Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

[Thande]

Random UK list with some inspiration from past works by others-

List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
1964-1970: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1964 def: Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1966 def: Edward Heath (Conservative), Jo Grimond (Liberal)
1970-1974: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1970 def: Harold Wilson (Labour), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1974-1976: Harold Wilson (Labour)[1]
1974 def: Edward Heath (Conservative), Jeremy Thorpe (Liberal)
1975 Referendum on continued EEC membership Yes 64% No 36%
1976-1979: Michael Foot (Labour)[2]
1979 Referendum on Scottish Devolution Yes 49% No 51%
1979 Referendum on Welsh Devolution Yes 20% No 80%
1979-1984: Robert Carr (Conservative)
1979 def: Michael Foot (Labour), David Steel (Liberal)
1984-1985: David Owen (Labour minority with Liberal support)
1984 def: Robert Carr (Conservative), David Steel (Liberal)
1985-1989: David Owen (Labour leading Labour-Liberal coalition)[3]
1988 Referendum on Single Transferable Vote Yes 52% No 48%
1989-1992: John Biffen (Conservative leading Conservative-New Unionist-Liberal coalition)
1989 def: David Owen (Labour), Alan Beith (Liberal), Rhodes Boyson (New Unionist), Tony Benn (Socialist Unity), Paul Ekins (Ecology), various others
1992: Government defeated on Budget, new government formation
1992-1993: Neil Kinnock (Labour leading Labour-Liberal-Ecology minority coalition with selective Socialist Unity abstention)
1993: Government defeated on Private Member's Bill for a referendum on the Aachen Treaty, ultimately leading to a dissolution of Parliament
1993-1994: Tony Benn (Socialist Unity leading Socialist Unity-Labour-Ecology minority coalition with selective New Unionist abstention)
1993 def: Neil Kinnock (Labour), Douglas Hurd (Conservative), Alan Beith (Liberal), Jan Clark (Ecology), Rhodes Boyson (New Unionist)
1994 Referendum on implementation of the Aachen Treaty Yes 38% No 62%
1994: Government defeated on Budget, new government formation failed, leading to a dissolution of Parliament and fresh elections
1994-1998: Kenneth Clarke (Conservative leading Conservative-Liberal minority coalition with selective Labour and minor party abstention)
1994 def: John Smith (Labour), Menzies Campbell (Liberal), Roger Knapman (New Unionist), Jan Clark (Ecology), Tony Benn (Socialist Unity), various others
1994 Referendum on implementation of the Revised Aachen Treaty Yes 51% No 49%
1998: Government defeated on Budget following party fragmentation, Parliament dissolved
1998-2000: Vince Cable (Liberal leading Liberal-Reform-Green2000 minority coalition with selective Social Democratic and Conservative(1998) abstention)
1998 def: Gordon Brown (Social Democratic), Kenneth Clarke (Reform), John Redwood (Unionist Alliance), John McDonnell (The Left), Victor Anderson (Green2000), Michael Portillo (Conservative(1998)), Dennis Skinner (Labour(1998)), various others
2000: Government defeated on ECU Adoption Bill, new government formation
2000-2002: Michael Howard (Reform leading Reform-Social Democratic minority coalition with selective Liberal abstention)
2001 Referendum on First Past the Post Yes 66% No 44%
2002-????: Vince Cable (Liberal)
2002 def: Michael Howard (Reform), Charles Kennedy (Social Democratic)


[1] Labour secures a small double-figure working majority in the first 1974 election, with no need for a second. With no prospect of an early election, Heath (eventually) decides to step down voluntarily and his influence is crucial in the succession.

[2] Foot's many critics would argue for years that James Callaghan or Denis Healey would have emerged triumphant if the contest had just been held a few months later, when the successful Argentine attack on Chile in the Beagle Sound War dominated the headlines and exposed Foot's foreign policy views. However, it would be the foreign policy expertise of a younger man that would lead him to become the standard-bearer of the Right in the 1980 'autopsy' leadership election.

[3] The Argentine junta's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1985, born of a complacent attitude that it would continue to receive support and recognition from the Jackson Administration, shocked the world. The shaky Labour minority government elected in 1985 formed a coalition to ensure stability of government as the successful military mission to retake the islands was launched. However, Liberal support would come at a price, which Owen was willing to accept, though many Labour MPs were not. Rifts were showing in both parties even before the unexpected arrival of a means by which to express them.


I swear this started out as something much less cursed in my head, I was just going to do Reverse Dynamics from Foot in '76 leads to Labour Right being the ones badly defeated in '83, and then I decided to throw in a PR referendum and somehow this happened.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

This was my entry for the last list challenge. The current one is themed around Stylistic Imitation (that is, imitating the style or content of another list-writer) and there's still a week to get your entry in!

When First We Practice As Decievers
​

2019-2022: Boris Johnson (Conservative)
def 2019: (Majority) Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrats)
2022-2022: Liz Truss (Conservative)
2022-2024: Penny Mourdant (Conservative)
2024-2027: Keir Starmer (Labour)
def 2024: (Minority with SNP confidence and supply) Penny Mourdant (Conservative), Richard Tice (Reform), Angus Robertson (SNP), Ed Davey (Liberal Democrats)
2025 Scottish Independence Referendum: 51.7% YES, 48.3% NO
def 2026: (Coalition with Liberal Democrats) Mike Heaver (Reform), Richard Foord (Liberal Democrats), Tobias Ellwood (One Britain One Nation), Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Nadine Dorries (Conservative)
2027-2029: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrats leading coalition with "PR" Labour)
2029-2031: Edward "Remeece" Freeman (Reform)
def 2029: (Minority) Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat--People's Alliance), Keir Starmer (Labour), Bin Afolami (One Britain One Nation), Jackie Weaver (We Have The Authority), Nadine Dorries (Conservative), Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay (Green--People's Alliance), Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Cat Smith (Independent Labour--People's Alliance)
2031-2031: Martin Daubney (Reform)
2031-2032: Edward "Remeece" Freeman (Reform)
2032-2034: Ben Wallace (Independent leading Government of all the talents)
def 2032: (Minority) Jackie Weaver (We Have The Authority), Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour), Monica Harding & Stephen Kinnock (Liberal & People's Alliance), Edward "Remeece" Freeman (Reform), Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay (Green), Jessica Zbinden-Webster (One Britain One Nation), Delyth Jewell (Plaid Cymru), Alice Grant (Conservative)
2034-2057: Jackie Weaver (We Have The Authority)
def 2034: (Majority) Ben Wallace (Government Of All The Talents)
2038 Enabling Act Referendum: 79% YES, 21% NO
2057-XXXX: "Jackie Weaver" (We Have The Authority) [disputed]

Your name and details? Just a formality for the official immigration records.

