Snow's Ministries, a Closer Look
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by Niko Snow
Hello Canadians,
The day approaches and the stars are aligning. The lines are drawn and soldiers take their positions on either side.
While we await the final decisions of the Canadian Progressive Front on their ballot decision: Can Vision Party, and the newly renamed United Loyalists of Canada (formerly a Norsefire-occupied party up until a few days ago under the same leadership) seem stalwart in their readiness to stand alone in the elections as well, one having offered the promise of restoration of an old party faith, the other having offered a smiling happy face with a set of teeth any of us would be jealous of.
Other unrepresented parties waiting for their chance to reach for the limelight, such as the Canadian National Coalition, are still being called upon to give their solidarity to the cause of the rebel alliance.
Norsefire occupied EPIC (Rolo's Funhouse), Canadian Paradox Party (Norsefire - Wolfpac Chapter), Union Nationale (Norsefire - Union Chapter) have already turned their support to Rylde's re-election as Dictator. Other Norsefire occupied parties are expected to follow suit soon.
Meanwhile the Rebel Alliance has only continued to grow.
As AFK Candidate I have garnered the support of:
-The Fellowship of the Ring
-Parti Avenir Quebec
-C.E.R.B.E.R.U.S.
-Canadian Central
-Union of Soviet Socialists
Each of these parties is now eligible to offer candidates to my Ministries. Congressmen are best suited applicants, but any party member with the expertise should be considered eligible. I will leave it to the Party Presidents of each to tell me who they wish to present.
I urge all remaining parties to ally themselves with me and pledge themselves to democracy, together we will make a fair, just, and coordinated Executive team.
As you are well-aware, I have included several Ministries in my Cabinet proposal in the first Presidential campaign article I published. In this article I intend to outline more specifically the goals in office for each Ministry for the following month. These goals are simple in their principle, but, I hope, highly stimulating in their rewards down the line.
Aside from these goals, I am going to allow Cabinet Ministers the freedom to try their own projects out as well if they are able to dedicate the time and energy to such causes.
Each Minister will also have a Deputy Minister from another party to both assist and help maintain neutrality to their work, and will be permitted to seek out as many staff members as they need to assist them in fulfilling those duties. (Though the selection of staff members will require the approval of both the Minister and Deputy.)
-Education:
The Minister of Education is to create a National Archive of Educational Articles, hyperlinking to newspapers from both Canada and afar providing useful information for players of every skill range.
The Minister of Education will also commence and oversee a series of nationwide competitions to push writers to create the best instructional article in particular areas, including:
-Fighting
-Becoming Self-Sufficient
-Buying and Selling
-National History
-International Politics
I will personally fund the prizes for each of these competitions.
3 Gold each for the Winners, 1 Gold for the Runner-ups.
The hardest part will be raising awareness and interest in each of these themes for writers.
The Minister of Educations domain shall be "First Steps For New Players"
-Defence:
In conjunction with the Minister of War, the Minister of Defence will be tasked with establishing government relations with any loyal Canadian Units by overseeing the audits and rostering in each MU and ensuring that they are managing any public funds appropriately to fund their members.
The Minister of Defence is to oversee inter-MU relations and establish inter-MU competitions using Timed-Strikes as well as to develop and innovate new ways for MUs to challenge one another in a healthy manner. An honorary battle competition on the eve of every eCanadian Remembrance Day has been suggested.
The Minister of Defence's domain shall be "Battle analysis"
-War:
The Minister of War is tasked with generating a strategic evaluation of Canada's military position and establishing two direct in-game communication networks:
The Global Defence Initiative:
A network of all Commander-in-Chiefs and other MU Commanders from Canada's allies. Via in-game messaging, immediate battle needs will be relayed back and forth between Allied Commanders on an emergency basis.
The Canadian Forces:
A united name and flag for all loyalist military units who expect funding. The priorities of this network will be to ensure battle orders and priorities are being responded to by Commanders and/or Captains. This network of MU Commanders and Captains will be responsible for taking and relaying battle orders from the Executive.
The hardest part will come in the weeks to follow, where the War Minister will have to oversee negotiations on how this alliance initiative will establish international battle assessments and priorities in a way that is fair and just to all allied members.
