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For the past week, I have been considering taking a stab at the "big chair." It is not a decision I have taken lightly, and I have only decided to make a run for it because for the first time in a year, I feel I have the free time to give the job the attention it deserves. Canada is in a delicate position right now. We have just returned to democracy and have already hit a few bumps in the road. This is to be expected. Ever since the dictatorship update, activity has declined throughout the whole eWorld. We have gone months without meaningful congress activity and most of the experienced congress members have become casualties to apathy. As a result, we have many new congress members who have not had the opportunity to learn from the leadership of experienced members. This is made apparent by the fact that we still do not have a Speaker on the forums. This needs to be addressed by congress soon and we need to get congress members (and regular eCanadians!) back to the forum, because it is a wonderful tool.

In short, if you set aside your pessimism, Canada is in a great position to begin a new era. A resounding referendum result favouring democracy has guaranteed that we will be on this course until we are thrown off of it. The threat of foreign (and even domestic) coup is there, but we can face the threat together as a united community. It has always been one of my favourite characters of Canada that we can be at each others throats one day, but united against a foreign enemy the next. A united Canada is formidable indeed, and our legacy has been well-imprinted in the international community. We can achieve this again and I would like to be a part of that process.



As you consider who to elect as your CP, I think it is only fair to know the personal philosophy of the people running. I have described myself as a bureaucrat in the past, because I simply enjoy making things run smoothly and effectively. It is my pleasure to serve. However, this does not mean I am submissive. I do take action when I feel something is wrong. Without bringing us back to our turbulent recent past, I had to make such a decision when I broke away from "Camp Rylde." I like Rylde as a person, and I value him as a great leader, but he can make mistakes and I truly believed he had made a mistake when he refused to give up the dictatorship. As a result, I did not support him maintaining the dictatorship. However, instead of getting involved in the mudslinging that followed (the PM threads were quite feisty, and still do spark up again occasionally) I made it my job to ensure the continued operation of the government, particularly by maintaining alliance relations. That was my contribution to the civil war as well as putting CAF behind the revolution.

Although I opposed the latter days of Rylde's dictatorship, I personally favour strong executive government. I believe the CP and Cabinet are elected to lead and should be given much leeway to do so. This involves planning when wars begin and end, which MPP's we sign, and directing foreign relations. We had a major problem not too long ago when congress overruled the executive's decision to end war with the UK and we were defeated in a costly and embarrassing collapse. The executive knows the full situation and has the information to make these decisions, so I believe congress should support the executive in this respect as long as it is not clearly contrary to the interests of the country.

However, a strong executive government does not mean that it does not listen to the people. Communication is key with a strong executive government. Strong executive government only works when the government is active, and the people deserve to know that it's government is active and what it is doing. The people also have a responsibility to make their voice heard by the executive so it can make decisions with a variety of considerations. The executive needs to listen to people it does not agree with. It may not enact such input, but it needs to listen and put it into consideration. There have been times in my tenure where I have agreed with opposition suggestions instead of those made in cabinet.

In short, the CP and Cabinet need to be given the leeway it needs to get things done, but it also needs to listen to and be accountable to the people. I do not believe Canada is a country that needs to debate every decision in congress. I have worked with such countries, and they move very slowly and this has caused problems where there should not have been any.




So maybe you've read this far, or skipped to this section, to see who the hell is preaching to you about things like government and the past. I will present my resume here and let that speak for itself. I will just say, I have a lot of experience and have been actively working for the government non-stop since September last year.

Deputy Supreme Commander of Orion
Commander of the Canadian Armed Forces
2x Minister of Foreign Affairs
7x Minister of Defence
12x Congress Member

In addition, I have been a deputy minister in the foreign affairs and defence departments multiple times recently and in the past (sometimes more than three years ago!) and I was given a spot on the Order of eCanada long ago when that was a thing (for helping represent Canada in EDEN, if anyone remembers what that is!). I have also held various other positions in the far past, and I won't lie, i've lost track of some of them i'm sure.



Policy is still being formulated, and I would like input from the community and cabinet, but I would like to create three clear goals for my term.

1. National Citizen Supply Program

Many countries offer supply programs to their citizens that hand out weapons and food. Canada is a generous community, and you can always find someone to help you out, but I think it would be great to make this a government institution to ensure universal and reliable access. Credit goes to eJapan's "Free Government" for reminding me that this can be a very useful tool for player retention. The specifics would need to be worked out, but I would like to set up a daily supply drop for young players (D1/2 at least) to receive food and weapons each day by filling out a form. This would either be administered by the MoE or a sub-department of the MoD. Funding would come from private donations and the government coffers. The bean counters would have to be consulted to gauge what level of supply we can afford.

2. A New Generation of Government

This is very important to me. The government in Canada has always been accused of elitism. When it comes to having the same people in the same positions month and month again, this is completely true. eCanada has been run by mostly the same people for nearly a year now, if not longer. We need a new generation of people getting involved in government, specifically in Cabinet. My greatest fear recently has been that all the people running the show grow apathetic and Canada is left without effective governance. You could even make an argument for that happening now. This does not mean new players need to be immediately thrown into senior Cabinet positions, but we need deputies that have meaningful roles and can learn. In past administrations, deputies have had little to do and sometimes not even included in full cabinet threads. I have been guilty of doing this, because I am a very hands on person. However, the other problem is that it is really hard to get new people involved. We have also had deputies who never even showed up when included. For example, it was nearly impossible to find new people to update the MoD paper and I never succeeded in getting a deputy that could do it daily like I had been.

If you would like to be involved in a deputy position and learn the ropes of government, please send me a message with what you think you would excel at doing and how active you can be. For example, the big ministries are foreign affairs, defence, education and finance. However, I am open to people participating in whatever capacity they can!

3. Alliance Relations and WAR!

If the recent rogue NE proposals are any indication, people are getting antsy. This always happens in peacetime Canada. The cure? WAR! I'm not going to lie, the treasury is in a dismal state right now. We do not have the finances to win a war right now. This is where alliance relations come in. For the past several months, I have been involved in alliance relations. Alliances are great because they build strong friendships between countries and make wars easier to win. That seems pretty obvious. With our allies, we can prosecute a war for less money and have a safety net if things go wrong. I will make it my goal for the term to find us something to do. However, we must always be on guard against a coup, which if one occurred would drain all our resources and would make war with anyone else impossible. Still, a foreign coup would indeed be a worthy challenge and may be just as good as a conventional war. Canada is at risk in the immediate future of a coup, foreign or domestic. As a result, we will have to be cautious when pursuing a war. Anyone eyeing us for a coup would launch one while we are at war, which makes us extremely vulnerable. All I can promise is I will try my hardest to find us something to do.



This will be a short one, because there is no cabinet list yet. Over the next few days I will be putting this together. Expect to see a lot of the usual suspects, but I hope we will see a lot of new faces too (we need brave volunteers!). I hope this term the veteran members of government will mentor new players and, referring to goal 2, will help breed a new generation of executive members.



In conclusion, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this article. Aside from my articles in the MoD (which are repetitive and often boring!) I have not published many articles. I'm sure it's quite blocky. I promise I will work on that for the future!

I hope you will come out and support me on the 5th so that we can finally put the civil war business behind us and move forward as a strong and united community. Canada divided is a bitter place, but god help the poor souls who attempt to take advantage of our division to find their target wall up like a Spartan phalanx at the first sign of foreign threat.

We may not all agree with each other, but remember: we're all in this together.