This series is the best.
I presume Statler and Waldorf are pundits?
Also, looking forward to what you do with Sam the Eagle.
Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes V (Do Not Post Current Politics Here)
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I presume Statler and Waldorf are pundits?
Also, looking forward to what you do with Sam the Eagle.
Asami
Banned
Just shy of two years later, I felt it prudent to do a retread and refresh. In the last two years, as well as further expanding my identity as a transwoman, I have also further thought about my political values and beliefs.
Although the Conservative Party held only a Minority after the 2008 Canadian Election, it was expected by everyone across the political spectrum that they would remain in power. Little did they know what was about to happen.
On December 1, 2008, just over 6 weeks after the election, the 2nd Place Liberals signed an agreement with the Third placed Bloc Québécois and Fourth placed New Democrats. Under the agreement, the Liberals and the New Democrats would enter a Formal Coalition Government, and the Bloc, while not formally a part of the government, agreed to support the Government on Confidence votes. This agreement was the first of its kind in Canada, not just in the sense of being the first time a Second Placed party had tried some kind of Coalition to take power, but also in the sense that this was the first time a party had done a formal coalition at all. Despite Stephen Harper's proroguing of Parliament, the coalition forces stuck together, and Harper's Government lost a confidence upon Parliament's re-opening.
It was something of an irony that the man who put the coalition together, Stéphane Dion, would only be Prime Minister for a dozen weeks or so, having already promised to resign as Liberal leader before the coalition was agreed to. The date of the Liberal Leadership election was to be May 2, 2009, and there would ultimately be only one candidate: Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff was sworn in as Canada's 24th Prime Minister on May 14 and began the hard task of governing a nation in the aftermath of a massive economic crisis.
Harper now had failed to win a Majority twice against a weak Liberal Party, and had under-performed in all 3 of his elections as Tory Leader. Thus, it was only to be expected when the news began to talk of a coup against his leadership began to emerge. Initially, Harper promised to stay on and lead the Conservatives into the next election, but as soon as it became clear just how many MPs wanted him gone, he resigned.
The ensuing Tory Leadership contest was mainly a two horse race between Jim Prentice and Jim Flaherty (there were other candidates of course, but those 2 were the only 2 that had a real chance of winning). Flaherty was the preferred candidate of the Right-Wing of the Party and those who felt Harper had been unjustly forced out. Prentice meanwhile, had the support of the more moderate factions in the party, and those who felt that a more moderate leader would give the Conservatives a better result in the next election. Ultimately, on the night of June 16, Prentice narrowly edged out Flaherty, and became the next leader of a party in an advantageous position well ahead of the Liberals in the polls.
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If the Liberals had hoped their government's new popularity would improve with time, they were sorely mistaken. The Tory line of the coalition being undemocratic and illegitimate was effective when the coalition was first formed, and that didn't change once it was in power. The Liberals were not helped by Ignatieff coming off as cold and distant to many Canadians. But the 2 main things that hurt the Liberals were much, much bigger then anything regarding Michael Ignatieff's personal engagement style. The Canadian Government was racked with the one thing markets and investors loathe above all: Uncertainty. This meant the Canadian Economy suffered through an incredibly slow recovery from the crash, which obviously did the Liberals no favours.
The other thing that seriously hurt the Liberals was the fundamental incompetence of their coalition. Ignatieff had little experience in Government, and he would have had a hard enough time with a Majority in good times, let alone a coalition in the aftermath of global financial crisis. There was constant infighting among the Cabinet, especially from the New Democrats who were none too pleased with Ignatieff's more conservative tendencies.
In these circumstances, no one should have been shocked when the coalition fell ahead of it's June 2011 expiration date. With the 2 coalition parties growing further and further apart, NDP leader Jack Layton presented a long list of demands to Ignatieff in exchange for his party's continued support. Ignatieff refused. Thus, the New Democrats walked out of the coalition, and the Bloc too announced they would no longer support the government unconditionally on confidence votes. This caused the already fragile Canadian economy to do ever worse with the additional instability this generated. Thus, it was no surprise when the Conservatives introduced a vote of Confidence in early December 2009. With the New Democrats and Bloc in favor of the motion, the government fell and a new election was set for January 15.
