[War_ooc] Canada 2008-2014

[Michael Downey]

This ignores a lot of continuity that's already occurred in-game. I suggest
reading some of the posts here:
http://esteroic.com/pipermail/war_esteroic.com/

Unless Pat is retconning all that, of course.

On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 1:21 AM, Dylan de Valk <dylandv at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is what I've come up with for Canuck-land with the collaboration of
> John, hope you like it.
>
> Canada 2008-2014
>
>
> Politics:
>
> The year 2008 was a down year for Canadian politicians, struggling to deal
> with a slowing economy affected by a recession south of the border in
> America.  Although the minority Conservative government was able to stem the
> tide, their popular ratings in the polls continued to decline as did Prime
> Minister Stephen Harper's personal ratings.  Continuing media coverage of
> Harper's extreme centralization of power within the Prime Minister's Office
> [PMO] coincided with public distrust of Conservative motives.
>
> While the Conservatives struggled to deal with these issues, the Liberal
> Party hobbled on, wracked with internal debates, rivalries, and vendettas.
> Stephane Dion was not able to cement his control of the party and the
> Liberals continued to prop up the ruling Conservative minority government to
> give themselves more time to get their act together.
>
> By 2009, federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion resigned amid allegations
> that he was working behind the scenes with the Green Party to share Liberal
> Party funding with the Greens.  The Conservatives introduced legislation in
> 2009 curtailing immigration and restricting newly arrived immigrants already
> in the country from receiving citizenship status, which duly passed as the
> Liberals were in no shape to oppose it.
>
> 2010 was marked by the Liberal leadership convention, which elected James
> McColl as the new federal Liberal leader.  He immediately took steps to
> reduce the infighting that had plagued the party since Jean Chretien left in
> 2004 by sacking various powerful party members and replacing them with
> friends.  Within 6 months of McColl becoming Liberal leader, the party was
> rejuvenated and was taking a stand in the House of Commons, with the support
> of the New Democratic Party [NDP] and Bloc Quebecois [BQ], forcing the
> Conservatives to the line and respect traditions and customs that had been
> established throughout the years.   2010 also saw the decision by the
> federal Conservatives to stay in Afghanistan to help Hamid Karzai's
> government continue to modernize and train its military and police resources
> and help with economic projects until 2015, which was extremely unpopular
> with the general population.
>
> 2011 saw wins in several by-elections by the Liberals at the expense of
> the Conservatives and BQ in Quebec, strengthening their position.  2011 was
> also a federal election year, as governments may not serve for more than a 5
> year term at a time.  Although the Liberals, which were much stronger than
> previously, did not win the election, it soon became clear that no one
> really had.  The Conservatives claimed 115 seats, the Liberals 113, the BQ
> 45, and the NPD 35.  The election was very much about the status of Quebec,
> for which the Conservatives promised to open up constitutional talks to
> revise Quebec's status.  At this time though, not much attention was given
> to the Afghanistan issue, where Canadian troops continued to serve in the
> line of fire and casualties mounted even as the Taliban insurgency had
> declined since 2009 and the Afghan National Army [ANA] was able to pick up
> the slack of the foreign troops leaving.
>
> Nothing much except squabbling between the parties and a few minor pieces
> of legislation passed happened in 2012.  But by late May 2013, Canadians
> were sick of the Conservatives, and the Opposition Liberals decided enough
> was enough, and with the help of the NDP and BQ toppled the government over
> the spring budget.  The Governor-General [GG] called a federal election for
> November. 8th of that year.  The election saw the formerly impressive
> Conservative election machine falter and the Liberals swept to power in a
> dramatic victory.  The Conservatives were reduced to 68 seats while the
> Liberals had a massive majority of 171 seats out of 308 in the House of
> Commons, and a majority in the Senate as well; elsewhere, left-wing parties
> like the Green Party and NDP had some excellent showing, picking up 46 and 3
> seats respectively, while the BQ declined with the issue of Quebec
> sovereigty declining at the same time.  With so many seats, and Liberal
> leader James McColl coming to power on December.12, 2013, it looked like the
> Grits were once again set to dominate Canadian politics for years to come.
> McColl had run on a platform of nationalist, protectionist, and centre-left
> policies which the Canadian populace found enticing.  His policies included
> such things as agricultural tariffs on products Canadians produced
> themselves, as well as the forestry and manufacturing sectors, along with
> promises to build the military, increase post-secondary education and health
> care spending, were all well received.  2013 was also an important year for
> the Green Party, which had won 3 seats, its first in any election in Canada,
> federal or provincial.
>
> All in all, a dramatic several years at times.
>
> Economy:
>
> The Canadian economy continues to grow at a slow rate, since recovering
> from the hit it took back in 2008/2009/2010.  Averaging just 1.7% over the
