Our Fair Country: The Commonwealth of New England

[Deleted member 100251]

What are video games like ITTL (if they exist)? Is Nintendo still a major gaming company?

Is Japan still a cultural hegemon? As it seems like the American-Japanese War is close to the Pacific side of WWII so I’d expect that maybe they develop similarly to OTL following it?

 

[CosmicAsh]

What are video games like ITTL (if they exist)? Is Nintendo still a major gaming company?

Is Japan still a cultural hegemon? As it seems like the American-Japanese War is close to the Pacific side of WWII so I’d expect that maybe they develop similarly to OTL following it?

Video games are pretty similar in our timeline, just there's a lot less "World War II" games like the call of duty series. There's only a couple, few small games that cater to the niche of fighting in the German-Soviet War, and the subsequent civil wars after that. The largest game series in this category is Ultimate Struggle: 1953 which you play as a soldier during the hypothetical "Second Great War," where Stalin did not die, and instead launched an invasion of Germany and Western Europe, causing all freedom-loving countries to rise against the Soviet menace.

Shooters are much less popular, but there's a couple franchises where you can play in different scenarios, such as the Burmese war, or hypothetical wars in Asia.

Nintendo is the largest gaming company, and its consoles are the best selling on the planet.

Japanese culture is world-wide, but it's really not as big as we know it. Anime has a limited following in Europe and North America, but very often they are not translated and have English voice dubs. Japanese games (think Pokemon) have English and other European language translations, but mobile games (think LoveLive) do not. Japan's economy was really good in the 80s and early 90s, but has since stagnated since then, which has helped German culture become much more prevalent worldwide, as its economy is rising and is emerging as a hi-tech manufacturing hub, rivaled by the rise of Vietnam and New England's own hi-tech sectors.

The American-Japanese War was similar in regards to nuclear weapons being used and and the two countries fought, as well as the process of island-hopping, but Japan was supported, tactically, by the United Kingdom the entire time. The British did not want the Americans to get a foothold in Asia, as they were the dominate power, able to work well with the Japanese and the French. When the Americans did win the war against Japan, after claiming countless numbers of lives after the American invasion of Hokkaido, the British ramped up their efforts to be friendly with the United States and post-War Japan, as well as shifting their policy goals in China to support the Kuomintang in their struggle against Communists and the Japanese, a price which came at an indefinite lease of Hong Kong.

 

[Amateur Psephologist]

While New England federal politics are nominally dominated by the two major political parties, Labour and the Conservatives, minor parties have a long and storied history at the provincial level at at the federal level. Two minor parties were elected during the 2016 General Election, the Greens and Parti Francophone. The third, the Republican Party of New England, is a brand new party formed by former Labour MP Kevin Cavanaugh after the Prime Minister announced his intentions to hold a Flag Referendum in 2018. Cavanaugh, a long supporter of changing the country's flag, also stands by the desire for New England to sever her remaining ties with the United Kingdom to form a republic.

The Green Party supports a very traditional Green outlook on the world, but under the current leader, Elizabeth May, the party has seen a decrease in membership from its high of nearly two million prior to her leadership, as she has moved the party left from a more traditional agrarian conservationist party towards a more progressive one seeking to bring green politics to New England. Many of the former members of the Greens who had supported their policies abandoned the party and joined one of the two major parties, or as is the case across northern New England, joined Parti Francophone, which could only be described aptly as the "Rural Party." Given that an overwhelming majority of New England's rural population speaks French, the party caters not only to the rural nature of this demographic, but to protect the Acadian nation and the French language, which is increasingly under threat in New England.

Awesome!

 

[Amateur Psephologist]

Can you start doing some of the New England provincial election infoboxes now? PS: You don't have to go overboard and do a full wikipedia page if you want.

Also It would be cool to know more information about Germany, as ww2 didn't happen (as I recall hearing) in this timeline.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Can you start doing some of the New England provincial election infoboxes now? PS: You don't have to go overboard and do a full wikipedia page if you want.