The ensuing Campaign was rather unremarkable. All the parties ran pretty much the campaigns one would expect. The Conservatives attacked the Liberals for "subverting the will of the voters" and for the weak economy at the time. Interestingly enough, the Tories made strong appeals in Quebec, seeking to exploit the sense of betrayal many traditional federalist Liberal voters felt after the Liberals "went into bed" with the Bloc. The Liberals meanwhile, had only one thing the really could do, what with their record being so bad: Fearmonger. The Liberals ran ads concerning just how bad things would be under a Prime Minister Jim Prentice. They did attack him as a Social Conservative too, as they did with Harper, but these charges were a lot less effective this time around with Prentice's well known history as a Red Tory and his vote for Same-Sex marriage. The Bloc ran yet another "Quebec First" nationalist campaign, as they had done since 1993, and the NDP ran a social democratic campaign, running on universal pharmacare, free childcare, and sweeping changes to the tax code.
Despite all this, no one paid close attention to the campaign, because the results of the election were from the beginning a foregone conclusion. With the Tories led by a popular moderate leader and the government unpopular, it was a foregone conclusion the Conservatives would win.
Right?
Right.
It was a massacre. The Conservatives took broke Brian Mulroney's 1984 record of 211 seats by winning 217. The landslide started in Atlantic Canada. The Conservatives won 3 of 4 seats in PEI where before they had only a single seat, and in New Brunswick, the Liberals were cut down to the historically safe Liberal seat of Beauséjour. Things didn't get any better for the Liberals in Quebec. It appeared the Conservative strategy of appealing to traditionally Liberal federalist voters and presenting themselves as the true Anti-Bloc option worked. The Tories picked up Pierre Trudeau's old seat of Mount Royal, and province wide took 28 seats to the Liberal's 4. So great were the gains the Tories had made that they actually narrowly won the province wide popular vote, although the Bloc still won 13 more seats. Things still didn't get any better for the Liberals in Ontario. Prime Minister Ignatieff lost his own seat to the Conservatives, and Province wide the Liberals took only 11 seats (only just ahead of the NDP's 10 seats) to the Conservative's 83. In the West, the scale of the Liberal collapse was on a scale the likes of which had never been seen before. The Liberals took exactly 0 seats West of Ontario. Not even the ancesterally Liberal Francophone seats in Winnipeg delivered for the Grits.
At the end of the night, the Liberals were reduced to only 25 seats, well below their previous worst every performance of 40 in 1984. To make things worse, they finished Third for the first time in their history, having previously always been Government or Opposition. But now, they were far below the Bloc's 41 seats, and were only one seat above the 24 seats the NDP had won.
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Jesus that was way more writing then I was expecting to have to do. But I kept having to go back to set something up for the election to the point where I basically made a TL Length post.
On December 1, 2008, just over 6 weeks after the election, the 2nd Place Liberals signed an agreement with the Third placed Bloc Québécois and Fourth placed New Democrats. Under the agreement, the Liberals and the New Democrats would enter a Formal Coalition Government, and the Bloc, while not formally a part of the government, agreed to support the Government on Confidence votes. This agreement was the first of its kind in Canada, not just in the sense of being the first time a Second Placed party had tried some kind of Coalition to take power, but also in the sense that this was the first time a party had done a formal coalition at all. Despite Stephen Harper's proroguing of Parliament, the coalition forces stuck together, and Harper's Government lost a confidence upon Parliament's re-opening.
It was something of an irony that the man who put the coalition together, Stéphane Dion, would only be Prime Minister for a dozen weeks or so, having already promised to resign as Liberal leader before the coalition was agreed to. The date of the Liberal Leadership election was to be May 2, 2009, and there would ultimately be only one candidate: Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff was sworn in as Canada's 24th Prime Minister on May 14 and began the hard task of governing a nation in the aftermath of a massive economic crisis.