Jute. Edgar Jute. 49 years old, white male. Engineer. I've been in Gretna Refugee Camp One for...three years. Seems longer, really.

Right. With that out of the way...it says here you were employed by the British government between 2035 and 2059. Is that correct?

Yeah. I was hired right out of Warwick--should have been a red flag, really. I started out in the Office of Telecommunications, but after a year, some...they needed more people to work on a project, and I fit...experience that I had, apparently that was needed. So I was moved over to UK-GNSS--the people who, uh, they make satellites. So there I was responsible for a lot more R&D. It was a good position.

This project was known as the Malachi Network, correct?

...fuck.

It's not that bad, Mr Jute. If you give us any valuable information on it, we'll take it into consideration at your trial.

I...look, I appreciate it, but I think any info you give me will just keep me in prison for longer.

I'll start at the beginning, right? Just to give some context, however bad it still looks.

Feel free to take your time.

Right. So you've got to remember that, well, we'd had 22 years of political chaos--that was, at the time, nearly my whole life. Nearly my whole life had been uncertainity, governments toppling over themselves with populist or antipopulist agendas, parties splitting apart from referenda, ever-more crazed rhetoric...we left the EU, let you lot leave us, got rid of FPTP, but nothing seemed to help. It never stopped. All these false messiahs kept rising to the top, and the establishments that they chafed with just threw them over once they turned out to be clowns, or something outside their control broke everything anyway. The man who got my first vote--a rapper, you wouldn't have heard of him--went from PM to backbencher to PM again in ten months! Because of a flood!

It was all just a big bubble. A talking shop, for people who thought they were above ordinary Brits. The idea was to break it all up, forever, and...that still doesn't justify what I did. Doing what I was ordered to do. Not in the slightest.

Could you please explain what it was you were ordered to do?

Sure, I'm just...I'm just getting to that bit.

First, you've got to circle back around a bit. Jackie Weaver. You know her, you love her, you can see her face broadcasted on giant screens just over the border, and if you're lucky a bunch of choreographed dancers making a giant aerial representation of same. Now, you're not going to believe this...but there's something not entirely normal about her.

Mr Jute, sarcasm will not get you very far with us.

Fine, fine, fine. My point still stands, though. I mean, it started out small, at first. The Zoom video she was in, y'know, the one where that bloke tells her she doesn't have any authority--fuck me, I must have watched that a thousand times by now--that was only when she was, what, sixty-something? We're all lucky that it didn't come on full-bloom when she was a tot. Maybe it needed the Internet to work, or something. There's still so much we'll nev--we don't know. It--the video launched a thousand ships, metaphorically. Then they put her on TV, and all hell broke loose. After that damn reality show, she was being touted as the ideal outsider, someone who'd turn over the shoddy state of British politics, and somehow, that got her into Parliament, and it all just grew from there. You ever seen a snowball rolling down a hill? Not in real life, of course, in a cartoon, where it rolls and rolls and just keeps getting bigger and bigger? Like that.

All of this was despite her never really doing or saying anything that'd explain it. She was only moderately funny, had pretty standardly dull political views, all the charisma of, well, a sixty-year-old parish councillor--she shouldn't have even won the reality show! Campbell just gave her a bunch of extra points for "leadership"! She just had this inexplicable aura around her, that let her cheat her way through politics. Made everyone just jump out of her way.

It wasn't everybody who was suckered by her...whatever. Her campaign manager--I forget his name--he was maybe a bit more immune than the rest. Once she got into No10, he started work on a project. That's when they called me in. I had some...relevant experience.

What was this experience in?

[indistinct mumbling]

Mr Jute, if you could speak up, please?

Fetish sites. I wrote for a hypnosis fetish site. I was a horny teenager, and it wasn't harming anybody. Well, it put me in a position to harm everybody. Not sure if that's the same thing, though.

Anyway, what that meant was that I knew a decent amount about actual hypnosis. Which was...aligned to the goal of making the Malachai Network. The idea was that we'd prevent all the chaos, the splits, the factions, the stupid ideas coming down from the top. Just have one "ordinary" but charismatic figurehead to be beloved by the masses but utterly impotent, and we'd get on with managing things properly. The same old philosopher-king bollocks you can get from any midwit civil servant anywhere after 2 pints.

It doesn't properly explain why we did what we did, really. I'm half-certain that most of us were already doped up on Weaver, and our conscious minds were just filtering through a rationalisation for our crazed decisions. The network went up all the same, though, because the people with doubts didn't do bollocks to stop it.

What...was the Malachi Network, exactly?

I told you where I worked, didn't I? Satellites. They were a system of satellites. Didn't start out that way--originally we were just going to do subliminal stuff in TV broadcasts, but no-one watches live TV anymore and all the mobile service providers had been brought out by people a continent away from our legislative powers. It was easier to get a radio dish up into geosynchronous orbit than to regulate Apple.

We'd managed to isolate the signal Weaver produced by then. It was--well, if you asked two people in the department, you'd get three answers. Whatever it was she produced when recorded, we could replicate it. Intensify it, even. A concentrated form of Weaver-Beam raining down on the UK from space. This frequency did something to the brain, that manifested as devotion. A sincere love, a belief in their ability to lead and be one of them. Thomas--the campaign manager, he went on a lot about how we'd found the source of leadership. Alexander, Hong Xiuquang, BoJo, every king or rebel or popular politician through history, all of them, according to him, just people lucky enough to extrude this super-charisma.

