Join the new world

My name is SledDog and I want to be your first Congressman from Canterbury. We will now pause five seconds for people to say “Who cares?”

That’s an old joke from an even older comedian, but then I’m an old candidate, both in real world terms and in game terms, so it fits.

I am making this appeal now because as you may know from if you’ve been spending time in the eNew Zealand forums, it has been decided that for the first Congressional elections there shall be a slate of “official” candidates from each region in order to prevent (or at least reduce the risk of) a Poltical Takeover and these candidates shall be selected by a vote in the New Zealand forums. I need your support there in order to be considered a real candidate rather than a blocker on the 25th. I want to be a real candidate but if my fate is to be a blocker then so be it.

Now you are probably wondering who I am and why I think I would make a good member of Congress. I am a veteran of this game, having been “born” on day 573. I served in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves, and when V2 was introduced I was in the Reserve Tank Platoon. I have served five terms in the Canadian Congress, representing Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and Alberta. My first three terms were immediately after the first little bits of Canada were liberated from what was then known as PEACE occupation. It wasn’t an easy time by any means but it was both a busy time and an exciting time to be a member of the Canadian Congress. What we faced at that time was very much like what we face now. We had to rebuild and restructure our economy, restore our infrastructure, and protect ourselves from hostile forces, not all of which were as obvious as an army occupying some of our territory. What we did then might have been the closest you can come to establishing a new country. Like New Zealand.

My personal political philosophy (in the game and in real life) can probably best be described as Centre-Left Egalitarian. Of course Egalitarian doesn’t exist as an option within the game so I am stuck with what I feel is the least objectionable of the four choices offered “Libertarian.” As defined, the New Zealand Union Party would seem to be a perfect fit for me, under normal circumstances. In reality, we can’t let ourselves become bogged down in party philosophy to the exclusion of the national welfare. The Party President elections were only the first phase of the threat that we are going to face in this first month of our existence as a nation. There is a clear and present danger of a Political Takeover of New Zealand by people whose principal goals are to make New Zealand nothing more than a puppet on a string. That’s why we’re running primaries in the forums and trying to establish a slate of official candidates, who are dedicated to New Zealand not to lining their own pockets or making New Zealand a part of some other country in everything but name, and we may even lose that bit of autonomy.

Foreign Affairs: I support the policy of Neutrality for as long as we can maintain it. I do not believe that we can stay Neutral but I also believe that we should not rush into an alliance; rather I believe that circumstances may push us into the direction of one of them. While I do not believe in immediately becoming part of one of the “super-alliances” I do believe that we should develop strong friendships with individual nations, some of whom may be part of one or the other alliances. I believe that we need to pursue this policy not only to protect ourselves from attack but to maintain an operational tempo for our military and for those who seek to play the military game.

The Economy: I may be a ree-trader in real life but I think that this game generally forces us towards a protectionist policy. Free Trade should be a result of bargains between individual nations but the structure of the game sets blanket tariffs in a sector. You can’t make a trade agreement with Canada (for example) that offers a different rate than what is offered to Australia. Even though I import goods into the New Zealand market through my company Bren Guns, I believe that domestic companies in most sectors can be developed. I do not believe in high tariffs in most areas but at the same time I believe in modest tariffs in Grain where we have a high value region, and Food. I don’t believe that tariffs should be so high as to exclude foreign companies but just high enough that our companies are playing on a level playing field. In other areas tariffs should give a little support to domestic companies, but not so much that they become a crutch that they depend on.

Taxation: I am totally opposed to Value Added Taxes as they put an undue burden on Manufacturers. I do support a modest Income Tax – no more than about 10% - to sustain the operations of government. Some may say that this imposes a burden on business owners as they will have to pay tax on transfers of money from a business to an Org. My response is that a business owner who doesn’t know how to transfer funds from a business to an Org without paying taxes using the Money Market really isn’t trying.

Government Ownership: I am against Government Ownership of business except in two areas: Hospitals and Defence Systems. There are few reasons for governments to own businesses outside of these two sectors and many reasons to oppose it. Canada used to maintained large stockpiles of goods in virtually every sector in case of a recurrence of the invasion of 2009 when we lost control of essential resources and manufacturing areas. Those stockpiles are gone now, the victim not of need but of a vindictive CP who, facing impeachment, dismantled several of the companies for the Gold and sold the rest at a bargain price. The companies were too great at temptation. I do believe in Government ownership of Hospital and Defence System companies. Indeed it was stated in the eRepublik Wiki that Hospital and Defence System companies should only be started by Governments. There is one other compelling reason for maintaining a Governmental presence in these sectors. There must always be jobs on offer for Skill Level 1 Apprentice workers within the country. That’s not me saying this, it is actually one of the rules of the game. If such jobs do not exist the CP will be sent an automatic notification from the Admins. Now I have faith that the private sector can provide these jobs but I believe that a government owned company can provide entirely appropriate back-up for private industry.

Defence: The biggest line item in any budget in this game should be the defence component. For a military to function effectively it needs to be supplied with weapons, food, and for a group like the SAS, moving tickets. As I understand it we have a high per capita enrolment in our military, more than in many countries. The military needs to be supplied with the best equipment available on our market. Like just about every candidate I believe in a strong defence, but in order to have a strong defence we need equipment. The preference is to be able to buy that equipment on our own market so that we aren’t paying taxes on a foreign marketplace. To do that we need to encourage local entrepreneurs to set up companies in the market, we need supplies of raw materials that we’ll have to import. We need to encourage those same local entrepreneurs to establish companies in areas with high commodity values to supply those local companies. Only when we have companies of our own trading in our market can we expect fair prices from outside suppliers. Right now, most weapons selling in our market are significantly overpriced compared to prices in their domestic market... and one of those companies is my own artillery company Bren Guns. For our military to function at its highest efficiency we need domestic companies that can set the price and foreign competitors that are willing to match those prices.

Domestic Security: I’ve already stated my feelings on the need to secure our country by voting to block PTO attempts. It is something essential that we need to accomplish. But the threat doesn’t end there. We need to establish a service to vet potential immigrants once we have control of who will gain citizenship, and we need a procedure to punish those who don’t follow whatever procedures we establish. It must go beyond simple forum bans, to encouraging people not to vote for people who break these procedures.

Participation: I have always been an active forum participant in every Congressional forum to which I’ve been elected. I even read the open Congressional forums when I haven’t been in Congress. Too often in the Canadian Congressional elections people have been elected who didn’t participate in the forums but just voted on the Country Administration page or worse, took their election gold and resigned as soon as they could. The real “work” of being in Congress is carried out in the Forums. I think that people should vote for candidates who promise to do their best in the Congressional forums. I’m that sort of candidate.

I want to thank you for reading this rather long winded presentation. I hope that you will vote for me in the eNew Zealand forums before October 19 (District 2) and then again in the Congressional elections on October 25.