Tuesday, 29 August 2017

Additional Posts to come

Just a note about my personal life; I am on ODSP, Ontario Disability. I get my money on the last business day of the month and it is always a challenge to make it stretch to the next time I get more money.

I after paying a truly all-inclusive Rent (internet, phone, power, heat, etc) I have $435 left for the month. This means I have roughly $14 a day for all my other needs.

I tried putting away $5 for every day and just using the rest "as needed" but I always found that all of the as-needed fund was dry by about the 20th.

For a while I tried putting $5 on the pockets, and another $5 in half the pockets on alternating days, making for a 5-10-5-10-5-10 pattern. This worked, but again, I'd run dry of the "as needed" money by about the 25th, and those last few "5" days were difficult.

A few months ago I tried just putting $10 in all the pockets. Generally this works, except when unexpected expenses come up.

Both this and last month, I had to change my 10-10-10 pattern to a 5-10-5 pattern. Next month will also be difficult.

Regardless, the point of this post is one of the first things I said; I get my money on the last business day of the month.

I find it a lot easier to write when I'm not being actively depressed about my financial situation, which generally means that on and after the 27th of any random month, I'm not in a very good writing mood.

Long story short, I will finish writing this alternate history, but being blunt, I may be the 31st before I do so. I am, however, trying to find time tonight or tomorrow to finish it and make my german election post on my professional blog.

I'd like to remind people of my patreon https://www.patreon.com/TeddyOnPolitics

Every dollar helps (literally)

If I can get up to $4 in donations, it will cover the patreon donations that I make to creators that I enjoy, and thus relieve a LOT of mental stress that I have every month.

Hopefully next month will be better. I get money on the 29th of September, meaning the money from the end of this month. 31 days is $310 in my pocket system, 29 is $290. When you are talking about $310, $20 is a lot, 6% in fact, and a 6% bump in money to spend in a month matters quite a lot.

February can be the best.

Monday, 28 August 2017

Some pre-04 stuff

There are a few things I need to clarify about what happened before 2004 before I go on.

The agreement allowing Western Canada to become a country, and Quebec to become special, contained a few things I need to outline.

First is that Quebec would continue to use whatever currency and passporting system that the remainder of (eastern) Canada would use.

Second is Western Canada would not.

Western Canada would have its own passport, and a full fledged border with "Eastern" Canada.

Additionally, it would have its "own" currency, or at least, the right to one. It was agreed, however, after some debate in Parliament, that it was simply wiser to adopt and use the US Dollar. As such, this is the currency in use in Western Canada.

The Canadian Federal Debt would be split on the basis of Commons seats at the time of the last election, 89/295ths or 30.16949% which works out to $125B US for Western Canada. Additionally, all federal physical installations (IE buildings) would simply go with whatever province or territory they were located in. Naval equipment would also simply go with whatever coast they were on. Army and Air Force equipment would be split on the same 89/295 basis, with all military personnel being allowed to choose which nation they wished to serve. The overwhelming majority simply chose their home province, however 1 out of every 25 people from "Eastern" Canada serving in the military chose to server for the West, reasoning a better life after service, which put the personnel split near that determined by the commons. In the end, Western Canada, through purchase arrangements, ended with 40% of the air force, and less than their 'fair share' of army equipment.

All of this caused a minor economic depression in both Canadas, and hence the elongated period of time needed for recovery.

Recovery, however, is faster and stronger as a result.

Lastly, is Manning's plan of a highway connecting Juneau and Churchill, which I feel has not been given the attention it demands.

All through this period Manning has been working on his plan and while nothing has been built, much progress has been made towards getting the highway built.

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Professional Blog

Reminder; this is my personal blog.

Unlike my old personal blog, this one will generally not contain NSFW material, nor will it be full of profanity. However, I reserve the right to the occasional damn, or shit.

My professional blog can be found here.

