Not really. Best I can think of is Mary Queen of Scots dead or imprisoned at Loch Leven.
Elisabeth I is somehow outside the succession hence she's Duchess of Windsor, unless that's not her since Countess of Pembroke would be more appropriate for a daughter of Anne Boleyn.
Hmm, no sons at all for Henry? Thus different succession acts, earlier reign of Mary and a Protestant rebellion under a childless sister?
Not really. Best I can think of is Mary Queen of Scots dead or imprisoned at Loch Leven.
Elisabeth I is somehow outside the succession hence she's Duchess of Windsor, unless that's not her since Countess of Pembroke would be more appropriate for a daughter of Anne Boleyn.
Hmm, no sons at all for Henry? Thus different succession acts, earlier reign of Mary and a Protestant rebellion under a childless sister?
Close. After Mary of Scots' death, Elizabeth marries her true love, Robert Dudley, against the wishes of the nobility. She agrees to abdicate in favor of James VI and I, but any children she have would be considered legitimate and would be eligible to succeed the Stuarts. The result is a Tudor Restoration in the 1600s.
“My grandad used to tell me about this little island nation called “Hawaii”. This was back when there could still be islands far off the coasts of the mainlands. This place was a paradise, my grandad said. During his final years, he kept talking about these ‘island paradises’ -- one of them was even an ancestral home to Americans, long since reclaimed by the seas -- but he always seemed to go back to this “Hawaii” place. He used to tell me and my siblings that it was its own kingdom, full of history and culture bright and colourful as bird feathers, and that it was eventually brought up by the United States. They just brought up an entire nation, full of culture and history. I never understood how an empire could do that to a people, to take away an entire identity on a whim. He got really sad when he told us how Hawaii became nothing a tourist trap later on. Even when it started sinking, the politicians only seemed to care about the hotels and fish canning businesses. I was seven, and I hated seeing my grandad get so sad over a missing island, so I held his arm and told him we wouldn’t let that happen again. I told him we wouldn’t let another paradise become little more than a tourist trap. Again, I was seven. I didn’t know I was already too late.”
- extract from a Livejournal entry by Liz Romney, 3041
POD: During his time in Europe, Squanto becomes a shrewd manipulator and insists on accompanying the Pilgrims on the Mayflower as well as rescuing the survivors of the 1610s plagues and giving them a Western education in the UK. The first 20 survivors he takes back on the Mayflower eventually become merchants and interpreters (Squanto had lived in Spain and spoke some rudimentary Spanish), and for his service he is awarded a plot of land outside Manchester, which is established as a settlement for plague survivors from the Americas. His son becomes a baron and sits in the House of Lords for his service to the native peoples and to the Crown, and in time the settlement he founds becomes the main commercial hub of Manchester as its soil is rich in coal. Along with Jews and the old nobility, Patuxett merchants make up a disproportionate share of the English working class, particularly in the North and the Black Country; Richard Arkwright is a great-grandson of a Patuxett woman who married an Englishman, and railway engineer Robert Stephenson is descended on his maternal line from Solomon de Lancaster's bastard son. Squanto's arrival to the UK is honored as a holiday, starting in the 1920s when his descendant, Prime Minister Simon de Lancaster, is assassinated by militant leftists.
The United State presidential election of 1980 was the third quinquennial presidential election following the Constitution of 1965. It was held from Wednesday, October 29, to Tuesday, November 4, 1980. As in all other elections since 1938, the president was elected by the members of both houses of Congress, requiring a 2/3rds majority to win.
A total of 22 candidates were approved by the National Elections Board, although seven prospective candidates, all members of the opposition American Society Party, withdrew following a request from incumbent President Haig, reducing the field to 16 candidates. The majority of remaining candidates were affiliated with the Faction of the American Revolution. Henry Jackson, John Ehrlichman, and Joseph Kennedy were early contenders, but dropped out for the sake of party cohesion. Despite the crowded field, President Haig was expected to easily win reelection to a second term, championing the Unity coalition that had governed the nation peacefully, prosperously, and self-sufficiently for over fifteen years. Key issues in the election included continued economic liberalization and the retention of silver certificates, as well as presenting a strong front against the powers of Europe and Japan. The vote split predictably in the first round, with Haig winning a majority but not enough votes to win, with a surprise showing from unaffiliated Foreign Service Administrator J.F. Matlock, who advocated a more conciliatory policy towards London and Tokyo in the hopes of isolating the Continental bloc. With his level manner and and sound experience, he mobilized the previously complacent anti-Haig faction within the government.
As Matlock's candidacy gained momentum and the private backing of Senators Kennedy and Ehrlichman, rumors surfaced that he was secretly in the employ of the British Crown, hurting him badly. Haig easily cruised to victory in the fifth round, and proceeded to clean house. Though an investigation following the election absolved him of wrongdoing, Matlock was compelled to resign from his office and relocated to an anti-forgery oversight position in California. Ehrlichman was found guilty of corruption and jailed, and Kennedy went into exile in Portugal. In the election of 1985, no candidates opposed Haig for the Presidency, and he was elected by acclamation in a single round.
POD: During his time in Europe, Squanto becomes a shrewd manipulator and insists on accompanying the Pilgrims on the Mayflower as well as rescuing the survivors of the 1610s plagues and giving them a Western education in the UK. The first 20 survivors he takes back on the Mayflower eventually become merchants and interpreters (Squanto had lived in Spain and spoke some rudimentary Spanish), and for his service he is awarded a plot of land outside Manchester, which is established as a settlement for plague survivors from the Americas. His son becomes a baron and sits in the House of Lords for his service to the native peoples and to the Crown, and in time the settlement he founds becomes the main commercial hub of Manchester as its soil is rich in coal. Along with Jews and the old nobility, Patuxett merchants make up a disproportionate share of the English working class, particularly in the North and the Black Country; Richard Arkwright is a great-grandson of a Patuxett woman who married an Englishman, and railway engineer Robert Stephenson is descended on his maternal line from Solomon de Lancaster's bastard son. Squanto's arrival to the UK is honored as a holiday, starting in the 1920s when his descendant, Prime Minister Simon de Lancaster, is assassinated by militant leftists.
