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The Boomer Bugle is proud to announce the initiation of a now monthly tradition: The Boomer Bugle eCanadian Person of the Month! Analogous to Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, the BB Person of the Month will be, for better or worse, the most influential Canadian of the month. This month had no nominative process, though for March and on people can nominate other players (or themselves) to be the Person of the Month through in-game PMs. Decisions are made on who had the biggest (not necessarily best) impact on our society for that month.

It is my pleasure to announce the Boomer Bugle’s first Man of the Month for February, 2009 – Josh Taggart. Despite being a paltry 10 days old, Josh’s legislative and political impact on our societal fabric is incontrovertible. Josh Taggart’s extensive real life experience as a policy analyst coupled with his spirited activity (not to mention honours degrees from Carleton) has in just a few short days cemented his status as one of eCanada’s most promising political players. For this reason, and despite his just recent emergence into the mainstream eCanadian psyche, Josh Taggart is the Boomer Bugle’s Man of the Month for February.

The following is a list of proposals and contributions that Josh Taggart has undertaken in his short elife thus far.

Government Transparency Act
Justice Reform
Ministry of Justice Act Draft
eCanadian Census

Past People of the Month: None

Boomer Bugle: First of all, how did you find eRepublik and why did you stay?

Josh Taggart: I was browsing the internet one night, reading weblogs of political pundits and on one of the pages there was an advertisement for eRepublik. It was very vague, basically, "A war is about to begin in the New World, you can stop it or join in, the choice is yours" or something to that effect. As I'm very interested in global conflict analysis, I decided why not click and see what it's all about. As far as what made me stay, I definitely believe it was the forums. I saw there were some interesting debates going and I jumped right in. I guess the shortest answer is the forum led me to the real heart of eRepublik, a community of users who, for the large part, are dedicated to working towards something together despite different viewpoints.

Boomer Bugle: What kind of change, if any, do you want to inspire in eCanada in the coming months?

Josh Taggart: There are three main issues that I would like to tackle in the coming months. The first issue is Government transparency. Upon joining the eCanada forums, the first thread that really piqued my interest was a thread discounting transparency in Government. I feel that openness, or transparency, of government is a vital function of democracy. For democracy to truly work we need to have a well-informed public, and to be well-informed we need transparency in government. So, I set about tackling that issue by introducing a draft of a piece of legislation called the Government Transparency Act. This was discussed at length via several channels with the public and Government officials, and I have just recently released a revised version which I hope will be introduced to Congress for discussion shortly.

The second major issue I sought to tackle was to help build on the work of eCitizens before me in constructing a solid judicial and legislative framework for eCanada. I first noticed that there was no cabinet minister in charge of Justice and that the Supreme Court was largely onocuppied. I set about writing and introducing the Minister of Justice Act creating a ministry of Justice to deal with upcoming issues involving management of the Supreme Court, overseeing the implementation and management of the upcoming penal code.

The third and final thing I hope to accomplish is to run for Congress and work to serve the citizens of eCanada as best I can in the capacity I believe I am best suited, which is that of significant experience in legislative review and analysis. I believe that we can make eCanada one of the most well legislated and secure countries in eRepublik.

Boomer Bugle: Which political party, if any, are you leaning towards and why?

Josh Taggart: I have decided to join the Progressive Party of Canada. I strongly agree with the military, social services, and sovereignty aspects of their platform. I also believe that they have a solid base for economic reform and would like to contribute to fine-tuning it to help maintain a strong Canadian dollar while building the treasuries’ gold reserves, all while not sacrificing on social services. It's a tall order to fill, but I believe, especially in light of the Coalition for Change (PPC and CEP parties) that they have a solid chance of gaining the presidency and a larger percentage of Congress. There are many great parties in eCanada and I had a difficult time making the choice. I do believe that the Progressive Party of Canada has the right plan for the future of Canada and I would like to be there to help them implement it.

Boomer Bugle: As always with the Boomer Bugle, the last question is the most important. Who would win between a polar bear and a chimpanzee with a Colt 45 revolver?

Josh Taggart: Well, as with your interviews, the last is also the most complex. There are many variables involved. I see two outcomes: If the polar bear starts some distance off, there is a good chance the chimpanzee will actually fire the gun. Unfortunately, this may kill the chimpanzee as he would not know how to aim. If they started close, the polar bear would easily kill the chimpanzee. None of this takes into account that the chimpanzee could be a pirate. That would further complicate matters.

Boomer Bugle: Fascinating. Thank you for your time, and congratulations on being February’s Man of the Month!

Josh Taggart: Thank you for the honour as well as for taking the time to interview me and keep up the amazing work with the Boomer Bugle. You are an asset to eCanada.

Other notable people in February: Banach (run for media mogul), Alias Vision (emergence as a prolific, consistent and professional journalist), Zanalan (first ever consecutive presidential election wins), Dean22 (threatening a food strike and being evicted for being a “pain in the ass”), Dominik (creating and gestating the Royal Feudalist Party), and many others.

Note: The series in general will be called the Person of the Month, but for specific cases the articles will be called the Man or Woman of the Month.

Thanks for reading!