OOC: I'm going to assume that Canada is part of the American Commonwealth as well, because I really see no reason why Canada would go for being a seperate nation when there's already a crown friendly nation to the south, with which they have a lot incommon. The State of Columbia, which I am referring to, is pretty much just northern Washington and British Columbia put together. It's capital is located in Vancouver.
OOC: Hmm, I guess it would make sense. In this case, I guess, Ontario and Quebec are just one giant state of Canada, to make things easier, and New England includes Nova Scotia (in TTL including OTL New Brunswick) and St. John's Island (aka PEI from OTL). As for Columbia - well, you could combine Oregon and Idaho into that for TTL purposes.
Trust me, I definitely understand you.
We used to be ruled by a Liberal-Tory-Libertarian coalition for twelve years, and a lot of deregulation during their twelve years at power led to the housing bubble which deflated during '05 and '06, resulting in a credit crunch and bank insolvency.
Ah yes, I see where you are in this case - at least you were lucky not to have a Libertarian/American Heritage coalition running your state. Boy, that was horrible - yes, the Tories and Liberals were equally corrupt, but at least they did manage to get stuff done (and if not, there were always some personalities that would help you out and cut through the red tape - the benefits of being in a small state
). The Progressives also helped at times, but - as with prior Tory and Liberal Governments - they got mired in scandals galore, and soon the kitty was dry (even when it reverted briefly to a Tory Government after the last Progressive Government). Then came the Libertarian/American Heritage coalition that lasted for 14 years, and it was just a disaster*. And this is in addition to the many Constitutional crises that coalition started, the many gaffes that became the butt of jokes on late-night TV, and the corruption that just skyrocketed (not to mention our experience with being in a police state - yeah, not fun). That well-publicized bankout (not to mention that that coalition's tax policies ensured that at the time of the bailout, there were bills that the state could not pay), along with our major banking crisis, was just the final straw, and now that the Coalition is in power (after the Tories and Libs going through a huge makeover which paid off), things have improved greatly.
*OOC: For this purpose, assume New Zealand/Russian/Latin American-style heavy deregulation and economic privatization, including an analogue to Australia's
WorkChoices, to transform RI into something like Hong Kong or Singapore, but became a major disaster and turned RI into a hugely corrupt mess akin to Modern Greece with a huge amount of anarcho-capitalism and the enactment of policies which are perceived to be totalitarian (think worse than Patriot Act or akin to what was in place during WW1) or consistent with the far right or semi-paleoconservative/semi-neocon/neoliberal. Freedom of movement in this case would be like the OTL West Bank.
After the Progressive-Green-Pirate Party coalition got into power in '06 they immediately reacted to crisis by assuming the bad bank debts, however the banks had to write down losses and issue ownership interest to the state government in return.
By now the 5% of state product we spent on the banking rescue has almost been completely returned to the government due to sale of government stock in banks, it's looking we're going to have surplus by next year, and the Columbia Banking Corporation (17,9 % state owned), formed by the government merger of the banks Vancouver International, Commonwealth Bank of Columbia (isn't the HQ of Commonwealth Bank in Providence?), and Alexandria Mutual two years ago, is showing a profit for the first time since the start of crisis.
Plus, they have done a lot to improve public education, health care, and other welfare systems, which has been popular with a lot of people. Also, investment in constructionmaking it cheaper for film studios to film in Columbia, which is already huge in movie and tv production and making it easier for companies to invest in Columbia, which has contributed to a drop in unemployment stats and given our economy a real "kick".
Same thing with the Coalition here in RI - though we had declared several "bank holidays" to ensure some stability (yes, it was THAT bad) and because the corruption permeated everything, even during the Libertarian/American Heritage coalition, the entire society had to be recreated - as one Tory MGA put it, RI at the time of the election "resembled a war zone or Somalia". So far, it seems that our new "social market economy" has rejuvenated RI's economy, as well as the rebuilding of public services and the pan-New England regionalism, which has allowed RI to share resources and public services with other New England states. (OK, so the Coalition decided to retain REAL ID/EICs + internal passports anyway, despite objections, so that's one downside - then again, the whole thing was restructured and reformed greatly so that it is now less of a nuisance than before.) Interestingly, thanks to the efforts of the Coalition, the entire New England region is going to have a single public broadcaster for the entire region (with some help from
AFN), supposedly to be called NET (don't ask me what it stands for), which will be launching next month. Seriously - there has been so much that has been done in 4 years then during all the prior Governments that I'd definitely vote for the Coalition again - or, in my case, for the Tories. Interesting, there is now talk that the Pirate Party here may also join the Coalition.
BTW - you must be confusing Commonwealth Bank with either Citizens Bank or the Old Stone Bank. Commonwealth Bank is a
State Street bank.
And things ain't exactly going to well for the Liberals, Tories, or Libertarians. Hell, the Tories and Libertarians both lost all their seats in the state Parliament during the last election because they dropped below the 4 % threshold we've got here. Thus we have a lot of smaller and regional parties in state legislature. For example, Columbia is one of the few states where the Pirate Party is in state Parliament, and the only state which the party is in government. But since the Pirate Party was formed and has its HQ in Vancouver, it's not much of a surprise.
Same thing here with both the Libertarians and the American Heritage Party - no one will be caught dead voting for them now - as well as our post-2006 situation. Our AV+ electoral system for the House of Delegates of the General Assembly, instituted as part of our electoral reforms, will be tested during our state election, so it will be exciting. Still, the Pirates have a few seats in the General Assembly, and they too have helped a lot (remember the Creative Commons Act?
), and that goes for a few of the small parties here - even the classical liberals who were disgusted with the Libertarian/American Heritage coalition. So that's a good sign that we're getting a healthy political system again.