The Minister of War's domain shall be "Battle Orders"
-Finance:
The Minister of Finance will be responsible for evaluating the Canadian treasury as well as those of competing nations over time against the Congressionally determined tax rate and determining the maximum allowable amount that may be taken out of the treasury to fund MUs each week which would ensure a growth rate to meet the goal of allowing Canada to become the 10th (or up) wealthiest nation in eRepublik by year end.
The hardest part will be communicating those statistics to the nation when it may be the case that austerity may be necessary to achieve those goals.
The Minister of Finance's domain shall be "Financial Business"
-Interior:
The Minister of the Interior will be tasked with conducting national surveys. This will include but not be limited to:
-Availability Times
-Income
-Opinion Polling on President, Party, Unit, and Canada as a whole.
-Overall Canadian / eRepublik Experience
-Anything else the Minister deems pertinent or valuable statistical data which Canada could benefit from.
The hardest part may be ensuring the reach of these surveys is far enough to be a fair representation of Canada.
The Minister of Interior's domain shall be "Political Debates and Analysis"
-Foreign Affairs:
While the Minister of War will have a more direct line of communication with trusted allied nations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will be tasked with evaluating which of those nations are more likely to secede and establish more direct communication with those nations through ambassadorial exchange. The Minister of Foreign Affairs will also be expected to establish relations with enemy nations in order to better understand their concerns.
As Foreign Affairs can be a tricky game, and the risk of slip-up in public discussion of the government's analysis of another nation could cost the nation further in it's relations with that partner, all Foreign Affairs discussion will remain under Executive priviledge rather than the public domain.
-Commerce:
Similarly to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Commerce will asked to limit their discussions to Congress to prevent an international fau😜
as. They will be tasked with evaluating market prices as well as primary competitors to ensure that Canadian markets are not being saturated with foreign goods at aggressively low prices.
The Minister of Commerce will have to keep watch to ensure that no nations are attempting to disrupt the Canadian economy in any way that appears planned or arranged, and to suggest embargoes on nations which do raise this warning flag repeatedly.
-Francophones:
La Ministre des Francophone will be responsible for providing translation work and support on any official government texts. In this regard a primary focus will be placed on the work of the Ministry of Education.
This minister will be tasked with either providing those translations to be added to the original article of the author, or posted using their own newspaper, if they so desire (and making appropriate reference to the original author.)
In this regard their domain is not specified, but prioritized to:
1) Official Congressional Proposals in Political Articles
2) Official Education Articles
3) Official Interior Articles
4) All others, at the Ministers discretion for priority.
-Leisure:
Competitions and gambling are fun, and there are few better ways I have noted in my experience than lotteries and other similar contests. The concept is simple, for every ticket, a 15% tax is removed from the ticket price and immediately placed into the budget for funding other Cabinet sponsored competitions and public services to stimulate activity, writing, and fighting. All other proceeds of the ticket price go into the jackpot.
The hardest part for the Minister of Leisure will be to establish and publish the regulations of how the contest is performed so that they maintain legitimacy, as well as to market the contests so that the taxes raised off these lotteries will be beneficial to the nation as a whole.
The domain of the Minister of Leisure is "Social Interactions"
-Trust:
There are elements within our nation which have become cogs in a wheel that has caused national divides and resentment. It is time we learned to stop expecting each other to believe that respect, support and criticism are never in need of being mutually exclusive. I created this post with one long standing Congressman in mind, and that was Rolo.
Love him, hate him, he will tear you apart for your every weakness, and if you can stop crying and screaming long enough, you might just find yourself stronger than you were before.
Sometimes he and his band have gone too far. Their cleverness turning into aggression or vulgarity. On a certain level I cannot blame them, their feud with EPIC not entirely unjustified by the nature of the party to be a self-sustaining society on the back of the rest of Canada and at the expense of all other parties daring to approach the competition with a complete platform of their own.
This is why I seek an olive branch in the Minister of Trust: to recognize and validate that all leaders, all parties, all units, and all individuals here in civilized society are not only prone to make mistakes, to act in dishonest or self-serving ways, or out of the interests of others, but to never be immune to ridicule and to be expected to take the critiques and ride with them. He is to be Canada's e-Rick Mercer personality on all fronts, focusing especially on Commenting the articles of standing leaders.
