While the 'Blue Revolution' failed in establishing any permanent replacement governments anywhere on Earth, the fact that many normally placid Canadians were so unhappy with their government that they were willing to adopt American-style revolutionary tactics sent shockwaves through the country's political elites. While the Blue institutions (eg, crowd-sourcing policies, futures prediction markets, liquid democracy, cell-phone-minute currency, etc) had been successfully sabotaged and disrupted, allowing the conventional infantry robots to be sent in to resume the peace, the various resentments that had led to the revolution (eg, massive unemployment due to ever-falling costs of automation) still simmered, and if ignored, could potentially lead to a second Blue Revolution - which just might succeed where the first one failed. Thus, the Canadian political elites acceded to the minimal amount of popular demands that seemed sufficient to keep a lid on things. The most fundamental one was instituting a Basic Income Guarantee, but as that involved opening up the Canadian constitution for amendment, a whole collection of tweaks were put together into a neo-Charlottetown Accord. One of the major changes was to completely revamp the Senate, with a single Senator from each province, plus one from the Assembly of First Nations. A side-effect of this was to inspire several provinces to start splitting up, to gain more Senators. Meanwhile, the eastern provinces decided to improve their lot by forming an inter-provincial association, to negotiate as a block with the rest of the country, but without giving up any of their provincial statuses.
An ever-increasing fear is that of a 'Crazy' secretly brewing up bio-weapons in their basement; so another portion of the Constitutional changes were to work out continuity-of-government provisions even if nearly every member of the House of Commons, Senate, governor-general and lieutenant-governors, provincial governments, Privy Council, and royal family were killed at the same time.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, Denmark was dealing in its own way with the aftermath of its portion of the Blue Revolution. Primarily to demonstrate that they 'listened to the people', the Danish politicians quickly arranged for a plebiscite in Greenland, and almost as soon as the votes were tallied, it was granted its independence. Unfortunately, due to the collapse of the fish stocks and the effects of climate change on the glaciers, the economy of Greenland (now Kalaallit Nunaat) quickly tanked. In addition, with the scramble for arctic resources heating up due to the heating up, Russia was pressing its claims to the Lomonosov Ridge, which stretched between Russia and the coastal shelf between Canada and Greenland; and it seemed entirely possible that the Russians might decide to solidify their expanded territorial claim by seizing all of Greenland itself. Canada was pushing its own claim to the Lomonosov Ridge... and so, in order to solidify their own claim to the North American side of the ridge, an agreement was struck, in which Greenland joined Canada as a province, in return for a sweetheart economic and development package for the Greenlanders. (Not to mention putting the Canadian armed forces between the Greenlanders and Russia.)
For the near future, there is serious debate in certain cities about whether to turn themselves into new "City-Provinces", with Ottawa expected to secede from Ontario any year now.
More controversially, the inhabitants of the northern halves of Manitoba and Saskatchewan are proposing to split from their parent provinces, and merge into a new province of Athabasca. The population would be 125,000 from Manitoba, and 101,000 from Saskatchewan, which would give the new province 2 seats in the House of Commons, while Manitoba would lose 1. The new province would be part of the northern block, along with Nunavut and Ungava, which many existing provinces feel is already over-represented in the Senate. As creating a new province requires the assent of both the House of Commons and the Senate (as well as either the provincial legislature's approval or a plebiscite of the affected area), this may be the first proposal for a province to fail since the new procedures were put into place.
House of Commons Seats: 1 per province, plus 1 per full 150,000 population. (The '150,000' changes at each census, to keep the HoC between 300 and 400 members.) House of Commons Total: 326 seats
Senate Seats: 1 per province (20), plus 1 for Assembly of First Nations. Senate Total: 21
Regional Distribution: North/First Nations: 5/326 HoC, 6/21 Sen West/Prairies: 107/326 HoC, 6/21 Sen South/Core: 189/326 HoC, 4/21 Sen East/Maritimes: 25/326 HoC, 5/21 Sen
There are only so many villages and towns in Nord-du-Quebec to choose from, and Chibougamau is both the largest and already provides services for the surrounding region.
There are only so many villages and towns in Nord-du-Quebec to choose from, and Chibougamau is both
I agree. Though this is not a big place. Well, he will not lack of hydroelectricity with the James Bay hydroelectric power stations. I just imagine the mess to make everyone accept this new map. Being from Québec, I know that my province would fight for every meter of land.
I agree. Though this is not a big place. Well, he will not lack of hydroelectricity with the James B
Dealing with an uncooperative provincial legislature is why the process was set up to not require it, as long as the House of Commons, Senate, and a referendum of the locals all agreed to the split.
Much like the 1982 constitution, Quebec wasn't exactly happy with the arrangements, claiming that they were crated specifically to split up the 'nation of Quebec'; but it's still the law of the land. And after the Blue revolution came reasonably close to turfing out both the federal and provincial governments, in favour of much more direct rule by the people, most of the Quebecois politicians preferred being in charge of a francophone province, even if a somewhat smaller one, than being out of a job entirely.
Dealing with an uncooperative provincial legislature is why the process was set up to not require it
Imagine Great Depression era levels of ever-rising employment, with the oh-so-wealthy politicians obliviously prattling that all you need to get a job is 'hard work' and reducing the social safety net in the name of 'austerity', while large corporations continue to rake in ever-rising profits, significant parts of which are funneled to corporate executives and bribes (sorry, lobbying) for politicians.
If a parent is facing the choice between listening to the rumbling of their childrens' hungry bellies, and trying out this newfangled co-op scheme where the profits go to regular people instead of already-rich folk... then they just might be willing to get over their fear of change and try Blueism for a while, even if they don't care for its political construction.
And when the politicians finally got it through their thick skulls that yes, the people really were serious about overturning the whole corporate-based capitalism thing if that's what it took, then making a few relatively small changes to keep themselves on top of the heap seems a whole lot more palatable than risking a ride in the tumbrels.
Imagine Great Depression era levels of ever-rising employment, with the oh-so-wealthy politicians ob