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

2024 eclipse stuff

tip: montreal is where you want to be at


detail




more detail
the place to be:

Alternate History - December 31st 2004







CANADA AND QUEBEC

PC - Scott Brison (Prime Minister)
LIB - Shelia Copps (Oppo leader)
NDP - Jack Layton

PMdQ - Mario Dumont (Premier Ministre du Quebec)

Premiers:
ON - Dalton McGuinty (LIB)
NS - Peter Stoffer (NDP)
NB - Bernard Lord (PC)
NL - Danny Williams (PC)
PE - Patt Binns (PC)



WESTERN CANADA

Ref - Preston Manning (Prime Minister)
Prog - Gary Doer (Oppo leader)

Premiers:
BC - Gordon Campbell - Liberal
AB - Stockwell Day - Conservative
SK - Lorne Calvert - CCF
MB - Greg Selinger - Farmer-Labour



Table of Contents (of sorts)

idea post
https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/quebec-west-canada-split-thingy.html

Introduction (of sorts)
https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/alt-canada-story.html

Follow up on Intro
https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/new-countries.html

First 2 western elections
https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/western-canada-election.html

First 2 eastern elections
https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/first-eastern-canada-elections.html

events 1997-2004
https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/1997-2004-new-countries.html

Monday, 21 August 2017

1997-2004, new countries

A continuation of the previous posts.

The two new nations had been set up in a hurry.

The first thing the two new governments had to do was make long term plans about what kind of countries each would be.

1997

Most of the year was spent in a terrible rush, by both Federal governments, and all 10 Provincial governments, trying to deal with the new reality. Dwain Lingenfelter took over as Saskatchewan Premier due to Romanow's jump to Federal politics.

Paul Martin became Liberal leader in Canada and Quebec, but lost the Federal election.

1998

Following the change of the CCF into the NDP, provincial parties across the country changed their name. Anticipating a similar change, the provincial NDP wings in Western Canada held conventions on changing their name to the Progressive Party.

In Alberta there was an agreement between the Liberals and NDP to merge into a single party, with the new party being called the Liberal Democrats. They would face off against the "Conservatives" after the PC government opted for a name change and re-branding.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba's conventions both voted to go ahead with the name change, and thus became the Progressives, however, both name changes were held up by their elections agencies. In Manitoba, Gary Doer decided to wait out the Tories (and try to get them to follow suit with Alberta and change their name, thus freeing up the word Progressive) and use the interim party name Farmer-Labour. In Saskatchewan the party decided to go full force.

The Saskatchewan Party was the main opposition, and what was left of the Progressive Conservatives was a rump party. The Lingenfelter felt he could win. During the case, BC held its convention and shockingly decided to retain the NDP name. Lingenfelter not only lost the case, but, was told that due to the wording of the name change motion adopted at the convention - that the party stop being the NDP - that he could not change the name back. As such, he decided to change the party's name to the CCF considering it a temporary move until the next convention.

The Yukon faced a different problem. The Territorial Liberal party decided to change its name and co-opted the name Progressive, which was challenged by the NDP. In an effort to stop them, the NDP government changed the way Federal and Territorial parties interacted within the Yukon. This had the unintended consequence of submerging all Territorial parties within the larger Federal parties, and by the next year, the Yukon had only two parties in the Legislature, Reform and the Progressives.

In March, Robert Chisholm became the first NDP Premier of Nova Scotia, winning 21 seats. Chisholm was likely helped by Peter Stoffer, who ran and won Fall River, and helped campaign in two nearby ridings that were narrow victories over the Liberals. The Tories managed 15 seats, narrowly winning in Annapolis, as the Liberals also took 15, suffering from the blame voters put on the federal party for breaking up the country.

In November, Quebec went to the polls in their first election since achieving "sovereignty within Canada"


1999

After a full year spent wrangling the deficit, both Eastern and Western federal governments were finally able to start making long-term plans for the future again. A conference was called at Thunder Bay, inviting a dozen cabinet ministers from each government, the Premiers of all the Provinces and Territories (and the DPM of Quebec) and 5 Opposition members from each country (5 Progressives, 3 Liberals, 2 NDP) Their task was to discuss issues left over from the creation of the two countries.

One issue was certain islands within hudson's bay which are just offshore from Ontario and Quebec but which were legally part of the NWT, now Nunavut. It was decided that Islands within 20 KM of Ontario or Quebec would be purchased by those provinces; as would islands in James Bay and Ungava Bay.

An agreement was made to meet again during the next term of both Federal governments with the same arrangement of delegates, and the same location.

This year also saw the creation of the Western Canadian idea for a "Northern Route", and, working in conjunction with the government of Alaska, a plan was hatched to see a highway built from Juneau to Churchill, with plans to include possible rail and pipeline links across the area.

After narrowly winning a majority in a new election, Nova Scotia's NDP Premier, Robert Chisholm, suddenly resigned, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Peter Stoffer won the leadership election, and was sworn in as Premier of Nova Scotia.