Harper now had failed to win a Majority twice against a weak Liberal Party, and had under-performed in all 3 of his elections as Tory Leader. Thus, it was only to be expected when the news began to talk of a coup against his leadership began to emerge. Initially, Harper promised to stay on and lead the Conservatives into the next election, but as soon as it became clear just how many MPs wanted him gone, he resigned.
The ensuing Tory Leadership contest was mainly a two horse race between Jim Prentice and Jim Flaherty (there were other candidates of course, but those 2 were the only 2 that had a real chance of winning). Flaherty was the preferred candidate of the Right-Wing of the Party and those who felt Harper had been unjustly forced out. Prentice meanwhile, had the support of the more moderate factions in the party, and those who felt that a more moderate leader would give the Conservatives a better result in the next election. Ultimately, on the night of June 16, Prentice narrowly edged out Flaherty, and became the next leader of a party in an advantageous position well ahead of the Liberals in the polls.
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If the Liberals had hoped their government's new popularity would improve with time, they were sorely mistaken. The Tory line of the coalition being undemocratic and illegitimate was effective when the coalition was first formed, and that didn't change once it was in power. The Liberals were not helped by Ignatieff coming off as cold and distant to many Canadians. But the 2 main things that hurt the Liberals were much, much bigger then anything regarding Michael Ignatieff's personal engagement style. The Canadian Government was racked with the one thing markets and investors loathe above all: Uncertainty. This meant the Canadian Economy suffered through an incredibly slow recovery from the crash, which obviously did the Liberals no favours.
The other thing that seriously hurt the Liberals was the fundamental incompetence of their coalition. Ignatieff had little experience in Government, and he would have had a hard enough time with a Majority in good times, let alone a coalition in the aftermath of global financial crisis. There was constant infighting among the Cabinet, especially from the New Democrats who were none too pleased with Ignatieff's more conservative tendencies.
In these circumstances, no one should have been shocked when the coalition fell ahead of it's June 2011 expiration date. With the 2 coalition parties growing further and further apart, NDP leader Jack Layton presented a long list of demands to Ignatieff in exchange for his party's continued support. Ignatieff refused. Thus, the New Democrats walked out of the coalition, and the Bloc too announced they would no longer support the government unconditionally on confidence votes. This caused the already fragile Canadian economy to do ever worse with the additional instability this generated. Thus, it was no surprise when the Conservatives introduced a vote of Confidence in early December 2009. With the New Democrats and Bloc in favor of the motion, the government fell and a new election was set for January 15.
The ensuing Campaign was rather unremarkable. All the parties ran pretty much the campaigns one would expect. The Conservatives attacked the Liberals for "subverting the will of the voters" and for the weak economy at the time. Interestingly enough, the Tories made strong appeals in Quebec, seeking to exploit the sense of betrayal many traditional federalist Liberal voters felt after the Liberals "went into bed" with the Bloc. The Liberals meanwhile, had only one thing the really could do, what with their record being so bad: Fearmonger. The Liberals ran ads concerning just how bad things would be under a Prime Minister Jim Prentice. They did attack him as a Social Conservative too, as they did with Harper, but these charges were a lot less effective this time around with Prentice's well known history as a Red Tory and his vote for Same-Sex marriage. The Bloc ran yet another "Quebec First" nationalist campaign, as they had done since 1993, and the NDP ran a social democratic campaign, running on universal pharmacare, free childcare, and sweeping changes to the tax code.
Despite all this, no one paid close attention to the campaign, because the results of the election were from the beginning a foregone conclusion. With the Tories led by a popular moderate leader and the government unpopular, it was a foregone conclusion the Conservatives would win.
Right?
Right.
At the end of the night, the Liberals were reduced to only 25 seats, well below their previous worst every performance of 40 in 1984. To make things worse, they finished Third for the first time in their history, having previously always been Government or Opposition. But now, they were far below the Bloc's 41 seats, and were only one seat above the 24 seats the NDP had won.