Sure!! I will work a bit more on my current map and then I'll start with the most recent provincial elections! What provinces do you want to see first? It'll give me time to figure out how I want to finish the provincial maps.

 

[Amateur Psephologist]

Sure!! I will work a bit more on my current map and then I'll start with the most recent provincial elections! What provinces do you want to see first? It'll give me time to figure out how I want to finish the provincial maps.

Cool, can I see Vermont, PEI and Adirondack first, since they have some interesting governing parties from what I have seen from the Provinces of New England Infobox/Wikipedia article.

 

[Umbric Man]

I'd be curious on any cultural sharing or historical perceptions of New England to the USA and vice-versa. It's easy enough for New England to claim brotherhood to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as loyalist-Commonwealth countries, of course - but those countries were settled post-USA while the Yankee provinces are as old as their sister colonies that formed the USA. I figure New England being a direct bridge between Britain's daughter nations and the First-and-Second British Empires might yield something interesting!

 

[Upper Canadian]

Would it be possible to see a list of Canadian Prime Ministers?

 

[CosmicAsh]

I'd be curious on any cultural sharing or historical perceptions of New England to the USA and vice-versa. It's easy enough for New England to claim brotherhood to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as loyalist-Commonwealth countries, of course - but those countries were settled post-USA while the Yankee provinces are as old as their sister colonies that formed the USA. I figure New England being a direct bridge between Britain's daughter nations and the First-and-Second British Empires might yield something interesting!

This truly seems like a really good question, I just don't understand the "cultural sharing" or "historical perceptions" portion of it. I guess I am more looking for "what kind of answer do you want?" because I've been trying to think of how to answer it. Sorry I don't understand it that well. If you rephrase it I would totally be happy to answer it in full!

 

[Umbric Man]

Oof. I guess that's poor wording on my part, and the question is nebulous even in my eyes, of a sort. I apologize.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, is there anything in terms of culture or historiography that New England and the USA share VERSUS the other daughter settler-nations of Britain? Sort of in the way that in OTL, America can definitely be declared, even obviously so, a daughter nation of Britain with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand... but is decidedly republican and has a high value placed on "independence" due to its history vis-a-vis the others, alongside being much older in terms of settlement vs (Anglo-)Canadian/Australian settlement starting in the 1780s/New Zealand in the 1840s. New England was settled ALONGSIDE the USA in TTL, despite staying loyalist and not being newly-settled come the Second British Empire's beginnings like the other daughter nations, so I figure in TTL there has to be some commonalities between them despite their splitting at the twain in TTL's American Revolution.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Oof. I guess that's poor wording on my part, and the question is nebulous even in my eyes, of a sort. I apologize.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, is there anything in terms of culture or historiography that New England and the USA share VERSUS the other daughter settler-nations of Britain? Sort of in the way that in OTL, America can definitely be declared, even obviously so, a daughter nation of Britain with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand... but is decidedly republican and has a high value placed on "independence" due to its history vis-a-vis the others, alongside being much older in terms of settlement vs (Anglo-)Canadian/Australian settlement starting in the 1780s/New Zealand in the 1840s. New England was settled ALONGSIDE the USA in TTL, despite staying loyalist and not being newly-settled come the Second British Empire's beginnings like the other daughter nations, so I figure in TTL there has to be some commonalities between them despite their splitting at the twain in TTL's American Revolution.

Oh absolutely! Part of why New England's culture is so uniquely it's own is because of that shared relation it has with the United States during it's early settlement. Much like the United States, New England's provinces have a streak of independence, they too had the same benign neglect that the Middle and Southern colonies had, and their legislatures remain to this day fiercely independent. There's a strong sense of pride and nationalism for each country and even province, similar to how someone could feel an affinity for say, Virginia. Since the New England provinces are so old, there's a lot of old families and traditions that carry on to this day. New England's own responsible government came because of the American Revolution, which collectively rose the political consciousness of all the American colonies, in a sense the American Revolution was more successful in this timeline, the old order of things had well and truly been destroyed by it. While the United States experimented with Democracy in various forms until the Constitution in 1800, New England essentially demanded responsible government of a similar order, only the crazy nature of the early Republic killed the republican spirit in New England which, in fact, did exist in this timeline. In this sense, New Englanders might even feel themselves having more in common with an American than say, a Canadian or a New Zealander once they really sat down and talked. It is the bridge you alluded to, America is something distinct, and New England is the bridge between Australian/Canadian/New Zealanders and Americans.