What we didn't realise was quite what the effects of constant, 24-7 exposure to...to effectively brainwashing, would have on the British psyche.

Honestly, I think Jackie had the worst time of it out of anybody. She never asked to be in charge of an organic personality cult. She didn't ask for one Zoom meeting where she got a bit bolshy to be played on every channel 'til Kingdom Come. She didn't ask for people naming their kids after her, or postrating themselves before her in the street, or setting up shrines to her old shoes. I mean, imagine that life--infinite theoretical power, but you can't have a normal conversation with anyone. The only human in a kingdom of dogs. Every time I saw her, if I took a minute or two to push away the urge to throw myself into a fire if she asked, she just looked...confused. Confused, and tired, and wanting to go home. Not that anyone would let her.

So...if Weaver isn't in control, who is?

Good question. A very, very, good question. The idea was that it was, well, us. The men in grey suits, made immune to Weaver's aura. The problem was that, well, none of us actually had immunity. We all just thought we did because we were able to rationalise our way around our decisions. We were just checking in on the quality of the broadcasts, caught up in the crowd's emotions, operating to make sure the propaganda had the maximum reach...that sort of thing.

It...if you've ever met an alcoholic, y'know, one of the high-functioning ones? They're always making excuses. It's a hot day, better have a drink, oh this is just for the builders, not for me, it's just a small drink, something to start the day off with...that's what it was like, in Whitehall, by the end. Everyone making excuses as to why they weren't like the addled masses, even as they huddled around the screens blaring Weaver's faces like drunks around a tap. By the end, most of the meetings were about providing more forms of Weaver to the public, and by extension, to us. Infrastructure, housing, the climate--all of that was out of the window. I watched people I respected and looked up to as pillars of savvy intellect beat each other to death with bare fists for the right to touch an old woman's discarded shirt.

...fucking hell.

Bit unprofessional of you, there. What kind of standards are the Scottish government demanding these days?

Sorry. Continue.

Right. Anyway, I'd love to say that I fled, and ended up here, sweating through withdrawal with all the other economically destitute Weaver junkies, because I was sickened at my own actions and had a change of heart. I didn't. I left because we'd made a society of addicts, and were about to run out of the supply.

Run out of...what?

Weaver's dead. Nasty fall, five years ago. All the servants were too overawed to touch her, and...yeah.

None of us made plans, or contingencies, because, well, we were all addled, weren't we? We all thought she'd survive forever, somehow. We didn't even want to think of a world without her. The day we made the announcement, Thomas--the campaign guy, closest thing we had to a leader--he walked out of the room dead silent. We found him a few hours later, hanging from the rafters.

We could just have kept running the same videos again and again, and they did. They are. The thing is, though, like any group of addicts, the public of the UK--whatever's left of them--the British public get desensitised. You have to keep upping the dosage, or changing it up, because the old stuff won't work any more. I'm sure your government's noticed. They're restive, spend longer times at the performances or what have you, hollow eyes, paler skin, more aggressive...eventually, nothing will be enough to keep them sated. My old mates, the ones left at the top, they've got grand schemes of trying to find a replacement, or desperate bluffs of trying to create new activites or ways to venerate her. Me, I just thought I'd leave before I was eaten by a mob of lunatics trying to sniff Buckingham Palace's carpets.

Do you know what you're going to try and do next?

I do. Wish I didn't.

...why not?

Look, this is nothing personal, alright? You've been a decent interviewer, the free biscuits were good, and you haven't punched me in the face for destroying an entire country's psyche. But I know what's going to happen, because you're a professional. You're going to give this interview to your boss.

Your boss will read through it, and then they'll send it on to their boss. And so on, and so forth, and every time it moves up the chain, some data, some vital element of it--the look on my face, the words I used, the implications of this fucking jungle of slowly dying Englishmen huddled around photos of an unlucky parish councillor right outside the door here--will be lost. All that'll remain is the idea.

It's dangerous times, these days. The economy's always spiralling or stagnating, the seas are rising, extremists are all over the place. It's hard to keep a nation stable. How wonderful it would be, if there was some way to bypass all that! To just make people believe in a country again! Or at least believe in some figure that represents the country. Some charismatic individual, who can make people feel better about their shithole lives just by existing.

Remember, if Thomas was right, then everyone produces some sort of mind-whammy charisma beams. Amping up Weaver made Western accounts of North Korea look sane, but amping up some actor or staffer with a satellite system, well, that could be controlled, couldn't it? Even if it can't, do you want to take the risk that some foreign government could make their own super-figurehead? We've got to do it, and save the nation forever, and stay in power forever. We'll bring some sense back, prevent all the chaos, shut the useless talking shop.

There's no way of putting the mushroom cloud back into the nice shiny tube.

Some day, a week or two from now, a very nice car is going to drive through Gretna. Someone will walk out of that car, shiny shoes splashing in the muck of thousands of people in barely human housing. They'll pace through our excuses for streets, until they get to a dismal shed leaning next to an old tree. They'll push open the door, and see me squatting on my matress, and ask "Mr Jute, we'd like you to replicate some of your earlier work for us."

And I'll say "Make me, Prime Minister".

 

[Callan]

1957-1963: John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative)
1957 (Minority): Louis St. Laurent (Liberal), M. J. Coldwell (CCF), Solon Earl Low (Social Credit)
1958: Lester Pearson (Liberal), M. J. Coldwell (CCF), Solon Earl Low (Social Credit)
1962 (Minority): Lester Pearson (Liberal), Robert N. Thompson (Social Credit), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic)
1963-1964: George Hees (Progressive Conservative)
1964-1971: Lester Pearson (Liberal)
1964: George Hees (Progressive Conservative), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), Robert N. Thompson (Social Credit)
1968: Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), George Hees (Progressive Conservative), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1971-1979: Claude Wagner (Liberal)
1973 (Minority): Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1974: John Harney (New Democratic), John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1979-: John Harney (New Democratic)
1979: Claude Wagner (Liberal), Jack Horner (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)

The cabinet revolt against John Diefenbaker in early 1963 succeeds, and George Hees is presented to the Tory caucus is as their new leader as a fait accompli. Hees is tactful enough with Social Credit to make his government last, but its manifest unpopularity and infighting among Tory MPs (led by their recently-deposed leader) makes productive governance near impossible. The government collapses in mid-1964 and the Tories lose half their seats.