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Jesus that was way more writing then I was expecting to have to do. But I kept having to go back to set something up for the election to the point where I basically made a TL Length post.
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I refuse to relegate the Liberal Party to the 2nd column.
Cool! I really appreciate you sharing your beliefs with us, Asami. I don't really feel brave or certain enough to make one of my own just yet, but I can relate to a lot of what you included. Seeing as I'm also a trans woman in the southern US, it's great to meet someone from a similar background so that I know I'm not alone. Feel free to PM me anytime if you'd like to compare political views and life experiences with me. I'm here to listen and provide support as needed.
This isn't exactly a wikibox.
In this world, Churchill is removed by a vote of confidence in 1942 and is replaced by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Henry becomes Generallisimo of the Armed Forces, Parliament's powers are restricted by the time of war and all power put into the hands of a Committe of Public Safety composed of members of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties. Following the war there is a transition period before democracy is fully restored in 1946, that sees the House of Lords abolished, and many dessicated artefacts of the constitution swept away.
At the 1946 general election, the Labour Party wins in a landslide, the Conservative result further stymied by the presence of a 'Prince's Party' that advocates for the Prince to remain in power. However the Labour result is not as vast as some hoped thanks to the presence of Common Wealth on the left which ballooned in size following the Labour Party's acquiesence to the establishment of a virtual military dictatorship under the King's brother. Nevertheless, the growth of the Prince's Party and it's formalisation into a proper political party in 1947, and the relative decline of Common Wealth means that Labour is able to retain it's majority in 1951, then win a larger majority again in 1956 under Evan Durbin.
Durbin resigns over an alternate version of the Suez Crisis, and the Labour left is able to take control of the party. Bevan begins to set the empire on the path to decolonisation but resigns due to ill health. His wife takes power and carries on, but Labour loses it's majority in 1961 thanks to the ballooning growth of the Patriotic Union. She forms a coalition with the the now crypto-communist Common Wealth, but this arguably makes her job harder as it becomes even more difficult to negotiate with white minority governments in colonies like Rhodesia when they perceive fellow travellers of the black nationalists they are fighting in the British government. The situation in Africa rapidly disintegrates and Common Wealth pulls out. Bereft of a majority, Lee goes to the country. The Patriotic Union, once more under the leadership of Henry Gloucester, wins a large majority. Reginald Maudling's National Democrats are pushed into third place while Common Wealth is deeply wounded.
In this world, Churchill is removed by a vote of confidence in 1942 and is replaced by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Henry becomes Generallisimo of the Armed Forces, Parliament's powers are restricted by the time of war and all power put into the hands of a Committe of Public Safety composed of members of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties. Following the war there is a transition period before democracy is fully restored in 1946, that sees the House of Lords abolished, and many dessicated artefacts of the constitution swept away.
At the 1946 general election, the Labour Party wins in a landslide, the Conservative result further stymied by the presence of a 'Prince's Party' that advocates for the Prince to remain in power. However the Labour result is not as vast as some hoped thanks to the presence of Common Wealth on the left which ballooned in size following the Labour Party's acquiesence to the establishment of a virtual military dictatorship under the King's brother. Nevertheless, the growth of the Prince's Party and it's formalisation into a proper political party in 1947, and the relative decline of Common Wealth means that Labour is able to retain it's majority in 1951, then win a larger majority again in 1956 under Evan Durbin.
Durbin resigns over an alternate version of the Suez Crisis, and the Labour left is able to take control of the party. Bevan begins to set the empire on the path to decolonisation but resigns due to ill health. His wife takes power and carries on, but Labour loses it's majority in 1961 thanks to the ballooning growth of the Patriotic Union. She forms a coalition with the the now crypto-communist Common Wealth, but this arguably makes her job harder as it becomes even more difficult to negotiate with white minority governments in colonies like Rhodesia when they perceive fellow travellers of the black nationalists they are fighting in the British government. The situation in Africa rapidly disintegrates and Common Wealth pulls out. Bereft of a majority, Lee goes to the country. The Patriotic Union, once more under the leadership of Henry Gloucester, wins a large majority. Reginald Maudling's National Democrats are pushed into third place while Common Wealth is deeply wounded.