Vermont has certainty earned its reputation as the rebellious state in New York. In 1975 a much-supported Independence Referendum passed the state legislature, however the federal government ignored it, even as it occurred. When it did, the people of Vermont clearly showed their support, with a 85% support for Independence and a 81% turnout. When the government claimed voter fraud and refused to accept the result, Vermonters responded violently. Eight days of rioting occurred and it strengthened Vermont's distrust in the federal government.
Vermont governor Bernie Sanders was incredibly popular. His governorship had lasted from 1998 to the present and he had continued to fight for Independence despite federal opposition. However, in the past couple of years he had gotten a bit more radical. In 2015 he had put the flag of the People's Socialist Republic of Agraria and the Republic of Greenland in his office. It stirred controversy because Agraria was a Communist dictatorship and Greenland was a Socialist Republic, not only that, but Agraria and the nation of New York didn't have the warmest relationship. After several requests from the New York to take down the flag, the government came up and arrested him. The arrest was broadcasted on television and it became a reason for Vermonters to believe that the government was stealing the state's free speech. After Sanders's Lt. Governor Howard Dean pardoned him and returned him to office, Sanders promised to bring a referendum to Vermont within a year and if the federal government didn't accept it, they would secede without their approval. It's clear that interesting times are awaiting Vermont.
Idea I had after viewing the Alternative Electoral Maps thread -in which there is a United States dedicated to the dead, with dead politicians and political figures competing to become "Afterlife President." This really just served as an excuse for me to match up candidates who would never have met and to speculate on the outcome.
The Senate of Canada is the upper house of the Canadian Parliament. Modeled after the British House of Lords, the Senate's 219 members are appointed by the Governor-General upon the advice of the prime minister. Seats are assigned by regions, with 24 seats being apportioned to the northern Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island), the southern Maritimes (Maine and New Hampshire), Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Wisconsin, southern-central provinces (Dakota, Minnesota, Montana), and the north-central provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan). The remaining 27 seats are apportioned to Oregon (12), Alaska and Newfoundland and Labrador (6 seats each) and the three territories (1 each). Senators serve until 75 years of age.
Like the House of Lords, the Senate is the weaker chamber in Parliament, with the House of Commons being where the government is (mostly) drawn from, and where the government is ultimately responsible to. Because of this, government bills are typically introduced in the Commons, leaving the Senate to serve as the chamber of "sober second thought", in the words of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. While the Senate has historically been reticent to block government bills, it has notably increased the number of bills it has rejected since the late 1980s.
Because of its un-elected nature and the disproportionate number of senators awarded to each province regardless of population, Senate reform or abolition has been somewhat of a constant issue in Canadian politics almost from the get-go. The New Democratic Party favors abolition of the Senate, while many westerners favor a "Triple-E" senate (equal, elected and effective) to act as a counterweight to the House of Commons, which draws a large portion of its members from populous central and eastern provinces like Ontario, Quebec and Michigan. After the verdict in the Harper years that significant Senate reform would require a constitutional amendment, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would only appoint non-partisan senators chosen by an advisory panel, in an attempt to end the image of the Senate as a den of patronage and corruption. The reform, in addition to Trudeau's disbandment of the Liberal Senate caucus (although previously-appointed Liberal senators continue to sit together under the Independent Liberal label) has resulted in the creation of the Independent Senators Group, formed to provide the non-partisan senators with the same committee assignments and funding given to the two partisan caucuses.
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown and head of government of Canada. Officially appointed by the Governor-General, by constitutional convention the prime minister must have the confidence of the House of Commons. Typically, this person is the leader of the party with the most seats in the Commons, but if the leader lacks the confidence of the House, the governor-general can appoint another person who does, or dissolve parliament and call for new elections. Constitutional convention also dictates that the prime minister be a member of Parliament, and since the start of the 20th century, this has meant a seat in the House of Commons.
A total of 23 men have served as Prime Minister of Canada since the country's Confederation in 1867. The first, Sir John A. Macdonald, served the longest with a total of 18 years in office, while Sir Charles Tupper's 68 days is the shortest. All have been members of either the Liberal Party or the Conservative Party or its predecessors. Incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been in office since 2015, and is the first prime minister to be the child of another (Pierre, served 1971-1979). Because of non-consecutive terms served by MacDonald, Irvine Lenroot and Thomas J. Walsh, as well as the wartime formation of the Unionist government by Sir Robert Borden, Trudeau as the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada heads the 27th Canadian Ministry.
Sure. Wisconsin and Michigan were so populous at the time of Confederation that they could be accorded region status. Same with the combination of New Hampshire and Maine. Minnesota was big enough that it would be allowed to be the center of one of the regions between Ontario and the Pacific- and Minnesotan politicians were able to persuade easterners to group them in with the areas directly to the west, since they assumed that Manitoba would remain at least substantially French-speaking. Oregon was originally grouped in with Manitoba and British Columbia, but when Alberta and Saskatchewan were created, it successfully lobbied to become its own region to allow for the new provinces to have six senators, with the compromise that it was only given 12 senators instead of 24. Finally, Alaska was admitted much later (around the same time as Newfoundland & Labrador) and was given six seats.
