Oh I Wish I Was in Dixie: A Different North America

Status
Not open for further replies.
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson 2.png
 
Last edited:
2020 Commonwealth Leadership Elections
2020 Liberal Party Leadership Election.png
2020 Liberal Party of America Leadership Election
On January 8, 2020, at the Liberal Party Caucus meeting, MP Al Johnson (Lib- Queens Northeast) challenged incumbent Liberal Party Leader Rob Portman (Lib- Clermont-St. Clair) for the leadership of the party. Even though Portman defeated Johnson more than 2 dozen votes in the Caucus Vote, no candidate received more than 3/5's of the vote, triggering a Members' vote.

Johnson in his campaign attacked Portman over the Liberals' loss in 2019 and blamed the loss on Portman's ineffective opposition to Labor. Instead, Johnson claimed that the Liberals needed to reunite with the Democratic People's Party in order to form an effective opposition against the new Labor-Progressive-Green Government. The former NYC mayor argued that a strong DPP showing has always led to a Labor government and a united Liberal-DPP front would be unstoppable against Labor.

Portman however argued that the Liberals should not sacrifice their values to the DPP and doing so only would cause a worse electoral defeat. Portman also consistently linked Johnson to the divisive DPP leader, Sarah Palin (DPP- East Central Cascadia), and said that she should never be given the reigns to the Liberal Party. Portman defended his electoral record saying that even though the Liberals did not form a government, they gained enough seats to prevent Labor from forming one as well (although every party other than Labor gained seats).

In the end, Johnson managed to handily defeat Portman to gain the position of Leader of the Opposition. Poll data showed that Liberal Party members have grown tired of a fractured right, and they decided that beating Labor is issue number one for them. Portman who lost by nearly 15 percent and only won 11 provinces resigned from Parliament shortly after the results of the election were announced. Johnson will take his position as Opposition Leader once Parliament comes back into session next week and has reportedly already begun talks with DPP leadership to reach a settlement.

















2020 Labor Party Leadership Retention Election
2020 Labor Leadership Election Wiki.png

In a much less contentious election, Prime Minister Maura Healey (Lab- Lowell, MA) went up for a Members' retention election in January 2020. Healey was elected in December 2019 by a Caucus Vote to replace PM Mike Madigan (Lab- Southwest Chicago) who resigned after it became clear he would not be able to form an government in the wake of losing his majority in the 2019 federal election. However, Labor Party rules dictate that all leaders must go before a Members' vote either by a standard election or a retention election.

Healey since her election to the leadership was able to form a coalition with the Progressive Party and the Green Party, and so far, has been able to keep the arrangement fairly strong. However, the Progressives and the Greens have begun to demand that electoral reform be brought up form debate in Parliament, causing strain with the Labor Party.

Healey easily won her retention election to stay on as Leader of the Labor Party and as Prime Minister winning by nearly 60 percent and only getting below 70% of the vote in a handful of provinces.
 
Last edited:
Given the CoA existence here, is the Commonwealth of Nations a bigger deal than in OTL
Yes the Commonwealth of Nations is much stronger internationally and has more influence over its members than in OTL. However many of the member states have grown wary of the large amount of influence that the CoA has taken in the organization. Most notably is in the United Kingdom where the populace and the government is deeply uncomfortable with the CoA, their former colony, having too much influence over them. There is a growing movement for the UK to leave the Commonwealth of Nations, though it hasn't gone anywhere yet.
 
I love it! How long did this take you to make? Terrifying prospect of a UKIP government though!
The other parties should band together and get a better electoral system. UKIP only got 30%. Or just call another election and have tactical voting do the work.
 
I love it! How long did this take you to make? Terrifying prospect of a UKIP government though!
Thanks! I've been working on it over the past couple days, it actually took way less time than I thought it would. I spent way more time just figuring out which seats the parties won and who are their leaders than I did editing the web page.

The other parties should band together and get a better electoral system. UKIP only got 30%. Or just call another election and have tactical voting do the work.
UKIP themselves have previously supported electoral reform, though whether they move forward with it now they have power is a different question. Labour is the biggest barrier to a new election. They were only a few points away from performing like the Lib-Cons, and a new election would pose a massive risk to them until they can rebuild their image.

Looks like UKIP must have been a solid 2nd place in a whole bunch of marginal seats.

Is there an EU-equivalent ITTL? Apologies if this has already been answered.
There is no EU type governmental union in Europe currently. There are a couple trade and customs unions, but nothing nearly to the extent of the EU.
 
In that case, I'm wondering what exactly UKIP's platform is ITTL. Is it to move the UK away from CoA (economic) domination?
Economic isolation and anti-immigration is a very popular sentiment among UKIP members and the party is also very pro-referenda. The CoA growing to supplant the UK as the leading power in the world as led to 'anxiety' in the UK. UKIP supports protectionist policies to shield their industries from the CoA and other growing economies in Europe and elsewhere. The Lib-Cons however tend to be very pro-free trade and pro-immigration which may point to as the reason of the right's exodus to UKIP.
 
*Here's a wikibox for the same election
View attachment 523679

I've literally read this entire thread for the first time over the last 24 hours. Absolutely phenomenal stuff. My love of all things British politics finally made me create an account to comment. Handful of things I want to comment and ask about.

As a Dallasite, is there any chance you're going to put out more stuff on Texas?

On the UK: I shudder at UKIP's dominance, but love the detail and thought put into it. I'd love to know why many northern areas are UKIP, but places ITTL with high Brexit/UKIP votes (i.e. Barnsley) are still Labour. More than anything, I'm interested in the background on the SDP/Lib Dem/Cons/Lib-Cons history. Did the SDP still come about in the early '80s? Were Roy Jenkins and David Owen still the main players? Is that the same time the the Liberal Party merged with the Conservative Party?
 
I've literally read this entire thread for the first time over the last 24 hours. Absolutely phenomenal stuff. My love of all things British politics finally made me create an account to comment. Handful of things I want to comment and ask about.

As a Dallasite, is there any chance you're going to put out more stuff on Texas?

On the UK: I shudder at UKIP's dominance, but love the detail and thought put into it. I'd love to know why many northern areas are UKIP, but places ITTL with high Brexit/UKIP votes (i.e. Barnsley) are still Labour. More than anything, I'm interested in the background on the SDP/Lib Dem/Cons/Lib-Cons history. Did the SDP still come about in the early '80s? Were Roy Jenkins and David Owen still the main players? Is that the same time the the Liberal Party merged with the Conservative Party?
Thank you! I was actually planning on making a list of the Texas Presidents soon, so that should be done at some point

As for the UK, the Labour party dominated British politics for much of the 30's and early 40's, so the struggling Liberals and the Conservatives decided to form several electoral pacts and coalitions at that point which ended up being very successful for them. Eventually the parties officially merged in the Liberal-Conservative Party in the early 60's. The SDP still forms in the 80's in the same manner, but they are able to perform fairly well in the now empty space between the two major parties. The Lib-Con, Labour, and SDP parties are like the Conservatives, Labour, and Lib Dems of OTL, but shifted one notch to the left (Tony Blair, for instance, is a great example for the typical SDP politician). As the other parties have shifted more to the left, this opened a great slot on the right for UKIP to fit into. Labour in this timeline is much more dominated by who would be the "pro-Brexit" left in OTL, so their collapse in 2019 was not as dramatic in northern England than in our 2019 election.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top