The Quebec government collapses due to infighting within the PQ. Dozens of MNAs quit the party, and Gilles Duceppe was eventually called in to lead the party and was sworn in as Premier.

Many provincial elections were held this year.

Mike Harris in Ontario won a minority, likely in part due to his role in breaking up Canada.

In Saskatchewan, the CCF won 29 seats, compared to 25 for the Saskatchewan Party, and 4 for the Liberals. The Liberals and CCF entered into a Coalition.

NB saw the Tories win 44 seats and a majority, in NL the Liberals won a majority with 32, and in Manitoba, the Farmer-Labour party won a majority with 32 seats.

2000

In the Yukon, the Progressives won a majority government. In PEI, the PC Party won 26 of the 27 seats. The Liberals, still feeling the heat from breaking up the country, won 0 seats, while the NDP leader managed to narrowly hold on to his own seat.

Ontario elected a Liberal majority after the Harris minority fell.

Federally, both governments broke through to surplus this year, narrowly. Preston Manning used this as a chance to cancel the GST for the coming year, while Charest balanced minor tax cuts with spending increases.

2001

In BC the Liberals won a massive majority, taking all but 2 seats.

In Alberta the race was much closer, with the Conservatives under Stockwell Day winning 68 seats to 15 for the Liberal Democrats.

Federal elections were held in both Canadas, with the results detailed in an earlier post.

2002

Paul Martin decided to resign this year. He was replaced as Liberal leader by Shelia Copps.

No elections this year.

Western Canadian government continues with tax cuts.

2003

Many elections this year. PEI, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick all returned their majority governments. In PEI, the NDP won 4 seats, while the Liberals failed to win anything.

Newfoundland saw the PC Party win a majority.

Quebec was perhaps the most surprising. After the fracturing of the PQ, and weakness within the PLQ, Mario Dumont and the ADQ managed to secure a majority government in the province.

Most of the efforts of the Federal government in Western Canada were dedicated to successfully passing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing property rights.

A Constitutional amendment was also quietly and quickly passed in Canada and Quebec, returning, for all provinces except Quebec, power over aboriginal affairs to the Federal Government. This was a move initiated by Ontario, in agreement with NB, NS, and PEI.

The NDP held a leadership election this year and chose Jack Layton as leader.

2004

In Alberta, the Conservatives won 56 compared to 27 for the Liberal Democrats.

The biggest political story of the year was Charest retiring. The leadership convention to replace him was eventually won by Scott Brison, who was sworn in as Prime Minister. Brison became the first LGBT head of government in the world. Brisons election was very unpopular with some in the more socially conservative wing of the PC Party, and they staged a walkout of the convention, setting up their own Christian based opposition party. No MPs joined them, but a number announced they would not be running for re election.

In Western Canada, Preston Manning won endorsement of his party to again lead them into another election. Some accused Manning of hypocrisy as he had previously made comments that 2 terms was enough, but Manning argued that he was the strongest choice to lead the party, which some saw as an attack against Stephen Harper, who many were suggesting should have taken over as leader.

The Progressives also changed leaders after Romanow decided not to run in the coming election. Manitoba Premier Gary Doer was elected leader.



PREVIOUS POSTS:

https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/first-eastern-canada-elections.html

https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/western-canada-election.html

https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/new-countries.html

https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/alt-canada-story.html

https://pellakensblog.blogspot.ca/2017/08/quebec-west-canada-split-thingy.html

Saturday, 19 August 2017

First Eastern Canada elections

After far too many hours of work, I have the entire election series, from 1997 to 2017, for both new countries, complete.

In 1997, Charest was able to narrowly win re-election as Prime Minister.



After some pretty harsh cuts to get the budget in line and the economy on track, he, again, won election, narrowly



After this, the 2001 election, the number of seats for party status was dropped to 8.

The Bloc, which had disbanded in 1997, was back. The new Bloc had no leader, and was rather simply a vehicle for "Pro Quebec" MPs and Candidates, and had no parliamentary whip, with all members sitting as Independents. This was due to "l'effondrement" or "the collapse" which saw the PQ nearly fall apart, and survive by the skin of its teeth over disagreements as to where to go next.

However we'll talk about provincial politics later on, and focus on federal politics from both countries for the time being.

Tomorrow (or later today) we'll cover events beyond 2001

Thursday, 17 August 2017

Western Canada election

Getting these realistic and accurate takes a looooot of time, so the CQ elections will come in the next post.