-eCanada:
The Minister of eCanada shall have the domain of "Political debates and analysis".
As you are well aware, my feelings towards the eCanada Forums have been tough in my Congressional campaign. My long-term goals for Congress aside, the legal framework many other parties ascribe to require information to pass between forum users and eRepublik vanilla users.
To that end, the Minister of eCanada must be someone will be tasked with bridging the gap and ensuring that both eCanada Laws, Proposals, Bills, and Acts are published here within Canada as well as on the Forums.
More importantly, the Minister of eCanada will be responsible for taking the steps to address the flaws in the Congressional Rule of Order and providing a modification which would serve to meet the mutual interests of both forum separatists, sovereignists and federalists alike from all parties and units, and for ensuring that any legitimate referendums held within Canada pertaining to the Forum Charter or Rules of Order which gain sufficient attention will have their results recognized and enforced by Parliament Hill with the assistance of the Speaker of Congress.
-Shuffles from past Ministries:
Dropping off from past Presidents, I will not be adopting a Ministry of Immigration nor a Ministry of Justice, as neither can currently provide us with substantial benefit these days: Immigration should remain as is, left in the hands and at the discretion of democratically elected Congressmen.
Justice too, cannot be controlled except by forum banning. To that end I see no purpose to keeping such a concept on my portfolio. Justice is determined each month by the voters and no-one else.
Similarly, I will be dropping the Ministry of Mercenaries from Rylde's regime until such a time as Canada can contemplate affording a publicly funded Mercenary drive again.
-Myself:
All other major areas I will place in my own portfolio as my own responsibility. If there is a question that seems outside any of the above areas, I would be more than happy to address it.
I will keep the possibility that more work than I anticipate is ahead, and if the time comes, I will have to ask for more Canadians, Congressmen and citizens alike to join me as a Minister or Deputy Minister and do their part to help this nation get ahead, all while raising awareness of their own contributions.
To that end as well, I am raising the biggest question of all, that people wonder about in an Election campaign: And that is who will serve as my Vice-President. This person will make decisions in my stead if any time should arise that I am unavailable to address the question.
I could not find a headless clone of Agnew in time, so I opted for a Greek Canadian instead. I will be asking none other than our most loyal immigrant ever to serve as our VP: taxoparei. The Number 6 XP Ranked Canadian who joined us only months ago and has served as a diligent member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Unlike other campaigns I'm here to make promises and keep to them as best I can. Some of these goals might not be achieved to the full extent I would hope, others might excel far beyond my imaginations. I expect you as voters to hold me accountable to them later.
I have not promised that I can make a passing proposal in Congress in game, I can make no guarantees with the Congressional landscape as it is this month, I can only assist Canada in every other executive faculty and power available to me until the next election, when you have the opportunity to help decide which full party platform merits your support.
Remember to vote with your minds and your hearts this Thursday, Canada.
This Rebel Alliance needs you.
Sincerely yours,
Tyrael Snow
Lord Commander of the Night's Watch
Founder and President of the AFK
Retired Lieutenant-General of the Canadian Armed Forces
Canadian Minister de Sonitus perpetuo.
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Comments
Indeed.
Indeed indeed, this post comes with a contest, the first person to find the easter egg and vote this article up with a comment gets 1 Gold. That's right.
The special easter egg of this post comes with a hint: You have to Beilieb in it.
~_^
Great Campaign and Platform.... (3 years ago.....)
Not sure it aligns with today's in game realities...
Indeed. x2
@TemujinBC: 😃
@Rolo Tahmasee: I wasn't here 3 years ago, and neither was most Canadians, please elaborate good Sir.
@klop123: Indeed X3
@ Tyrael
"Ministers" that you would appoint don't have the attention span to deliver on the promises you are making anymore - back in the day when there was only 10 clicks a day you could do, thats how people played - not anymore
This is a 200 click a day game nowadays centered around working and fighting - Ironically your "AFK" actually makes sense, but you've gone and derped it all up with this CP Campaign and overcomplicated the simple game it is nowadays
I've seen this movie before... BIG PLANS - BIG CABINET
Everyones excited for a day or two, but when it comes down to getting to work on all the promises that you made, all of your ministers get real busy in RL and before you know it, it's just you
You log on, see that your the only one wanting to do anything, get discouraged, and 200 click your way through the remaining 25 days in your term...