> last 5 years, totalling to a GDP of $1.4 trillion, growth has been sluggish
> and unemployment has reached 9% of the workforce.  American
> mega-corporations and conglomerates moving in for the kill stroke on weak
> Canadian competitors [because of a strong dollar with retarded exports] and
> a public perception of the hollowing out of Corporate Canada has become the
> major economic issue of the day and was an important factor of the Liberal's
> election in 2013.  Coinciding with the election of the Liberals' election,
> tariffs were expected for industries key to the Canadian economy; long
> needed in some people's view, the tariffs were needed to keep the struggling
> manufacturing and forestry sectors going, which are major employers in the
> Canadian economy.  These industries and others had been hit hard by the rise
> of the loonie to slightly above par status with the American greenback, and
> takeovers had been rampant in the last several years as the Conservatives
> had taken a non-interventionist view of the economy.  The new government is
> also expected to start heavily subsidizing green industries as a way of
> further increasing economic growth, giving people jobs, and giving
> government money back to the economy.
>
> Defense:
>
> The Canadian military is in mediocre shape these days, following the
> stewardship of the Conservative minority government for 5 years; although
> being a minority government, they could not do as much as they would have
> liked.  The Liberals have promised to the continue the policy of Arctic
> development of military and transportation infrastructure and have also
> promised to get Canadian troops out of Afghanistan ASAP to give the military
> time to recuperate and refresh itself.  The Canadian Armed Forces [CAF] is
> over-stretched manpower-wise and morale remains low with the troops, who do
> not understand why public support of their mission in Afghanistan is so
> low.  The new government has promised continued rebuilding efforts for the
> armed forces.
>
> Social Issues:
>
> Same-sex marriage remains subject to a low-intensity debate after the
> government legalized it back in the early 2000's.   Other than the
> Netherlands, Canada is the only nation in the world to allow this, and it
> has caused an influx of American same-sex couples eager to be married, and
> this has caused a bit of a stir with the populace.  Health-care remains a
> major issue as the population ages and the government struggles to keep up
> with demand of elective surgeries such as knee and hip replacements.
> Immigrants under the conservatives suffered, and many immigrant communities
> in major cities like Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver have become
> notorious for gangs and high crime rates.  Many people are worried that
> these problems, coupled with the decay of inner city infrastructure in large
> cities, may lead to an increase in racial discrimination of immigrant
> minorities by the dominant French/English majorities of the population.  On
> top of these issues, religion has again been on the rise across the country,
> with the Catholic church the most dominant Christian sect, especially in
> Quebec, where Catholicism has always been strong.  British Columbia on the
> Pacific coast remains an anomaly [especially compared to hard-right wing
> Alberta], where over a third of the population is not affiliated to any
> religion.
>
> Health:
>
> Canadians were once some of the most obese people on the planet.  However,
> thanks to the leadership of the province of British Columbia and its
> Premier, Gordon Campbell, the federal government and every province except
> Alberta instituted various changes in Physical Education [P.E.] classes in
> the education systems across the country and the federal government began a
> nation-wide campaign of education against obesity and the importance of
> exercise and treating your body well.  Since 2012, changes have become to be
> noticed as polls began registering dramatic reductions in obesity throughout
> the general population, and today Canada now sits in a better position.
> Health-care policy is now more focussed on prevention that treatment.
>
> Foreign Relations:
>
> During the years of the Conservative government, Canada snuggled up to the
> United States more than many Canadians liked.  This has caused a surge in
> the traditional left-wing nationalism of Canada as people have become
> outraged with corporate takeovers and the public perception that American
> companies continue to plunder Canada of its resources.  Stephen Harper also
> distanced Canada from Europe as relations cooled with the United Kingdom and
> the Commonwealth of Nations was perceived to be an increasingly unnecessary
> organization.  Canada continues to be a member of the UN, but has scaled
> back its international peacekeeping and aid commitments because of a lack of
> public support [Canadians over the past few years have retrenched, and a
> more isolationist foreign policy is gaining momentum among younger Canadians
> who don't want to deal with the troubles of the world].  As for the
> Asia-Pacific sphere, Canada has signed an FTA with South Korea some time
> ago, although this is its only recent Free Trade agreement.  Relations with
> China are sour due to Canada's stance on human rights abuses by the
> Chinese.  Relations with other east Asian and south Asian nations are
> neutral and not noteworthy.  Canada has also seen, with increase of Russian
> immigrants, an interest in an FTA with the Russian Federation, which is
> opposed by the more isolationist elements of the political class.
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