The Pearson government, with a large majority behind it, quickly reshapes Canada: a new flag, a new national anthem, an ambitious array of welfare reforms. A new national program for healthcare coverage proves more difficult, seen as liberal overreach by all the opposition parties, and the healthcare question proves to be the key issue of the 1968 election. The Liberal approach is vindicated by a narrowed majority; meanwhile the Tories's coming four seats behind the NDP is blamed on Hees's muted and incoherent opposition to Pearson's reforms, especially in comparison to his predecessor's passionate denunciations from the backbenches. In his last year in office, Pearson successfully pushed through the policy of official bilingualism amid great political resistance; after using up the rest of his political capital, he retired.

At the 1971 Liberal convention, expected frontrunners like Mitchell Sharp and Paul Martin stood aside; the mood was one of generational changed. But a well-resourced "Verdun Set" of Liberal MPs and donors successfully conspired to sow up the contest in favour of a relative outsider who had become a star candidate for the Liberals in 1968 and quickly risen up the ranks. Claude Wagner thus easily won the 1970 leadership contest against more established candidates like John Turner and Jean Chrétien. Wagner had impressed many with his tough law-and-order talk and decisive leadership of successive ministries, even if his confrontational approach rankled traditional Liberal sensibilities. His lack of interest in the increasingly radical sentiments of young voters (even many young voters) and his hardline approach to Quebec nationalists likely cost the Liberals their majority, only saved by the anti-Liberal vote being so neatly split.

He won it back in part with a public sympathy vote after an assassination attempt in Montreal in 1974, followed by an unprecedentedly negative campaign the nest year. He hammered home the dangers of Quebec nationalism, unrestrained union power, student radicals and the great demonic umbrella of socialism under which all those forces operated. He won back the Liberals their majority and wiped out the Tories west of Manitoba. Wagner had help from John Diefenbaker, who had gotten his revenge on Hees by orchestrating a coup against him at the party's national convention in 1969. But by the mid-1970s, his populism had a limited constituency and his appeals for "One Canada" rang increasingly hollow as his party increasingly became a regional rump.

Wagner's tough talk and frequent confrontations with labour unions and assorted "radicals" (be they feminists, aboriginals, students, or Quebec nationalists) could not overcome a increasingly severe economic situation. Wagner was also badly damaged by a series of scandals involving wealthy Quebec donors and political operatives - Brian Mulroney most prominent - that tarnished his image as "tough but honest". A second red scare campaign could not overcome these problems, especially not when up against a New Democratic Party that had repeatedly reformed and rebranded itself, cast off its more radical members and policies and elected an energetic, fluently bilingual leader who could - and did - win a majority of seats in Quebec. While the Liberals had successfully killed Canadian conservatism as a serious force, at least federally, Wagner viewed his term as a failure. For an even greater monster had taken its place in the form of Canadian socialism.

 

[Qaz_plm]

All Alternate Presidents from the book Alternate Presidents in one awful mess

1789-1790: Benjamin Franklin (Independent) †
1788: George Washington (Independent)
1790-1801: John Adams (Federalist)
1792: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
1796: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
1801-1825: Aaron Burr (Democratic-Republican)
1800: Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson Republican Party)
1804: Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
1808: Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
1812: DeWitt Clinton (Federalist)
1816: Rufus King (Federalist)
1820: John Quincy Adams (Anti-Masonic)
1825-1829: Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
1824: John Quincy Adams (Anti-Masonic)
1829-1837: Davey Crockett (Whig)
1828: Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
1832: Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
1836: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
1837-1841: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
1836: William Henry Harrison (Whig)
1841-1841: William Henry Harrison (Whig) †
1840: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
1841-1845: John Tyler (Whig)
1845-1849: James K. Polk (Democratic)
1844: Henry Clay (Whig)
1849-1849: Zachary Taylor (Whig) †
1848: Lewis Cass (Democratic), Martin Van Buren (Free Soil)
1849-1857: David Rice Atchison (Democratic)
1852: Daniel Webster (Whig)
1857-1861: Millard Fillmore (Know Nothing Party)
1856: John C. Frémont (Republican), Lewis Cass (Democratic)
1861-1865: Stephen A. Douglas (Democratic)
1860: Abe Lincoln (Republican)
1865-1869: Abe Lincoln (Republican)
1864: Andrew Johnson (Democratic)
1869-1873: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)
1868: Horatio Seymour (Democratic)
1873-1875: Victoria Woodhull (Equal Rights Party) †
1872: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) , Horace Greeley (Liberal Republican)
1875-1877: Frederick Douglass (Equal Rights Party)
1877-1881: Samuel J. Tilden (Liberal) †
1876: Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)
1880: James A. Garfield (Republican)
1881-1885: Winfield Scott Hancock (Liberal) †
1884: James G. Blaine (Republican)
1885-1889: Grover Cleveland (Liberal)
1889-1893: Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (National Equal Rights Party)
1888: Benjamin Harrison(Republican) , Grover Cleveland (Liberal)
1893-1897: William McKinley (Republican)
1892: Grover Cleveland (Liberal), James B. Weaver (Populist)
1897-1901: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1896: William McKinley (Republican)
1901-1909: Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)
1900: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1904: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1909-1913: William Howard Taft (Republican)
1908: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1913-1917: Theodore Roosevelt (Bull Moose)
1912: William Howard Taft (Republican) , Woodrow Wilson (Democratic)
1917-1921: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1916: Theodore Roosevelt (Bull Moose)
1921-1921: James M. Cox (Democratic) †
1920: Warren Harding (Republican)
1921-1925: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1925-1925: Robert M. La Follette (Progressive) †
1924: Calvin Coolidge (Republican), John W. Davis (Democratic)
1925-1929: Burton K. Wheeler (Progressive)
1929-1933: Hebert Hoover (Republican)
1928: Burton K. Wheeler (Progressive)
1933-1937: Henry L. Stimson (Republican)
1932: Al Smith (Democratic)
1937-1945: Huey Long (Independent)
1936: Henry L. Stimson (Republican)
1940: Wendell Willkie (Republican)
1945-1953: Thomas Dewey (Republican)
1944: Huey Long (Independent)
1948: Harry Truman (Democratic)
1953-1958: Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)
1956: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1958-1961: John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1961-1963: Richard Nixon (Republican) †
1960: John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1963-1965: Lyndon B. Johnson (Republican)
1965-1973: Barry Goldwater (Republican)
1964: John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1968: Al Capone (Democratic)
1973-1977: George McGovern (Democratic)
1972: Barry Goldwater (Republican)
1977-1985: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1976: George McGovern (Democratic)
1980: Ted Kennedy (Democratic)
1985-1989: Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1984: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
1989-1989: Michael Dukakis (Republican)
1988: Walter Mondale (Democratic)