It's this dynamic that makes New England such a distinct culture. Northern New England would feel much like southern Louisiana does, or New Orleans IOTL. It's very clearly French-influenced, but at the same time you can understand that they are Americans. This makes them distinct from say, Quebec.

 

[CosmicAsh]

The 2015 Vermont General Election took place on 12 April 2015, and it saw the incumbent Union acadienne returned with a smaller minority than the previous election, this time only holding 14 out of the Assembly's 31 seats. The province is known to have one of the most unequal distributions of seats to the voting public, but this is due to the dynamic of Vermont politics, not poor drawing of electoral districts on the part of Elections New England.

The election did see the continued rise of the Vermont Party, which had previously held power throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Under leader Brian Dubhe, the party has expanded its voter base significantly, appealing to both English and French speakers. Social Credit saw its continued erosion of its share of the electorate in southern Vermont, with the party being increasingly confined to the northwestern section of the state, as it continues to becoming the party that appeals solely to the English-speaking inhabitants of the province.

Union acadienne, founded first as a fraternal organisation for preserving the Acadian identify in Vermont, exploded onto the political scene in the 1990s as a major force, and quickly found itself as the benefactor of an increased Acadian consciousness as the Francophone group across northern New England asserted themselves more and more. Despite holding a minority in Vermont, Union acadienne has managed to benefit from the collapse of the Vermont Party in the late 1990s as well as Social Credit's increasing appeal only to English speakers. The animosity between Social Credit and the Vermont Party have made any coalition between the two impossible, and the personal bitterness between Dubhe and Johnson have also ruled out any supply and confidence support for a minority government.

Thus, the arrangement continued with Union acadienne holding a minority of the votes with the plurality of the seats. What is known in Vermont politics as the "informal arrangement" holds Social Credit nor the Vermont Party will punish their MGA's (Member of the General Assembly) if they vote for Union acadienne bills. This policy was adopted out of necessity to accommodate the functioning of the Vermont government, its dysfunction in the early 2000s had seen the province lose residents in droves, as they set out for New Hampshire and Adirondack in record numbers.

Union acadienne has informal ties with the federal Parti Francophone, while Social Credit and Vermont do not have any ties with the other federal parties. The Vermont Labour Party, which is affiliated with the federal party, has not won a seat since the 1970s. The Conservatives have no affiliate in Vermont.

 

[Deleted member 82792]

What are some of the best tourist spots in New England?

 

[CosmicAsh]

Would it be possible to see a list of Canadian Prime Ministers?

 

[Unknown]

What is air travel like?

 

[CosmicAsh]

What are some of the best tourist spots in New England?

Among New Englanders, the most popular holiday destinations are Cape Cod (Plymouth), The Hamptons (Long Island), Mount Agiocochook (New Hampshire), The Berkshires (Massachusetts Bay), Adirondacks (Adirondack), and the coasts of Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

In terms of non-New Englanders, all of Northern New England is popular for autumn tourists from Europe and the United States who are eager to see the vibrant colours that a New England autumn can bring. They are drawn to Adirondack, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The Adirondack mountains are a huge draw for Americans to holiday in, and is also very popular with Canadians in both Quebec and Ontario. From both Europe and the United States, the cities of Boston and Brooklyn draw in millions of tourists, and the small size of the country allows many New England holiday agencies to offer packages to tour the country. A very popular package is during the autumn, where a person will fly into Brooklyn, tour the city for a few days, before taking a ride on New England Rail up to Boston, through the Maritime provinces of Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, before returning back for a few day get away in the mountains. The tour will end on the pristine beaches of Long Island, and the vacationer will return to Brooklyn to return home.

