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Greetings eCanada!

This is my first article for Kronos’ Presidential Scenarios in which myself, Ultimate523, JohnSmith 2k9, Andrew McKenzie Caine, and George Beeman are participating. When I first read Kronos’ article explaining the program, I was immediately interested. As I explained to Kronos, my inspiration is to jump in when opportunities arise so that I can gather knowledge, skills, and experience. This is one of those opportunities.

So, the first scenario is to create a list of cabinet positions that will help bring success to your presidency.

There are a few problems involved with this seemingly simple task. Firstly, finding the correct blend of positions, players and duties is a challenge. A big cabinet with lots of positions can provide a great amount of support for a CP but can also become a hindrance. Keeping on top of cabinet members and ensuring that they are doing their assigned duties can become an enormous task for a CP with a large cabinet. A small cabinet can provide the feeling of a close family, working together in harmony but can also limit the potential of the CP. Not having enough people to watch over this or that could lead to mediocre coverage of potentially important aspects of eCanadian society. Secondly, you want to limit the flow of information effectively to prevent confidential information from leaking out. It’s not that I want to hide information from the public, it’s just that you don’t want battle plans leaking out into enemy hands or something like that. Ultimately, that aspect depends more on the trustworthiness of the cabinet members.

My cabinet positions are:

Vice-President (VP):
What CP doesn’t have a VP? The VP is the 2nd in command, the assistant, the helping hand. The VP should be well-rounded in each aspect of the game: military, economy, etc. For me, the VP would be a huge asset in helping me deal with the daily ongoings of eCanada. Whether it be communicating with alliances, allies, and enemies, or creating an emergency game plan for a surprise attack, the VP should be ready to fill in for the CP during short periods of absence. We’ve just seen first-hand the usefulness of a VP during a period of absence from the CP. When Addy decided that he wanted to leave, Nosyt stepped in and started handling eCanadian affairs. He managed to maintain communication with allies, keep the cabinet running, and advise Addy on what buttons to push. I would also expect my VP to act as a supervisor of my cabinet to ensure that they are performing their duties well.

Minster of Defense (MoD) / Deputy Minister of Defense (dMoD):
The Minster of Defense would be responsible for assisting me in the military aspects of the game. Being a former MoD myself, I have a good expectation of the duties I would require out of the MoD. They should be active in alliance IRC channels and meetings, ready to express eCanada’s opinion on a war or battle plan. They should be sending me recommendations on the next steps for a war or suggestions on where to go for a NE or resource bonuses. They should be active in updating orders for the MUs. One thing I thought Addy did exceptionally well for most of his term was the operation of the MU coordination network. Every day, several times per day, Addy, his VP, Nosyt, and his MoD, CFovetS, would send out messages to every single commander and regiment captain of eCanada’s MUs. I want to continue this type of mass-messaging. It really helped me personally, as a regiment captain because the orders were delivered right to my doorstep. These messages helped to increase the effectiveness of eCanada’s military. Going one step further, I would like to divide battles between MUs or even individual regiments so that we cover primary battles and secondary battles equally. I’ve always had my doubts in the primary/secondary system. Do soldiers check the secondary battles as well as the primary to determine where they will lay down their damage? I’m sure some do but not all. If we can split the battles between MUs or regiments, then we can split our damage anyway we want between different battles. How effectively this would work in practice, I don’t know, but I would want to try something like this. The deputy would be responsible more for maintaining battle orders but I would also expect them to contribute to military strategy and planning.

Minister of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) / Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (dMoFA):
Again, this is one of the essential roles of the government. Maintaining relationships between alliances and allies is something that requires constant attention. This is an area that has been under performing for a few months. I had a member of the last government describe the last MoFA as “the absolute least you’d expect from a MoFA.” MoFAs aren’t just for MPPs, they need to go beyond that. eCanada needs to be a leader in foreign policy. A good, active, competent MoFA is how to accomplish that. I would also like a dMoFA to cover the times that the MoFA can’t be on and to attend alliance meetings.

Minister of Finance (MoF):
The MoF would be responsible for making a budget for the term and for ensuring it is followed. The typical MoF really. I won’t expect anything like economic analyses or something like that. The economic module of this game doesn’t warrant any kind of Minister of Economy, just someone who can create a budget and make sure it is followed.

Minister of Immigration (MoI):
The process for citizenship right now is pretty simple. PM a bunch of congress members, hope to be accepted. We got close to a good system with AMC but it never really reached it’s potential. My ideal citizenship process would be: PM the MoI, have the MoI look the applicant over and then inform congress on whether or not to accept the applicant. If we have a centralized system for immigration, then we can keep track of what nationalities and for what reasons these people are coming here. We can set quotas for economic immigrants, for certain countries, etc... If a PTO threat ever does arise, then having a list of recent immigrants will be a huge help in determining the threat’s size and power.

Co-Ministers of Media (Co-MoM):
The Co-Ministers of Media would be responsible for updating the eCBC paper. One of my Co-MoMs would be devoted to keeping battle orders updated in the paper frequently. Being a three time MoI/dMoI myself, I know the importance that these battle orders hold. Keeping them updated frequently is extremely important. The second Co-MoM is for article writing and for keeping eCanadians up to date on the ongoings of the CP and the cabinet. I want to have articles every 2-3 days that will be brief explanations of what the cabinet is currently working on.

Advisers to the CP:
I would probably bring on some former CPs or influential eCanadians as advisers. If I have any questions, any problems I can just contact these guys. They can also make recommendations to me about what I could do better.

The last position isn’t a position that I would have filled throughout my presidency, it would be filled when needed.

Minister of Internal Affairs (MoIA):
The MoIA wouldn’t be a full-time position. When I need one, I would get one. The MoIA would be responsible for organizing an ATO effort if we ever needed one. If we do have a PTO threat, then the MoIA would organize SVU voters so that we would be ready in a time of crisis. The most important thing to do during a PTO threat is to come together as a country and ensure that they don’t get any positions in our parties or congress. The MoIA would be responsible for maintaining our national security in these situations.

These positions are positions I considered but decided I didn’t really need.

Minister of Education (MoE):
With Homer leading the mentoring program, I don’t see the need for another position to perform the same duty. Homer is doing an excellent job so far. My MoE would only offer competition.

Well, that’s about it for this one. I would love you comments on my choices. How can one get better without criticism?

Thanks for reading!