 

[napoleon IV]

All Alternate Presidents from the book Alternate Presidents in one awful mess

1789-1790: Benjamin Franklin (Independent) †
1788: George Washington (Independent)
1790-1801: John Adams (Federalist)
1792: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
1796: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
1801-1825: Aaron Burr (Democratic-Republican)
1800: Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson Republican Party)
1804: Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
1808: Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
1812: DeWitt Clinton (Federalist)
1816: Rufus King (Federalist)
1820: John Quincy Adams (Anti-Masonic)
1825-1829: Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
1824: John Quincy Adams (Anti-Masonic)
1829-1837: Davey Crockett (Whig)
1828: Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
1832: Andrew Jackson (Democratic)
1836: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
1837-1841: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
1836: William Henry Harrison (Whig)
1841-1841: William Henry Harrison (Whig) †
1840: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
1841-1845: John Tyler (Whig)
1845-1849: James K. Polk (Democratic)
1844: Henry Clay (Whig)
1849-1849: Zachary Taylor (Whig) †
1848: Lewis Cass (Democratic), Martin Van Buren (Free Soil)
1849-1857: David Rice Atchison (Democratic)
1852: Daniel Webster (Whig)
1857-1861: Millard Fillmore (Know Nothing Party)
1856: John C. Frémont (Republican), Lewis Cass (Democratic)
1861-1865: Stephen A. Douglas (Democratic)
1860: Abe Lincoln (Republican)
1865-1869: Abe Lincoln (Republican)
1864: Andrew Johnson (Democratic)
1869-1873: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)
1868: Horatio Seymour (Democratic)
1873-1875: Victoria Woodhull (Equal Rights Party) †
1872: Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) , Horace Greeley (Liberal Republican)
1875-1877: Frederick Douglass (Equal Rights Party)
1877-1881: Samuel J. Tilden (Liberal) †
1876: Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)
1880: James A. Garfield (Republican)
1881-1885: Winfield Scott Hancock (Liberal) †
1884: James G. Blaine (Republican)
1885-1889: Grover Cleveland (Liberal)
1889-1893: Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (National Equal Rights Party)
1888: Benjamin Harrison(Republican) , Grover Cleveland (Liberal)
1893-1897: William McKinley (Republican)
1892: Grover Cleveland (Liberal), James B. Weaver (Populist)
1897-1901: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1896: William McKinley (Republican)
1901-1909: Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)
1900: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1904: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1909-1913: William Howard Taft (Republican)
1908: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1913-1917: Theodore Roosevelt (Bull Moose)
1912: William Howard Taft (Republican) , Woodrow Wilson (Democratic)
1917-1921: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1916: Theodore Roosevelt (Bull Moose)
1921-1921: James M. Cox (Democratic) †
1920: Warren Harding (Republican)
1921-1925: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
1925-1925: Robert M. La Follette (Progressive) †
1924: Calvin Coolidge (Republican), John W. Davis (Democratic)
1925-1929: Burton K. Wheeler (Progressive)
1929-1933: Hebert Hoover (Republican)
1928: Burton K. Wheeler (Progressive)
1933-1937: Henry L. Stimson (Republican)
1932: Al Smith (Democratic)
1937-1945: Huey Long (Independent)
1936: Henry L. Stimson (Republican)
1940: Wendell Willkie (Republican)
1945-1953: Thomas Dewey (Republican)
1944: Huey Long (Independent)
1948: Harry Truman (Democratic)
1953-1958: Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)
1956: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1958-1961: John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1961-1963: Richard Nixon (Republican) †
1960: John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1963-1965: Lyndon B. Johnson (Republican)
1965-1973: Barry Goldwater (Republican)
1964: John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1968: Al Capone (Democratic)
1973-1977: George McGovern (Democratic)
1972: Barry Goldwater (Republican)
1977-1985: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1976: George McGovern (Democratic)
1980: Ted Kennedy (Democratic)
1985-1989: Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1984: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
1989-1989: Michael Dukakis (Republican)
1988: Walter Mondale (Democratic)

I maintain that Michael Dukakis was never legally President, since as an alien from outer space he's not a natural-born citizen and therefore ineligible.