Before you say you'll replace the inactive ministers, I've seen that movie before too...
@Rolo Tahmasee:
That's where Presidential oversight comes in, if one of my Ministers isn't fulfilling their job piece by piece and reporting back to me, I will have to either intervene and complete the portfolio's promise myself or have someone else better suited do it. This is part of the tough job of being a leader, having to ask someone to tender their resignation and pass their duties on to another. The mark of a good manager is part of their skills in noticing when this may be necessary.
What people want nowadays in meaningful battles, generally involving eCANADA, collect their GOLD, build up their citizen etc...
OldFags will tell you they want different things, but that is the call of many generations ago. They say they want these things, but deep down they don't, or they'd be the ones putting the work in
We are in "Generation Z" - A different type of eCanadian - A simpler platform that caters to the way the game is played nowadays would prove much more effective
"@Rolo Tahmasee:
That's where Presidential oversight comes in, if one of my Ministers isn't fulfilling their job piece by piece and reporting back to me, I will have to either intervene and complete the portfolio's promise myself or have someone else better suited do it." - Tyrael Snow, in response to my 1st post (in case of deletion)
CALLED IT
You were typing your response while I was typing my second post...
Like I said, I've seen this movie before.... A few times...
@Rolo Tahmasee:
That said, you are correct in that there are several.
This is in part because this is a multi-faceted campaign drawing on grassroots support from all parties.
My hope is that within a month the Ministry of eCanada will no longer be needed, if Canada votes for an AFK Congress that is.
I have also prepared the ministries in such a way that if the workload appears to be spread too thinly, the portfolios can be absorbed into a corresponding Ministry if need be.
Rolo actually has some practical advice here on the current state of the game.It doesnt mean that some of the concepts found in these ministries aren't worth pursuing.They may not just succeed they used to in the old schoold days(did they really back then?)
Canada is a country that consistently votes in rather small Cabinets.Not sure why other places tend to have a long list of Deputies and Ministers...it's as if eCanada has gone through some kind of purge of "community role-players" ~_^
Otherwise I intend to try and maintain a balance of representation in my Cabinet so that all supporting parties are able to offer me their advice and wisdom in their respective areas of expertise until such a time that both the Presidents office and Congress have been democratically restored. This offers them all a chance to shine and demonstrate to the Canadian public what they are capable of accomplishing without the need for a dictatorship or an over-drawn bureaucracy.
*succeed the way they used to in the old school game
btw, went through but couldn't key in on the Easter Egg...so I laid my own
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrnWpnG-uwI
BWahaha, nice one Plugson.
Please define the "Canadian Public"
Are you referring to the 50 or so eCanadians that log onto the forums and regularly read/comment on the media, or the 650 or so that we never hear or see, other that stats on a battlefield or listings on the marketplace..
Just curious who your campaign is catering to?
Got any more vids of the hot chick on the car?
Who are the Ministers is all I would like to know.
@Rolo Tahmasee: I'm appealing to anybody bothering to read these articles as the last vestige of open communication across the game. I'll return to a pure two-clicker platform in the next Party President and Congress Election where I have to represent my constituents exclusively. This is about all of Canada
@ppdanny: I want to wife that woman and have her wear that everyday
@Venoms III: Waiting on responses from all associated parties, also waiting on the CPF to finalize their ticket decision.
So you're the President and Founder of a Party build on the appeal of simple gameplay and clicking, and when it suits you, so do an about face and become the very opposite of what your Party was based on and stands for?
Maybe you should reap what you sow....
@Rolo Tahmasee: There is a gross difference between being a President representing many peoples and a Congressman representing a smaller core of people. In the latter case my direct values matter signficantly more because these are the values I intend to vote on in the interests of that smaller segment of people I hope to represent. If the core of people next Congess side with my personal and direct Libertarian values, which I have demonstrated in every vote, they will see more of that.
"I cannot blame them, their feud with EPIC not entirely unjustified by the nature of the party to be a self-sustaining society on the back of the rest of Canada and at the expense of all other parties daring to approach the competition with a complete platform of their own."