In terms of popular vote, Reform beat the Progressives, 47% to 46% in both the House and Senate. Reform also managed to win 46 seats, compared to 45 for the Progressives in the house, and 16 in the Senate compared to 14 for the Progressives. Romanow accepted the results and conceded defeat, but committed to keep working over the next 4 years to install a Progressive government.

However, the following election in 2001 only saw Reform win by a larger margin. Romanow would resign as Progressive leader a few months after this.




New Countries

Continuing from this 

To hammer out the details of the new nation, the western Premiers agree to host a constitutional convention. Each federal riding thus elected 12 members to the convention. Romanow's leadership on creating a new nation helped him snag the convention site in Regina.

This is when Regina Mayor, Douglas R Archer, and Saskatoon mayor, Henry Dayday, hatched a plan. Both had been mayor since 1988 and were coming up on a decade in office. Working with Roy Romanow, the three decided that neither Calgary, nor Vancouver (the two most popular options) would be the Capital of Western Canada. Regina would be. In turn, the Capital of Saskatchewan would be moved to Saskatoon.

Though political maneuvers which will be detailed in a later post probably, this plan worked, and the Saskatchewan Legislative Building would become the new legislature of Western Canada. A new Legislature would be built in Saskatoon for the government of Saskatchewan, at the block of Preston, College, Cumberland, and 14th.

Fixed election dates were agree to at the convention, and set at the same date as US elections in November. After a disagreement about when to elect Senators (at Provincial elections or Federal elections) a unique deal was struck that allowed Senators to be replaced by their Seniority, yearly, with 6 Senators per province, serving roughly 6 year terms. This created a unique situation where if a Senator were to resign early, another Senator could thus end up serving a 7 year term or more. The three territories (Yukon, NWT, and to be created in 1999, Nunavut) would share 6 senators, 2 each, and be treated as a single unit when determining seniority for replacement.

"Canada and Quebec" meanwhile, simply kept the existing system.

It was decided in Western Canada to keep existing federal seat numbers, and, basically, continue using the formula. This will make it super easy to create federal election maps as the ridings always somehow stay exactly the same.

Preston Manning was chosen as the first Prime Minister, to serve until the fall elections.

Roy Romanow resigned as Premier of Saskatchewan to fight him, heading an alliance of the NDP, Liberals, and PC Party, known as the "Progressives".

Reform MP Jan Brown would join the Progressives, thus allowing Reform to enter the election with 51 sitting MPs; 1 from Manitoba, 4 from Saskatchewan, 21 from Alberta, and 24 from BC.

The Progressives meanwhile continued the national coalition in place when Western Canada separated. This gave them all 3 Territorial seats, plus 13 in Manitoba, 10 in Saskatchewan, 5 in Alberta, and 8 in BC, for a total, of 39.

The electoral map, however, had since changed. The results of the election follow in the next post.

In Quebec, Bouchard called a snap election. The PQ won a massive majority, 109 seats compared to 16 for the Liberals. This would not last. The PQ no longer called for Quebec to leave Canada.

A Federal election was called for the fall of 1997. The Bloc Quebecois was officially dissolved, and unofficially replaced by a federal wing of the Parti Quebecois, that desired to protect Quebec's interests. As a result of heavy pressure, the Federal PQ would be lead by Mario Dumont.

The results of this election also follow in the next post.




alt canada story

something I've not yet written causes the quebec referendum to have a narrow oui victory.

due to their incompetence before and after the vote, Chretien and Parizeau are both tossed out of office. Parizeau is replaced with Bouchard.

Chretien is initially replaced with Alan Rock, but he proves to be unable to cope, and a national unity government is formed headed by, of all people, Jean Charest. This coalition has 197 seats and includes everyone except for the 52 Bloc MPs (who refuse to attend parliament) and the 52 Reform MPs (who oppose the government's approach to the referendum result)

Eventually Charest and Bouchard work out a deal.

All provinces will gain the power to opt out of programs, choose their own senators, control over aboriginal affairs, and power over justice issues, examples of which include crime and marriage.

Quebec will be given a distinct society, more control over immigration to Quebec, a role in picking supreme court justices, and veto power on certain issues.

Preston Manning and Reform opposed it, calling it a step backwards from Charlottetown (which he also opposed)

The Federal Government decided to put the deal to a vote and a referendum was called.

Results

While the vote passed, there was stronger than expected opposition in Western Canada. Charest put extreme pressure on western premiers to accept the nationwide results, but both BC and Alberta refused to do so.