 

[Blackentheborg]

So nice they named him twice, or how John Smith saved the world

1990-1997: Norman Lamont (Tory)
defeated Neil Kinnock (Labour), Paddy Ashdown (Liberal Democrats)
1997-2003: John Smith* (Labour)
defeated Norman Lamont (Tory), Geraint Howells (Liberal Democrats)
defeated Archie Hamilton (Tory), Simon Hughes (Liberal Democrats), Bob Spink (Referendum)
2003-2012: Bernie Grant* (Labour, then The Coalition: Our Programme for Government, then Labour)
defeated Peter Lilley (Tory), Gareth Epps (Liberal Democrats)
defeated Ann Widdecombe (Tory), Bill Wilson (SNP), Chris Huhne (Liberal Democrats), Caroline Lucas (Green)
2012-2015: Ken Livingstone (Labour)
2015-2018: John Bercow** (Tory)
defeated Ken Livingstone (Labour), Jim Sillars (SNP), Chris Huhne/Nigel Farage (Liberal Democrats/Green Alliance), Carl Benjamin (New Referendum), Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin)
2018-present: David Cameron (Tory)
defeated Dr. Gordon Brown (Labour), Liz Truss (Liberal Democrats), Tommy Sheridan (79 Group Alliance), Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin)

* resigned due to illness
** resigned due to scandal

 

[theflyingmgoose]

Presidents of the United States of America:
1. George Washington (I): March 4, 1789-March 4, 1797
'88 (with John Adams) def. Thomas Jefferson/James Madison (I)
'92 (with John Adams) def. Fredrick Muhlenberg/Elbridge Gerry (D)
2. John Adams (R): March 4, 1797-March 4, 1801
'96 (with Oliver Wolcott) def. Thomas Jefferson/Nathaniel Peabody (D)
3. Thomas Jefferson (D): March 4, 1801-March 4, 1809
'00 (with James Madison) def. John Adams/Oliver Wolcott (R)
'04 (with James Madison) def. Oliver Wolcott/Alexander Hamilton (R)
4. James Madison (D): March 4, 1809-March 4, 1813
'08 (with James Monroe) def. Oliver Wolcott/Edmund Randolph (R)
5. John Laurens (R): March 4, 1813-March 4, 1821
'12 (with Alexander Hamilton) def. James Madison/Meriwether Lewis (D)
'16 (with Alexander Hamilton) def. UNOPPOSED
6. Alexander Hamilton (R): March 4, 1821-March 4, 1825
'20 (with John Quincy Adams) def. James Monroe/Edward Lloyd (D)
7. Martin Van Buren (D): March 4, 1825-June 29, 1830*
'24 (with James Monroe) def. Alexander Hamilton/John Quincy Adams (R)
'28 (with Henry Clay) def. John Ferguson/Charles Pinckney Sumner (R)
8. Henry Clay (D): June 29, 1830-March 4, 1833
9. John Quincy Adams (R): March 4, 1833-March 4, 1837
'32 (with Charles Pinckney Sumner) def. James Monroe/James Buchanan (D)
10. Henry Clay (D): March 4, 1837-March 4, 1841
'36 (with John Tyler) def. John Quincy Adams/Charles Pinckney Sumner (R)
11. Daniel Webster (R): March 4, 1841-March 4, 1849
'40 (with William Lloyd Garrison) def. Henry Clay/John Tyler (D)
'44 (with William Lloyd Garrison) def. Zachary Taylor/James Buchanan (D)
12. William Seward (R): March 4, 1849-March 4, 1853
'48 (with Abraham Lincoln) def. James Buchanan/Franklin Pierce (D)
13. Zachary Taylor (D): March 4, 1853-May 19, 1856**
'52 (with Stephen Douglas) def. William Seward/Abraham Lincoln (R)
14. Stephen Douglas (D): May 19, 1856-March 4, 1857
15. Abraham Lincoln (R): March 4, 1857-March 4, 1865
'56 (with Charles Sumner) def. Stephen Douglas/Horatio Seymour (D)
'60 (with Hannibal Hamlin) def. Thomas Seymour/John Fremont (D)
16. Fernando Wood (D): March 4, 1865-March 4, 1869
'64 (with Horatio Seymour) def. Abraham Lincoln/Hannibal Hamlin (R); Thaddeus Stevens/James Garfield (P)
17. John Brown (R-P): March 4, 1869-March 4, 1877
'68 (with James Garfield) def. Fernando Wood/Horatio Seymour (D)
'72 (with James Garfield) def. Horatio Seymour/Grover Cleveland (D)
18. James Garfield (R): March 4, 1877-March 4, 1881
'76 (with William McKinley) def. Grover Cleveland/Various (D)
19. Grover Cleveland (D): March 4, 1881-March 4, 1885
'80 (with James Weaver) def. James Garfield/Chester Arthur (R)
