Our Fair Country: The Commonwealth of New England

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[VT45]

It me.

 

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This one was a bit of an oversight, I had done the incoming ministry here, but I never did the official version, like I had done for the previous ministries. Hope this clears some things up!

 

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[CosmicAsh]

The 51st New England Ministry was sworn in on 20 August 2016 by Governor General Joseph Bruno under the leadership of Prime Minister Paul Grattan Kirk. The Ministry was criticised as one of the most gender imbalanced ministries in recent memory, with only three women serving on the frontbench. A total of nine new MPs were brought into the Cabinet, replacing those from the 50th New England Ministry. The Ministries of Labour and Employment were combined into the Ministry of Labour & Employment, and the portfolio passed to Ted Kennedy, Jr. after former Labour Minister Barbara Boxer had attempted to mount a leadership challenge against the Prime Minister.

 

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Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in New England is composed of members of the main Opposition party responsible for ensuring the Government is held accountable, as well as a platform for advancing the party's policy agenda to citizens of the country. Members of the Opposition are referred to as the Shadow Government, and members of the Opposition Cabinet as Shadow Ministers, as each of them hold the member responsible for each Portfolio accountable. The Shadow Cabinet does not need to line up to the Official Cabinet, and the Opposition can form Shadow Ministries to demonstrate new governmental departments they would establish if allowed to form a Government. The most notable of these Shadow Ministries was the Shadow Ministry of Education, which operated from 2014 until 2017. The Conservative Party of New England has held the position as the Official Opposition since 2009. The party is led by Elinor Carbone, who was also the Leader of the Opposition during the 50th Parliament after replacing interim leader Richard Kos.

 

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Government House, also known by its more common name Pakington House (for New England's first Governor General, John Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton) is the official residence and office of the Governor General of New England. The building sits on 2.6 hectares of land in the West End neighbourhood of Boston, where it previously used to contain much larger grounds, but the Massachusetts Provincial Hospital expanded and took much of the ground's land due to the limited amount of space in downtown Boston. When the reigning Monarch of New England visits the country, they stay at Government House. To date, King George VI had visited New England once, and Elizabeth II has visited New England six times. Land values around Government House are extremely high, given the proximity to the Governor General and the Government of New England, and many foreign embassies are located in the stretch of land between Government House and Parliament House. Parliament House is the location of the House of Commons and the Senate, the two chambers of the Parliament of New England. It is also the location of the Office of the Prime Minister.

 

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48 Bowdoin Street also known simply as Number 48, is the official residence of the Prime Minister of New England, and also hosts the auxiliary offices of the Prime Minister, complementing the offices located in Parliament House. The residence actually straddles two numbers, and is located on a different street. Officially, it is located at 39-40 Beacon Street, but the name 48 Bowdoin Street refers to the house, long since demolished, occupied by Prime Minister Daniel Webster, during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of New England. The house was also occupied by Prime Minister John Hale. The original occupant, Nathan Appleton, had willed the building to the Government of New England and upon his death in 1861, it was transferred as such. Prime Minister Charles Adams, seeking to use the building for government purposes, had it gutted upon ascending to office, in 1863. The wall between the two residencies was torn down, the rooms made larger, a fourth floor added, and offices added.

The renovations lasted for two years, and the building was christened "48 Bowdoin Street" on the birthday of Daniel Webster to honour his tireless contributions to both New England and the British Empire. Adams moved into the building shortly after, and it has remained the official home of the Prime Minister of New England since that day.

Tradition has it that during the transfer of power between Prime Ministers, the outgoing Prime Minister will leave a note on the Salisbury Desk, and they will also remove all the curtains from the windows, and hide them in the basement of the building. The first is not known to New Englanders, a letter has never been revealed to the public and past Prime Ministers never said what their notes contained, either the one they received or the one they left. The second is an homage to the historic rivalry between Prime Ministers Levi Morton and Rutherford Hayes. As Morton left after the 1887 election, he hid all the curtains to spite Hayes and forcing him to look out upon the "dismal" crowds gathered in Boston Common. With Hayes being defeated in 1890, he too hid the curtains. When Morton finally left office in 1905, he again hid the curtains, holding nearly equal disdain for Henry Lodge. Since then, it has morphed into a tradition of "Transparent Government," showing that the new government would be open to the people.

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Victoria Tower is an office building located in the Government District of Boston, Massachusetts Bay. It is a 41-story mixed office and residential tower that is 601 feet high. It is the 5th tallest building in the city, and the tallest government-owned building in New England. The entire tower is owned by the New England Government. Floors 4-6 are used by Statistics New England. Floor 7 is home to the Census Office. Floors 8-14 are used by the New England Electoral Commission. Floors 15-19 are rented out to the Government of Massachusetts Bay. Floors 19-20 are rented out to the City of Boston. Floors 21-27 are used by the Government of New England for overflow office space - currently the Department of Environmental Studies, Climate Change, and Shoreline Retention (a subsection of the Ministry of Science & Technology) is the largest tenant in this section. Floors 28-38 are used solely by the Official Opposition for the Shadow Cabinet. Floor 39 is rented out to the Opposition Party. Floor 40 is used as the official office of the Leader of the Opposition. Floor 41 is the penthouse home of the Leader of the Opposition and their family. New England is one of the few countries to allocate official housing for both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

Funding for Victoria Tower was first secured by Prime Minister John Kennedy, who determined that it became necessary for the government to provide for the Leader of the Opposition. Previously, incredibly high and restrictive rents near Parliament House had made it impossible for the Opposition to have a cohesive set of offices, and commute times for Shadow Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition to their offices, as far away as the North Chelsea neighbourhood, were considered excessive.

