Join the new world

For those of you who regularly follow my congressional reports, you know that I have a history of being as honest and open-handed as I can be about what goes on in congress. For those who are new, I like posting weekly reports about what's been going on in congress. And for new players, there is more to congress than just approving allies and enemy's, although I admit that is the bulk of our work at times.

So what I have here is a compiling of what I have done over the past month to help show voters what they can expect of me. However, it will not simply be a rehashing of my weekly articles, if you want to see every detail, I recommend going through those. This is just a reflection on the general themes.

Alliances

We are part of two major alliance, Eden and Terra, or just Teden. This month we have reforged our commitment to these alliances not just by renewing the alliances on paper, but by earnestly putting ourselves out there on the battlefield to help our allies. I often preach eCanadian security, and one of the ways we can ensure it, is by standing with our allies. While it has been hard juggling these alliances, as will be mentioned later, our reputation has clearly improved and this will benefit us in the long run.

Links to our alliances:
http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/EDEN
http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/Terra

Embargoes

We have also voted to place a number of Embargoes on members of our rival alliance, ONE. The purpose is to prevent the sales of arms and food in rival countries. I don't think I need to explain much here.

Tax Reform

I had voted against a increase to our Value Added Taxes (VAT) but it was coupled with an increase to Import taxes, which I did agree with. So after that particular tax increase was defeated I proposed my own, which only featured a Import tax increase. Sadly it was voted down, but I do believe it could have brought in some extra CAD, which is always welcome in our coffers.

Movement of Money

We also regularly move money to the Minister of Finance so that he can see to the running of our Country, primarily investing in our Military Units. This is something that I also believe requires little explanation.

There also was the financing of a program to help people build new training facilities when the sale was on, so we moved 200 gold to the MF to set up said program. The gold would be repaid by recipients after their next Super Soldier medal

Enemy's of the State

We have the wonderful ability to declare Natural Enemy's. And our historic foe has been the eUK, and we had a number of votes before our invasion to place them as our NE, which failed. But finally the war began in earnest, while I did recommend caution (I have lived through at least one wipe of eCanada), our invasion was a resounding success. However, as of late we have been waiting for Sperry's "Sexy War". I am a supporter of Sperry, and trust that he and the top TEDEN brass do have some fun times in store for us, it has led to some tensions. Mainly the Waffle trip which did not happen (a proposed invasion of Belgium) due to alliance miss-communication. So sadly we still wait for a new war to excite us other than the constant back and forth with eUK. As of late Hungary has stepped up as a potential candidate, and we have prepared by declaring them our new NE, but only time will tell.

On the Forums

As said, there is more to congress then just clicking yes or no on proposals. Us congressmen have our own happy home on parliament hill.
http://ecanada.cc/forums/viewforum.php?f=36

Here all eCanadians can view what we get up too, though sadly not many do. However it should be pointed out that the Closed Door Congress is just that, members only I am afraid and if I were to publish things from there I would be in series trouble. But there still are things that we do in the common area as well as the Open Door Congress which are of importance to eCanadians. Mainly the budgets which detail our income and expenditures, but also some interesting things crop up from time to time.

A few issues have come up before congress this month. The details of them are mainly in the last articles of mine, but in brief, they have dealt with the restructuring of the supreme court, congressional rules of order, and the Ministry of Immigration.

As for the supreme court, I have agreed that it should become an advisory board and that the different heads of congress' departments should police themselves. The congressional rules of order were simply a change to the Deputy Speaker of Congress.

As for the Ministry of Information, I have said enough on that in both my articles and in congress. I have backed away from it because while I would be willing to help screen citizens, I do not believe that congressmen should be allowed to simply post information on incoming citizens without congress first electing someone to that position. It does not seem right to simply have anyone posting what they will. I believe that accountability is needed and only by having a non-arbitrary, elected position, is that possible.

Is that it?

I have kept fairly detailed records of my work in congress and this sums most of it up. As has been mentioned, more details are available in my past articles. I believe this article has done most of what I wanted it to accomplish. Provide a rundown of where I stand on various issues, as well as providing a spot were new players can familiarize themselves with what it is we in congress do. To many times I have received messages asking for votes but with no explanation of what they as a congressmen do or will do. So I hope that this will be helpful in that respect.

I therefore leave you with this to contemplate until the election. Make an informed choice and put us candidates under close scrutiny, and ask yourself, are they really the best person to send to congress?