It does seem likely that if Heath won in 1974 there wouldn't have been a referendum, but I don't know enough to say for certain.
Cool scenario though!
I was fairly certain of that too, my question is whether Labour would still stick with the referendum policy after losing in 1974. Callaghan was in favour of it for practical purposes, but a few more years in the Common Market might leave Labour reluctant to open up old wounds.
Labour might ironically be tugged into Euroscepticism for the same reasons it happened to the Tories IOTL, there being a significant Eurosceptic contingent in the parties' own ranks, and an even more significant threat in their own heartlands from an avowedly Eurosceptic party.
Isaac Beach
Banned
It is by no means a bad thing whatsoever, but we do have an awfully high concentration of southern trans women on this site don't we? I think the site's better for it, but it just seems like such an oddly specific demographic to have in numbers.
William Z. Foster was an American revolutionary and politician. Governing the CSA from 1939 until his death in 1961, he served as Chairman of the Combined Syndicates of America from 1939 to 1945 and as General Secretary of the Union of Syndicalist States of America from 1945 until 1961. Initially heading a union-democratic government, by 1941 he was the de-facto dictator of the country. Ideologically he was very different than the previous leaders of the CSA. Taking inspiration from the Georgian Socialist Republic and other forms of Totalist ideology. He formalized his ideas as “Syndicalism with American characteristics”. And Restructured the CSA into the USSA . Under his tenure, he was also responsible for deterioration of political relations between the American and the European Syndicalist powers post Second Weltkrieg, culminating in the expulsion of the USSA in the Syndicalist Internationale and the American-Comunard split.
James Patrick “Jim” Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1959) was an American Socialist revolutionary and politician. Supporting the Combined Syndicates of America during the Second Civil War. He would become an influential figure in the Reed administration and during the early days of the CSA, he served first as the People’s Secretary for Internal Affairs and later as Deputy Chairman.
After leading a failed opposition against the rise and policies of William Z. Foster, he was removed as Deputy Chairman in 1940, and exiled to Nome, Alaska. A year later, he was exiled from the CSA entirely. He found refuge in the French Commune, and from there he continued his opposition against Foster and the now USSA. During the Syndicalist congress of 1956, In which the USSA was absent he acted as a prime witness of the betrayal of the Revolution in America. He was gunned down by an unknown assailant in his home in 1959.
James Patrick “Jim” Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1959) was an American Socialist revolutionary and politician. Supporting the Combined Syndicates of America during the Second Civil War. He would become an influential figure in the Reed administration and during the early days of the CSA, he served first as the People’s Secretary for Internal Affairs and later as Deputy Chairman.
After leading a failed opposition against the rise and policies of William Z. Foster, he was removed as Deputy Chairman in 1940, and exiled to Nome, Alaska. A year later, he was exiled from the CSA entirely. He found refuge in the French Commune, and from there he continued his opposition against Foster and the now USSA. During the Syndicalist congress of 1956, In which the USSA was absent he acted as a prime witness of the betrayal of the Revolution in America. He was gunned down by an unknown assailant in his home in 1959.
Robert F. Kennedy was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1977 and is considered to be one of the best US Presidents. Kennedy's administration mostly focus on domestic problems like Gun control, tax reform, and welfare reform, he also pulled all US forces from Vietnam by January 1970 and visited China in 1972 ending 25 years of no communication, nor diplomatic ties, between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. and China.
I updated the "1992 presidential election as the 1912 presidential election" infobox here after finding data for the congressional district votes for president in Maine and Nebraska. The ATL results are noted in the second spoiler tab.
The United States presidential election of 1976 was the 48th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1976. Republican Ronald Reagan from California defeated Democrat Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
This is hilarious, even though I s'pect I'm missing a few jokes.
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