With a focus on also expanding the amount of office space for the ever-expanding federal government, the agreement was signed with the Boston-based Cabot, Cabot & Forbes to build the tower. Construction began in late 1967, and would not finish until 1970. Kennedy had many critics for building the tower, which only increased after the Conservatives lost the 1969 election, and Kennedy became the first Opposition leader to occupy the penthouse. While some Governments have debated selling off the building, it has only grown in importance from the 1970s, and talk of privatising it has drawn scorn from both sides.

The tower has been renovated once, in 2003. Although this too was controversial, as the Kerry Government had approved it, and corrupt officials embezzled two hundred million pounds of the total allocated to the renovation. Despite this, the repairs and upgrades were determined to be sound.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Updated and refreshed to include:
* More details of each ministries
* The death of George H.W. Bush
* Timeline in office
* Monarch, Parliament, & Cabinet sidebars

 

[ElectricSheepNo54]

For those keeping track:

Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth of New England

1841-1855: Daniel Webster (Conservative)
def '41: Francis Granger (Liberal)
def '44: John Davis (Liberal), Pierre Soulé (Radical)
def '47: John Davis (Liberal), Pierre Soulé (Radical)
def '50: John Brown (Radical), Franklin Townsend (Liberal)
def '52: John Brown (Radical), John Hale (Radical-Liberal), Franklin Townsend (Liberal)
1855-1856: Franklin Pierce (Conservative)
1856-1859: John Hale (Liberal)
def '56: Franklin Pierce (Conservative), Lafayette Foster (Radical)
1859-1861: Stephen Douglas (Conservative)
def '59: John Hale (Liberal)
1861-1863: A. Oakley Hall (Conservative)
1863-1874: Charles Adams (Liberal)
def '63: A. Oakley Hall (Conservative)
def '66: William Barnum (Conservative)
def '70: Benjamin Hotchkiss (Conservative)
1874-1877: Roscoe Conkling (Conservative)
def '74: Abner McClenan (Liberal)
1877-1884: Lyman Trumbull (Liberal)
def '77: Roscoe Conkling (Conservative), Alonzo Draper (Workingmens')
def '80:
1884-1887: Levi Morton (Conservative)
def '84:
1887-1890: Rutherford Hayes (Liberal)
def '87:
1890-1905: Levi Morton (Conservative)
def '90:
def '94:
def '98:
def '02:
1905-1916: Henry Lodge (Liberal)
def '05:
def '09:
def '12:
1916-1919: Eugene Foss (Conservative)
def '16:
1919-1936: Charles Hughes (Liberal)
def '19:
def '22:
def '26:
def '29:
def '32:
1936-1938: Charles Richards (Conservative)
def '36:
1938-1940: Warren Austin (Conservative)
1940-1945: Angus MacDonald (Labour)
def '40:
def '44:
1945-1947: Chester Bowles (Labour)
1947-1948: Sinclair Weeks (Liberal)
1948-1951: Leverett Saltonstall (Conservative)
def '48:
1951-1955: Felix Hébert (Labour)
def '51:
1955-1958: Prescott Bush (Conservative)
def '55:
1958-1961: Thomas Dodd (Labour)
def '58:
1961-1962: John Notte (Labour)
1962-1969: John Kennedy (Conservative)
def '62:
def '66:
1969-1980: Edmund Muskie (Labour)
def '69:
def '73:
def '76:
1980-1990: George Bush (Conservative)
def '80:
def '83:
def '87:
1990-1993: Chris Dodd (Labour)
def '90:
1993-2001: Lowell Weicker (Conservative)
def '93:
def '97:
2001-2005: John Kerry (Labour)
def '01:
2005-2009: Donald Carcieri (Conservative)
def '05: Madeleine Dubé (Francophone), Shawn Graham (Reform), Barbara Boxer (Socialist Alternative), John Kerry (Labour), Ralph Nader (Green)
2009-2018: Paul Kirk (Labour)
def '09: Donald Carcieri (Conservative), Shawn Graham (Reform), Madeleine Dubé (Francophone), Ralph Nader (Green), Barbara Boxer (Socialist Alternative)
def '13:
def '16: Elinor Carbone (Conservative), Dominic LeBlanc (Francophone), Elizabeth May (Green)
2018-2018: Geoff Regan (Labour)
2018-20??: Elinor Carbone (Conservative)
def '18: Bernie Sanders (Social Democratic), Geoff Regan (Labour), Elizabeth May (Green)

 

[CosmicAsh]

NB: I will respond to all the Russian Civil War questions shortly!

 

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It's early in a new month, and that means Patreon requests are being released! Here's the first one. Throughout the day I will get to everyone's recent comments, I promise!! <3

 

[Stuyvesant]

Updated Number of Prime Ministers per province:
Connecticut – 7 (Trumbull, Bowles, Bush I, Dodd I, Bush II, Dodd II, Weicker)
Massachusetts Bay – 6 (Adams, Lodge, Foss, Saltonstall, Kerry, Kirk)
Adirondack – 3 (Douglas, Hall, Conkling)
New Hampshire – 3 (Pierce, Hale, Weeks)
Vermont – 3 (Morton, Hayes, Austin)
New Brunswick – 2 (Richards, Hebert)
Nova Scotia – 2 (Macdonald, Regan)
Plymouth – 2 (Webster, Kennedy)
Rhode Island – 2 (Notte, Carcieri)
Long Island – 1 (Hughes)
Maine – 1 (Muskie)
Prince Edward Island - 0

 

[CosmicAsh]

Post-election wikibox revamp time! Special thanks to @CanadianTory for making the new political party logos!

 

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