What powers do the Vermont government (or the rest of the provincial governments) and the towns have?
How is the VT Lieutenant Governor's Council elected? I assume they are the executive for the province.
Vermont's government is exceptionally weak. It does very little during the few weeks it meets a year. Each town is essentially autonomous, and the legislature, and the Premier, really only exist for external affairs (such as managing relations with Adirondack or New Hampshire, for example) or for the maintenance and construction of roads and turnpikes.
Vermont's Lieutenant Governor's Council is elected province-wide. In theory the executive is the Lt. Gov's Council and the Lt. Gov., but all authority of the Lt. Gov. is exercised practically by the Premier.
Very interesting system. Vermont is one of the few states in OTL that could make a one town, one member system work given the (relatively) even distribution of population and lack of major cities (assuming OTL SCOTUS permitted such systems anymore). Is there any kind of pressure to better represent urban dwellers,
@CosmicAsh , or is everyone relatively content given the town meeting system for nominations and the Mountain Rule ensuring each region and community gets at least 1 year out of four with the top job?
There is no significant movement for electoral reform in Vermont. Vermont's provincial taxes are the lowest of any province, and the relatively weak powers of the provincial legislature just means that the larger towns and cities are more or less free to do as they please without interference. There are regional councils that are not prescribed in Vermont's charter, but nevertheless do engage in regional cooperation and pool resources. To the average Vermonter, these regional organisations have more power over their daily life than the provincial legislature does.
What are the beliefs of the United Party?
The United Party has no discernable beliefs beyond "what we have now is fine." The United Party was formed from the union of the two dominate right/centre-right factions after Vermont was granted a colonial legislature and responsible government, which has remained in power since then.
I know you are frequently barraged with questions so I don't want to add more, but as a Trekkie recent events caught my eye. Boston has declared March 26th (Today) Leonard Nimoy Day. Does anything similar exist ITTL? What was Leonard Nimoy's career like, if he even existed?
I am afraid I do not have any information on pop culture at this time - I am still in the process of disassembling it and working backwards due to the massive cultural changes.
How do the provincial parties interact with the national-level ones?
Are they entirely separate? Do provincial parties form joint tickets with national ones, or at least give their endorsement?
Or is it more like elections to the EU Parliament, where like-minded provincial parties band together?
Provincial parties are disconnected from federal-level parties. There are only superficial links between them. Provincial parties are focused on one thing: provincial politics. There is very little interest nor care about the federal level, so the only endorsements would come from individuals - for example Premier Chatfield may endorse the Conservatives, but the Country Party would not.
My guess would be a center-left to center-right big tent party.
Mostly correct.
I was looking back at this and a have a few questions: Why are there so many Green Party governments across Europe? (I'm assuming here that most European politicians have similar views to their OTL counterparts) Why does Finland have such a right-wing government? And am I right to assume that Spain's political divide is a similar situation to as the OTL People's Republic of China is with the Republic of China?
Climate Change is a far more pressing issue (as it has advanced at a more considerable pace due to high carbon emissions overall), leading to an increased focus on that task. Finland's government is fairly right-wing due to demagogic factors and a perceived fear of the Russian Empire - it is something I will (eventually) touch on.
Just curious: what was the history of LGBT rights in the Commonwealth of New England?
I will touch on LGBTQI rights in the Empire at some date - it is a planned article of mine.
What is the Connecticut Democratic Party? Why did the Conservatives perform so poorly?
The Connecticut Democratic Party is a pressure-group that was formed to advocate for changes to the provincial electoral system. The Conservatives performed poorly, as it is not the same Conservative Party that exists on the federal level; and Connecticut voters are not all that interested in voting for that party.
I wonder if we could see a TTL Spotify playlist?
Spotify would not exist, for one, and I am currently working on and off with someone to even understand the immense changes to music that would have occurred. Maybe in the future.
Ooooh, seconding this! And if I can piggyback: do the Dropkick Murphys exist in any form ITTL?
Apologies, but please see my above response.
Love it, love it, love it!
One small thing though: I don't notice Dinetah on this map. This would imply that that state was created sometime in the 1940s or after... which, according to a previous post of yours, was more or less the last time the US was considered a proper democracy. Would you be willing to please provide a bit more information about how Dinetah came to be? Could be quite interesting...
Once again, colour me impressed with this. Beautiful.
The area is marked as being "Not Controlled by Mexico City", implying that Dinetah did de facto exist by this point, but didn't have widespread (or possibly any) diplomatic recognition.
That was what I guessed. But this leads to more questions- namely, who would grant it diplomatic recognition in the first place? From everything we've seen about TTL's United States, it's a more militant and hostile country that seems just as likely to exploit a Dinetah uprising by moving in itself to occupy the area rather than recognise it. Unless Dinetah is a US puppet state....?
Regardless, I am sure CosmicAsh will have a most satisfying explanation as to 'why'.
Dinétah is not a Westphalian state as we know it, and Mexico has
never held effective control over the territory. In the time period this map was made, there wouldn't be any reason to mark is as a separate country. At this time it would have had limited foreign affairs, mostly border and water issues. The United States is historically focused on the Mississippi River, and the lower Missouri and Ohio Rivers, which has led them to develop extremely good relations with the indigenous peoples of the West. The United States has no interest in moving west, and is very much vested in keeping good relations with them. The United States likely would have been the first to send a formal delegation.
What a nice and unexpected Easter present! This map is most awesome, not in the least because of the tremendous amount of effort which you selflessly devoted to the creation of this precious gem!
Thank you very much
Great map! Why did Guatemala and Costa Rica leave Central America?
Central America has a long, long history of wars, rebellions, unifications, and splits. I'll go into detail at some point.
Nice! There are so many little details on the map. I noticed Clipperton Island is called "Passion Island" and is owned by Mexico, in both this map and the 2021 map. Why doesn't France control it?
The island was granted to Mexico after the Continental War due to the claim that was made in the 1500s during the expedition of Álvaro de Saavedra.
Is Spokane listed as Aspen on the map? If so, why?
Aspen is located in generally the same area that Spokane is IRL. As you may note most cities in the west have different names. They were founded by different people, under different circumstances. Therefore, the City of Aspen was named for the trees that were there when the first colonisers from the North West Company arrived and set up a trade station. The original trading post was made from Aspen wood, which is how the name stuck.