New England is also a highly popular destination for US-based cruises for the autumn and the summer. Cruise ships will leave from the ports of New York and Baltimore and make stops in Brooklyn (if they started in Baltimore), Boston, Portland, Halifax, and sometimes Charlottetown.

Because Northern New England speaks French, the region gets tourists from both Quebec and France, and they will most often frequent Maine and New Brunswick, taking the chance to rent a cottage either along the shore or in the interior. Saint John is well known for its tourist-based economy, only matched by Halifax, which is able to sustain year-round tourism. The only other parts of the country that can boast this are areas which can double as ski slopes and hiking trails. While the mountains of New England are great for skiing, it is something mostly enjoyed by New Englanders.

What is air travel like?

While New England does have a national carrier (New England Airlines), it is very rare for a common person in New England to take an airplane for travel in New England. The country has numerous airports, all provinces have a large one that does have traffic to the United States and Canada. Only John F. Kennedy Airport (Boston), King Edward Airport (Long Island), and Bradley International Airport (Hartford) offer service to other countries outside of the United States and Canada.

The most popular route that only flies in New England is the Boston-Brooklyn route, which travels several times per day. These tickets are normally very cheap, and offer their services only due to the fact it is estimated around five thousand people commute from New Hampshire to Long Island daily for work. The second busiest route is Halifax to Brooklyn, offering the quickest route from northern New England to southern New England. Minor prop planes and small jet planes offer the rest of the commercial air travel. There are, however, always a large number of flights leaving to the United States and Canada, the latter moreso due to New England and Canada's freedom of travel, making visiting the country less burdensome than visiting the United States.

There is a very large hobby aviation community, which makes up the bulk of smaller airport traffic. Due to the federal government's mandate that all airports must be owned by the province, most have low fees associated with storage and usage, which fosters the aforementioned community. All airports that meet specific standards for military use are subsidised by the Federal Government, which means the great majority have large fuel storage tanks and long runways, even small ones such as in Plattsburgh, Adirondack or Edmunston, New Brunswick.

 

[Upper Canadian]

Amazing work as always. What caused the NDP to overtake the Liberals here?

 

[CosmicAsh]

Amazing work as always. What caused the NDP to overtake the Liberals here?

The Vancouver Housing Crisis murdered the Progressive Conservatives in Columbia, and many seats were taken by the NDP in the 2016 election. The Parliament Ethics Act was actually enacted because of Members of the Opposition (then Liberals) were using their position to try and muscle in contracts with the Government if they supported them in the 2016 election. This was exposed in mid 2015 and was a great distraction to the Columbian economy being dragged down the tubes because of Vancouver housing prices (some homes went from C$1m to C$300k in a span of four months), so the PCs hammered the Liberals on this.

All of this amounted to the NDP being able to sweep into power and be left with the awful Columbian economy, as well as to try and follow up on their promise to close the oil sands in western Athabasca, something which would devastate the provinces already weak economy, and have further effects in Alberta and Columbia.

 

[Unknown]

Just curious: what were some of the worst air crashes ITTL?

 

[CosmicAsh]

Just curious: what were some of the worst air crashes ITTL?

The worst aviation crash in history was the Irish Republican Army bombing of a British Airways Airbag A380 in 2009 as it attempted to land at London Heathrow Airport. The bomb blew up shortly before landing, killing most of the 643 people on board (only 19 survived) and the wreckage of the plane slammed into the airport itself, injuring nearly 500 and killing another two hundred and twelve people. With 836 fatalities, it remains the deadliest terrorist attack as well as the worst aviation related accident.

The Tenerife Airport Disaster ranks in at second place with 583 having been killed.

Another notable disaster was Air China Flight 746 being shot down by Indian aircraft after the plane went off course and the instruments did not work properly. The Indian pilots, under strict orders to intercept and destroy and Chinese aircraft, shot down the airplane and it crashed into the Himalayas. No one survived the incident, and it was one of the reasons for the Chinese-Indian war in the 1970s which saw China lose control of disputed territory, and almost lose Tibet.