20. Frederick Douglass (R): March 4, 1885-December 17, 1885***
'84 (with Rutherford Hayes) def. Grover Cleveland/James Weaver (D)
21. Rutherford Hayes (R): December 17, 1885-March 4, 1889
22. James Weaver (D): March 4, 1889-March 4, 1897
'88 (with Adlai Stevenson) def. Rutherford Hayes/Richard Van Hoven IV (R)
'92 (with Harriet Tubman) def. William McKinley/Benjamin Harrison (R)
23. William Jennings Bryan (D): March 4, 1897-March 4, 1901
'96 (with William Randolph Hearst) def. William McKinley/Garrett Hobart (R)
24. Theodore Roosevelt (R): March 4, 1901-March 4, 1909
'00 (with Charles Evans Hughes) def. William Jennings Bryan/William Randolph Hearst (D)
'04 (with Albert Beveridge) def. William Randolph Hearst/Alton B. Parker (D)
25. Charles Evans Hughes (R): March 4, 1909-March 4, 1913
'08 (with Albert Beveridge) def. Thomas Marshall/John Middleton Cox (D)
26. Thomas Marshall (D): March 4, 1913-October 4, 1919****
'12 (with William Randolph Hearst) def. Charles Evans Hughes/Albert Beveridge (R)
'16 (with Oscar Stanton De Priest) def. Charles Evans Hughes/George Shima (R)
27. Oscar Stanton De Priest (D): October 4, 1919-March 4, 1925
'20 (with Franklin Roosevelt) def. Charles Evans Hughes/Calvin Coolidge (R)
28. George Shima (R): March 4, 1925-March 4, 1929
'24 (with Herbert Hoover) def. Franklin Roosevelt/Horace Boies (D)
29. Franklin Roosevelt (D): March 4, 1929-March 4, 1933
'28 (with Al Smith) def. Calvin Coolidge/Herbert Hoover (R)
30. George Shima (R): March 4, 1933-August 30, 1934*****
'32 (with Henry Wallace) def. Franklin Roosevelt/Al Smith (D)
31. Henry Wallace (R): August 30, 1934-March 4, 1941
'36 (with Wendell Willkie) def. Al Smith/Henry Morgenthau (D)
32. Benjamin Davis (D): March 4, 1941-March 4, 1945
'40 (with Harry Truman) def. Wendell Willkie/Thomas Dewey (R)
33. Harry Truman (D): March 4, 1945-March 4, 1953
'44 (with OFFICE SUSPENDED) def. Wendell Willkie/Earl Warren (R)
'48 (with Joseph Kennedy Sr.) def. Earl Warren/Thomas Dewey (R)
34. Margaret Chase Smith (R): March 4, 1953-March 4, 1961
'52 (with Thomas Dewey) def. Alben Barkley/Hubert Humphrey (D)
'56 (with Richard Nixon) def. Estes Kefauver/Adlai Stevenson II (D)
35. Hiram Fong (R): March 4, 1961-March 4, 1965
'60 (with Richard Nixon) def. John Kennedy/Arthur Goldberg (D)
36. Lyndon Johnson (D): March 4, 1965-January 9, 1973******
'64 (with Arthur Goldberg) def. Hiram Fong/Richard Nixon (R)
'68 (with Arthur Goldberg) def. Spiro Agnew/Pete Wilson (R)
37. Arthur Goldberg (D): January 9, 1973-March 4, 1973
38. Elizabeth Holtzman (R): March 4, 1973-March 4, 1981
'72 (with Charles Percy) def. Arthur Goldberg/Barbara Jordan (D)
'76 (with Charles Percy) def. Walter Mondale/Birch Bayh (D)
39. Barbara Jordan (D): March 4, 1981-November 8, 1986*******
'80 (with George H.W. Bush) def. Charles Percy/Daniel Inouye (R)
'84 (with George H.W. Bush) def. Richard Nixon/Hugh Gallen (R)
40. George H.W. Bush (D): November 8, 1986-March 4, 1993
'88 (with Michael Dukakis) def. Millicent Fenwick/Lenore Romney (R)
41. Al Gore (R): March 4, 1993-March 4, 2001
'92 (with Dianne Feinstein) def. George H.W. Bush/Michael Dukakis (D)
'96 (with Dianne Feinstein) def. William Weld/John Rowland (D)
42. Ann Richards (R): March 4, 2001-February 15, 2007********
'00 (with Dianne Feinstein) def. John Danforth/Edward Kennedy (D)
'04 (with Dianne Feinstein) def. Dick Cheney/John Kasich (D)
43. Dianne Feinstein (R): February 15, 2007-March 4, 2009
44. Barack Obama (D): March 4, 2009-March 4, 2017
'08 (with Joe Biden) def. Dianne Feinstein/Gary Locke (R)
'12 (with Joe Biden) def. Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan (R)
45. Joe Biden (D): March 4, 2017-Present
'16 (with Kamala Harris) def. John Kasich/Pierre Delecto (R)
'20 (with Kamala Harris) def. Bill Maher/Eric Adams (R)