Finally, on the one year anniversary of the referendum vote, Preston Manning held a press conference saying that Canadians would need to choose whether they wanted "A Canada without Quebec, or a Canada without the West"

3 days later, a tape is released, where Mike Harris was secretly recorded expressing anger at Preston Manning and his remarks, saying "If that fucker is going to make us choose, we will choose Quebec"

Harris' comments helped to galvanize the issue, and a poll on the direct question "would you rather see a Canada without Quebec or a Canada without the West" showed that 63% of Ontarians would rather the West leave.

It would later be discovered that prior to Manning's remarks, Reform had conducted an identical poll in Ontario showing that 59% would rather Quebec leave. The entirety of the swing in opinion came from Harris supporters. Harris, after leaving office, would admit the statement was his biggest regret, saying that in context he was arguing what he felt Ontario voters would do, and that it was not his personal view.

Regardless, the damage was done, and over the next few weeks, Western Canada started to break away. BC revealed it had set up a committee in secret to examine what to do if quebec were to vote to separate, headed by bill bennett, former premier, who had set up a similar committee in 1980. They recommended the creation of a new country of Western Canada. A Referendum was held and BC voted "yes" by a margin of 2/3rds to 1/3rd.

Saskatchewan revealed it too had a secret committee for the same reason, and the committee had been in contact with Manitoba, and the two provinces were coordinating a joint approach. Both premiers agreed in principle to join BC.

Ralph Klein however was vehemently opposed, saying that the plans of the other provinces amounted to treason. His caucus, however, disagreed, and in a tumultuous meeting, turfed him and replaced him with Stockwell Day.

Day decided against holding a referendum. Both major parties in BC were heavily split by the referendum, allowing the new provincial Reform party to poll in majority territory. To avoid this, Day declared that electing a PC majority would be akin to supporting the growing consensus that Western Canada needs to be its own country. Day won a massive majority, 76 seats, compared to 6 for the Liberals.

Both Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which had held elections in mid 1995, held free votes in the legislature on the matter, with both seeing over 50 votes for an independent Western Canada in each provinces less than 60 seat legislatures.

A new round of tripartite negotiations began between Prime Minister Charest, and Premiers Bouchard and Romanow. These were successful, and in December of 1996 it was announced that in the summer of 1997, there would be two new countries created from what is currently Canada.

On June 24th, 1997, Canada would officially change its name to "Canada and Quebec" and adopt the agreement hammered out; giving provinces the additional powers outlined.

One week later, on July 1st, Western Canada would leave Canada and become its own country, taking the Territories with them.

By Christmas, all 10 provincial legislatures had agreed to this plan, as had the two territorial legislatures, the federal Senate, and Commons.

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

quebec west canada split thingy

on the plan that would see the following transfers of power

all provinces:
criminal justice (and shit like marriage)
opt out power
choosing of senators
aboriginal affairs

quebec only:
distinct society
immigration
role in picking supreme court justices
veto power on certain issues


vote results in referendum:

YES - NO -
23.71% - 76.29% - British Columbia
28.37% - 71.63% - Alberta
39.72% - 60.28% - Saskatchewan
44.36% - 55.64% - Manitoba
56.63% - 43.37% - Ontario
87.33% - 12.67% - Quebec
67.31% - 32.69% - New Brunswick
55.23% - 44.77% - Nova Scotia
78.69% - 21.31% - Prince Edward Island
68.96% - 31.04% - Newfoundland
51.08% - 48.92% - Northwest Territories
50.12% - 49.88% - Yukon
58.48% - 41.52% - CANADA



results in all 4 western provinces breaking off from Canada, and taking the Territories with them.

Two new countries thus born.

On June 24th 1997, Canada officially changed its name to "Canada and Quebec" and Quebec was granted its additional powers.

On July 1st 1997, Western Canada officially become a new country, separate from Canada.

http://thenewteddy.blogspot.ca/2017/01/i-use-this-as-pastebin-you-moron.html

http://thenewteddy.blogspot.ca/2017/01/i-use-this-as-pastebin-you-moron.html

working on a quebec thing

all provinces:
criminal justice
opt out power
chosing of senators
aboriginal affairs

quebec only:
distinct society
immigration
role in picking supreme court justices
veto power on certain issues

test

test

a chat with chatgpt

Be my AI Jesus ChatGPT As an AI language model, I can provide information and answer questions to the best of my abilities, but I cannot fu...