Please, do define what "on the back of the rest of Canada" means in that statement. What exactly did EPIC make Canada do for it? A party is not at fault for growing because the rest of the parties are unappealing to...
...the citizens of this nation. EPIC has never gone out and attacked other parties for any reason. Specific members have had issue with others in other parties, but the same can be said for feuds within the party. Look at me and Pimpdollaz and read the forums, you will find a long line of vitriol between us. EPIC never held back anyone (save the thieves) in this country, and in fact helped many smaller parties run candidates under it's banner. Of course, you blame EPIC for Addy...so...pfft
cont.... In the former case I must evaluate the distribution of Congress as well as of my potential supporters from other parties and determine what concessions I can make to their parties in the form of representation in order to earn their support, In that decision I have to also ensure the Ministers excel. This is not at all dissimilar to what Norsefire and MDP accomplished in forming a formal coalition government, except that you maintain a majority of the seats in Congress at this time.
@Etemenanki: EPIC was an individual party of people with wildly different political values. This level of variation is the extent a democracy would hope to see across all parties rather than focused on one. While every party is built on the idea of it's members trying to help eachother get into power, EPIC has spent many months doing so on a purely Populist agenda without any focused declared political platform to the external society except in very rare cases of highly organized individuals....
cont... On that note, EPIC has won repeatedly & taken to Congress with measures that tended towards a Social Democrat / Democratic Socialist curve, and building further a legal framework which has otherwise proven itself tragically useless time in and time out. This is what I mean with cting as a society on a society rather than as a direct party. To that extent that I advised Nicholas Boyce to try giving the party a charge and cause, have them vote on it collectively or such as we did...
cont... AFK indeed represents many of the same style of citizens (the more casual types) in Congress, the core difference being that I have stood and led my party on Libertarian economic and social values.
We have such a dark place in our current political axioms where we seem divided between Dictator and Populist or Lulz and Roleplay. Where Congress votes are bundled and packaged as Bloc votes like every act is SOPA/PIPA. Where is the spirit of variation?
You've still never bothered to answer the question as to why you deleted those articles that you wrote. I know you deleted the one you and I had a 3 hour debate in the comments section. Do tell why you deleted that article in which you accused EPIC of being irresponsible for backing Addy in his CP runs? Or of looking to it's members for direction as being a bad thing? You can say all the pretty things you like, but your choice of deletion of articles which don't seem to fit your narrative...
...should be viewed as a serious concern to anyone who looks to integrity and honesty in a leader.
Where is the Liberal party, the Conservative party, the Libertarian party.
Why are all these axioms not being put before us by the parties which otherwise just shout redundant political slogans, fancy patriotism inspiring names and pretty pictures.
The only party thus far that has kept to this principle of taking a core political value and running with it has been the Military Dictatorship Party: ironic for them, for everything that is wrong with those political and social values.
Tyrael...the same reason your the one person rallying the AFK flag while no one else appears from your party to join the fray
eCanada has become desolate.Only players that devote a crapload of time to the game figure strongly as presidents. Congressmen can be clickers. Party presidents can be clickers. When the CP is a clicker people raise a stink about no war. There's no coordinated Council of party members that chart the general course of their party or the country.
@Etemenanki: I remove articles which are either no longer relevant because they were temporary in their needs and would otherwise litter up space of choice articles I previously posted and want to keep archived, or that I feel had a negative dialogue which I wished to redact from further public observation.
Party policy/axioms do shape player actions in a limited way. For the most part, eCan changes its course month-to-month based on whoever gets really active and writes a lot of articles and sends out a lot of PMs, and maintains connections through IRC (I assume).
Once there were mountains of debate and strong currents of party member inertia.
Now we are in the valleys and the dust blows along whatever way the prevalent wind pushes them.
cont...The alternative is to leave those negative comments from either myself or others directed at w up for more to see and be misinformed by. Indeed in the comments of that article you may recall I apologized for the editorial errors and left it open for over a day before closing it. This is not unlike a how a Medical Journal will behave when it turns out the results of a study they published were wrong or falsified.
@Plugson: I believe eCanada has mostly become a desolate place because we have only been offering people only three options:
1) 2-Click
2) Extreme Roleplay
3) Extreme Trolling.
