CanIre Discussion Piece: Addressing Issues

Day 1,800, 13:02 • Published in Canada Canada • by Jacobi
CanIre isn’t just about damage.



CanIre is about a union of military coordination, resource bonuses, a larger local common market, a more stable tax base, and the potential for expansion and to play a greater role in Western/North Europe.

It is about trying something new and fun, but in a way that we are building and creating something new, overcoming challenges and negotiating obstacles. Both Ireland and Canada have had issues with players whose idea of “fun” is to destroy, to steal, to inflict injury on our communities because they have nothing better to do. Being a part of a significant and interesting debate and change for both our countries give the rest of us, the good respected community players helping out their fellow teammates, an opportunity to do something that’s both novel and good.

There are of course challenges, and no one who supports this opportunity can deny it. But instead of thinking of an issue, finding one, and then declaring the idea dead let’s look at the individual issues created by the proposed merger and think up some solutions. As I said, there are a lot of creative people using their creativity in Canada and Ireland to screw with each nation…maybe its time to harness that creativity in a more productive way.

From the comments on both sides I’ve heard some interesting criticisms and if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to give some thought on each.

1. Ireland won’t give up its sovereignty.

A proposed merger with Canada does not necessarily have to be Canada taking Irish regions, but could instead exist as an Irish takeover of Canadian regions. As long as members of both communities can obtain the same citizenship, it’s immaterial under which flag we fly. Because of some historical real life issues I understand that there is some hesitation on the part of Irish citizens that would not be the same for Canadians. I certainly know some Canadians would want to stay behind in an enclave in NWT or PEI because they play specifically for the maple leaf, but I would suggest it’s a smaller proportion of our population especially when Ireland is not a threat to consuming the unique Canadian identity or baring Canadians from participating in political life(like it would be with a USA-Can merger)
Of course, the reason why Canada is more ideal to take on Irish citizens than vice versa is because of the limited availability of citizenships. I’ll talk more about that in the next point.

2. It would take forever to give everyone the same citizenship



Certainly would agree IF our intention was to give every Canadian or ever Irish citizen a citizenship of the other nation it would take a significantly long period of time, but we know this not to be necessary. Beyond the requisite nationalists who would stay behind to mind the store, the active populations of each country is a far more important figure than total population. For example, according to egov and recent election results Canada has approximately 500 actives hereas Ireland has about 200. Concentrating exclusively on active members, a de facto merger could be completed in as little as 10 days for Ireland to Canada, and about 2 months the other way around. And, frankly, by prioritizing it in this sort of fashion, the new nation might be able to minimize the influence of multis in elections.

January would probably be a lean month in terms of resource bonuses for Canadians waiting for Irish citizenship, but a possibility for minimizing disruption could be prioritizing citizenship for people with significant businesses, just as an example.

3. Market Licenses would cost a fortune



This is probably the problem with the most complexity, in that it would require both nations to figure out how many active citizens

I) Sell on their home markets (this is certainly not everyone, and is probably less than half)

II) Don’t already have a license for the other country (As an example, I already own an Irish license)

III) Don’t already sell on other foreign markets instead (many people sell to the US and will continue to do so regardless of the merger)

IV) Don’t currently have a free unused license (As an example, I have a free unused license because I didn’t want to commit to using it with another country…I might have two, not sure)

So, there would definitely have to be some sort of consideration for people who Sell, don’t have a license, don’t have another foreign license, and don’t have a free license to spare. I’m not entirely convinced this is a significant amount of people but more exploration of this particular issue is needed to be done. But that’s why we have plenty of time to think of these things and act on them.

4. RW Trolls will make the union unworkable


Specifically this guy

Although I can see how at first blush some people might find this to be a significant issue to me its almost an offhand dismissal. There are no issues with a union and RWs that aren’t also an issue with region swapping and RWs. (ie: just because there are several regions owned doesn’t mean we will be dealing with more RWs than if we swapped a single region)In fact, I would go so far to suggest that the diffusion of potential RW targets would cut down on RW frequency. Plus we benefit from the 24 hour RW limit that recently was placed into effect by the admins, meaning that we need to realize that we’d be dealing with 50% fewer RWs than before in any given time period. Finally the cost benefit of starting a resistance war has fallen significantly with the price of gold. I certainly don’t see this as more than a small annoyance with the bonus of a good market for True Patriot Medals to put them down.

Other comments like “it just won’t work,” “it’s a bad idea,” and other similarly unconstructive comments I’m not really interested in exploring until I can in greater detail and each of the benefits on their own.

But its important to realize that in most things we do on erepublik, we are benefitting from hardwork that our predecessors (or we did some years back) put in before that allow us to coast. This opportunity allows us to be builders too, to work within the confines and advantages of the modern game to give rise to something that could very well shake up how all Canadians and Irish play erepublik. It’s an exciting concept that I want to explore in a mature and rational fashion, and I’m eager to have you all debating with me along for the ride.