taxes. Any candidate who says that is naive.”

“I will promise to look at our spending with the people of Plymouth in mind, with new ideas like combining resources and creating land banks. We need to start looking at our future and stop kicking the expensive can down the taxpayers road,” he said.

( Mr. Brewster, center, talking with Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz, second from right, at the former’s campaign kickoff event in March; photo credit — The Committee to Elect Wrestling Brewster. )

At a larger level, Mr. Brewster has spoken of the importance of the essential ideas contained in The Mayflower Compact, wherein the Pilgrims agreed to “covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic” — one in which, he said, “the people created the government to work for them.”

Like many, he has expressed concern about low voter turnout in local elections, which often struggle to attract voters; in most Towns, local elections tend to garner turnouts of between 10 and 15% (this varies, of course).

“To keep our democracy I need you to get out the vote. Tell your neighbors and friends everyone to get out and vote,” said Mr. Brewster.

“If we have another abysmal 10-12% turn out then any special interest can get their candidate in. Here’s the thing — if you elect a special interest, they are tied to that special interest, not the best interest of the town,” he said. 

“Democracy has never been a spectator sport. If you get out the vote, you can have true democracy and get someone who is not special interest but interested in the town. I’m that guy,” said Mr. Brewster.

“I am running as the voice of the residents. For too long the residents have had no voice,” he told The Plymouth County Observer.

Mr. Brewster’s campaign website is https://www.wrestlingforselectboard.com.

The Plymouth Town Election is on Saturday, May 20th. According to the Town Clerk’s Office, the last day to register to vote in time for the election is Wednesday, May 10th, at 5 p.m.

1. As someone who cast their first vote , at age 18, in the 2001 Duxbury Annual Town Meeting — having, via a January birthday, missed the 2000 General Election — I am in sympathy with Mr. Canty’s views here.

2. Elder Brewster lived in Plymouth, and settled across the Bay in Duxbury; his library was one of the most significant in Plymouth Colony when he died in 1644; tradition holds he brought the first lilacs to America, which still grow in Duxbury on the site of his homestead.