The middle ground for casual players is obviously to shut up and 2-click until they are bored.
If I get one sentence out of any player in a month, even just their favourite movie, I feel pretty damn satisfied.
But then i'm also a Community manager. I have an obsession with Like, Share and Comment statistics.
Yup, that's mainly true when it comes to politics and forum discourse.
In the MU shout area, it's a different story. I see no trolling, few disputes, rather little roleplay, and a lot of people helping each other out and playing the game in the basic way they can. Even the CPF PM threads and shout tab are free of trolling, though there are differences of opinion expressed. There's not much need for debate in MUs so people talk about personal interests or look for tips on how to develop.
If you could find a way to bottle that slowburn enthusiasm for the game found in the MUs and bring it to the social and political sphere of eCanada, then you'd be accomplishing a lot. Naming people ministers and deputies won't do that. Getting "ministers" to start small, low cost programs to engage people would be the better route. Though, at times it's best when it happens organically away from Govt, such as it is with the health and eductation program.Indepedently player-driven. Support that!
Ya, What Plugson said....
Stop Living In the Past Man!.....
I largely agree with the sentiment of both Rolo and Plugson.
The era of Big Cabinets is long long over, I don't think the community wants or needs such things and it hasn't for a long time.
The community has grown old, at one time there was actual debate. There was a legitimate left and right wing party with different goals and different policies. There was a political arena, but now the best players who blended RP and game mechanics have moved on. They climbed the political mountain, stood at the top for a bit then wandered off in boredom after effectively doing everything the community had to offer. Bruck, Banach, Jacobi and others.
We, as community, have aged to the point where we know better than to have a big RP style government. It doesn't work in the long run, there are no incentives, no competition for power. No new blood to want to climb to the top of the pile.
My two cents after four years of participating, and watching this community.
Tyrael Snow- Let's get a few things straight.
I am not Norsefire, no more than you are.
From your article you are choosing to reward only those who officially back you with cabinet spots?? Isn't that like ..... Hmmm I dunno..... Bribing?? Yes it is..... if you want to offer cabinet spots to ALL parties then you can pretend you're better than Rolo....
If we don't stand with you we stand against democracy??? What a load of BS! Ladies and gents, Tyrael the Tyrant in the making.....
Furthermore to those who weren't in the CAF, I made you one of my two seconds in command......
You spouted off grandiose Ideas in the begining of that role too.......... then what happened??????
You dissapeared..... The work got to be too much and you quit.......
Is this the CP we want?? At least Rylde has given it 100%
And all you did in my article when I tried to announce my vision for a new party is troll and insult..... Whom are you most like in eCan I wonder?????
@Plugson: My intention was less to simply name Ministers than to seed some similar player-driven projects as you have described. This is why I have stated that I am hoping to find people with the enthusiasm to take up these roles I have described and find ways to improve and expand on them.
Take the educational newspaper contests as an example, or the inter-MU competitions, or the lotteries. Many of these were not my own new ideas but player projects I've heard repeated across many lines....
@Plugson...Right now the nation is verging towards bankrupcy, As you helped make all aware, 1/10th of our wealth just got devoted to hiring mercenaries for a battle that we cannot track anymore. I cannot expect to place austerity measures on the budget and pass tax reform and fund MUs and expect to have money left over for public contests and projects. This is why instead, in these pressing times, I am opting to use my modest wealth to seed those same kinds of contests and projects.
@Alexander Rearden and Plugson: Could you both offer any suggestions as to how you would squeeze this all down in a way that won't overwork any one particular minister to the brink of insanity?
@Treian:
Actually, to clear that up: I served as Executive Officer until you disappeared altogether, and the Military Council had no choice but to vote you out of office. Then I served as Executive Officer under nucksalltheway. And then half of the leadership of the CAF moved to the USA after Norsefire took over every competing party and almost everything came to a stand still...
@Treian:
cont...As to your party. Why don't you remind everyone here that up until a few days ago you kept the Norsefire banner high above your party. The timing of your decision to enter the fray is entirely in question: You aren't new. Why would you change banner now and risk getting stomped by Coalition by the next Party Presidential election, unless: there was never such a risk and your reason for entering now was merely to distract voters as the Coalition has done before ad nauseum.