*=Resigned on June 19, 1830 under threat of impeachment for bribery allegations
**=Resigned on May 17, 1856 to seek treatment for lung cancer
***=Assassinated by a White supremacist terrorist
****=Died suddenly of a heart attack
*****=Resigned on August 29, 1934 after suffering stroke earlier in the month
******=Resigned on January 8, 1973 to fuck with his elected successor and mortal enemy- Elizabeth Holtzman- by making his VP the first Jewish POTUS instead of her.
*******=Died of complications relating to MS
********=Resigned on February 2, 2007 to seek treatment for throat cancer

Presidents of the Southern Confederation:
1. Charles Pinckney (F): July 4, 1788-January 31, 1795
'88: Won 6-3 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1788-1790)
'89: Won 5-4 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1790-1795)
2. Abraham Baldwin (AF): January 31, 1795-January 31, 1800
'94: Won 6-5 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1795-1800)
3. Charles Pinckney (F): January 31, 1800-January 31, 1810
'99: Won 7-6 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1800-1805)
'04: Won 8-5 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1805-1810)
4. David Emmanuel (AF): January 31, 1810-January 31, 1815
'09: Won 7-6 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1810-1815)
5. Richard Bland Lee (AF): January 31, 1815-January 31, 1825
'14: Won 10-5 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1815-1820)
'19: Won 11-4 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1820-1825)
6. Wade Hampton I (AF): January 31, 1825-January 31, 1830
'24: Won 11-8 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1825-1830)
7. Roger Taney (F): January 31, 1830-March 19, 1837*
'29: Won 12-9 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1830-1835)
'34: Won 11-10 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1835-1840)
(-). Wade Hampton II (AF): March 19, 1837-March 24, 1837
8. Jefferson Davis (AF): March 24, 1837-January 31, 1840
'37: Won 21-0 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1837-1840)
9. Wade Hampton II (AF): January 31, 1840-January 31, 1850
'39: Won 19-5 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1840-1845)
'44: Won 18-9 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1845-1850)
10. Alexander Stephens (SR): January 31, 1850-January 31, 1860
'49: Won 20-7 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1850-1855)
'54: Won 14-13 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1855-1860)
11. Wade Hampton III (SR): January 31, 1860-December 18, 1884**
'59: Won 14-13 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1860-1865)
'64: Won 16-11 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1865-1870)
'69: Won 16-10 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1870-1875)
'74: Won 30-0 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1875-1877)
'76: Won 30-0 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1877-1883)
'82: Won 31-2 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1883-1889)
(-). James Longstreet (NH): December 18, 1884-January 25, 1885
12. Benjamin Tillman (BT): January 25, 1885-July 4, 1924***
'85: Won 18-15 In The Senate (For The Term Of 1885-1889)
'88: Won 19-17 In The Senate; 71-29 In The House (For The Term Of 1889-1895)
'94: Won 20-15 In The Senate; 80-17 In The House (For The Term Of 1895-1901)
'00: Won 20-18 In The Senate; 84-16 In The House (For The Term Of 1901-1907)
'06: Won 25-12 In The Senate; 84-14 In The House (For The Term Of 1907-1913)
'12: Won 24-14 In The Senate; 82-15 In The House (For The Term Of 1913-1919)
'18: Won 26-10 In The Senate; 75-25 In The House (For The Term Of 1919-1925)
(-). Thomas Watson (NH): July 4, 1924-July 15, 1924
13. Benjamin Tillman Jr. (BT): July 15, 1924-January 31, 1925
'24: Won 36-0 In The Senate; 100-0 In The House (For The Term Of 1924-1925)
14. Thomas Watson (NH): January 31, 1925-January 31, 1931
'24: Won 36-0 In The Senate; 100-0 In The House (For The Term Of 1925-1931)
15. Huey Long (BT): January 31, 1931-November 15, 1983****
'30: Won 31-4 In The Senate; 87-11 In The House (For The Term Of 1931-1937)
'36: Won 29-5 In The Senate; 89-5 In The House (For The Term Of 1937-1943)
'42: Won 39-0 In The Senate; 94-1 In The House (For The Term Of 1943-1949)
'48: Won 30-0 In The Senate; 117-31 In The House (For The Term Of 1949-1955)
'54: Won 27-2 In The Senate; 126-24 In The House (For The Term Of 1955-1961)
'60: ELECTION SUSPENDED (For The Term Of 1961-1967)
'66: ELECTION SUSPENDED (For The Term Of 1967-1973)
'72: Won 98-50 In The House (For The Term Of 1973-1979)
'78: ELECTION SUSPENDED (For The Term Of 1979-1985)
(-). Russell Long (BT): November 15, 1983-December 14, 1983
16. Russell Long (BT): December 14, 1983-January 31, 2003
'83: Won 80-67 In The House (For The Term Of 1983-1985)
'84: Won 89-59 In The House (For The Term Of 1985-1991)
'90: Won 91-59 In The House (For The Term Of 1991-1997)
'96: Won 150-0 In The House (For The Term Of 1997-2003)
17. Roy Moore (SA): January 31, 2003-Present
'02: Won 78-71 In The House (For The Term Of 2003-2009)
'08: Won 89-61 In The House (For The Term Of 2009-2015)
'14: Won 90-60 In The House (For The Term Of 2015-2021)
'20: Won 95-54 In The House (For The Term Of 2021-Present)
*=Impeached after he was revealed to be Catholic
**=Resigned on November 3, 1884 after protests
***=Died in office
****=Died in office

US VS SC COMPARED:
POPULATION:
United States: 200,000,000
Confederation: 150,000,000
GDP:
United States: $21.6 Trillion
Confederation: $2.8 Trillion
HDI:
United States: 0.961
Confederation: 0.804
GINI:
United States: 40.1
Confederation: 31.4
DEBT:
Confederation: $3.0 Trillion
United States: $2.9 Trillion
DEMOCRACY INDEX:
United States: 8.98 (Full Democracy)
Confederation: 4.15 (Hybrid Regime)
ECONOMIC FREEDOM:
United States: 77.6 (Mostly Free)
Confederation: 55.6 (Mostly Unfree)
PRESS FREEDOM:
United States: Good Situation
Confederation: Difficult Situation

 

[Callan]

1979-1983: John Harney (New Democratic)
1979: Claude Wagner (Liberal), Jack Horner (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)
1983-1994: John Crosbie (Liberal)
1983: John Harney (New Democratic), Jack Horner (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)
1987: Marion Dewar (New Democratic), Paul Hellyer (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)
1991: Grant Notley (New Democratic), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Ralliement)
1994-1996: Lise Thibault (Liberal)
1996-2002: Gilles Duceppe (New Democratic)
1996 (Minority): Lise Thibault (Liberal), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Ralliement)
1998: Lise Thibault (Liberal), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Ralliement)
2002-2011: Frank Stronach (Liberal)
2002: Gilles Duceppe (New Democratic), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Nicole Boudreau (Ralliement)
2006: Frances Lakin (New Democratic), Pierre Curzi (Ralliement), Jack Ramsay (Alliance)
2010 (Minority): Moe Sihota (New Democratic), Pierre Curzi (Ralliement), Nancy Greene Raine (Alliance)
2011-2017: Linda Lapointe (Liberal)
2012: Moe Sihota (New Democratic), Nancy Greene Raine (Alliance), Pierre Curzi (Railliement), Adriane Carr (Green)
2017-: Jennifer Hollett (New Democratic)
2017: Linda Lapointe (Liberal), Nancy Greene Raine (Alliance), Pierre Curzi (Ralliement), Linda McQuaig (Green)
2021: Danielle Smith & Éric Duhaime (Action Canada!), Greg Fergus (Liberal), Linda McQuaig (Green)

Review: "Holding The Centre: The Fall of Liberal Canada", reviewed for the Toronto Star by Gerard Kennedy

Financial Times editor Chrystia Freeland's is the latest entry in a series of political books which seek to explain how and why the once-dominant Liberal Party of Canada collapsed into third place and what their future might hold, and if they even have one. But Freeland's entry to this burgeoning sub-genre sticks out from the trend with how far it goes - and how far it does not go.

Freeland does not diagnose the Liberals' crisis with the implosion of Patrick Brown just before the 2021 election, nor the corruption scandals that plagued Lapointe, or even the hollow populism and short-termism of Stronach. Instead, she locates the origin of the Liberal Party's rot with the late John Crosbie. While Claude Wagner's demagoguery set the Liberals on a path to the right, swallowing up most of the Progressive Conservatives in the process, it was the Crosbie administration, Freeland argues, that abandoned the uniquely Canadian reformist zeal that marked previous Liberal governments. Instead, since the 1980s, the Liberals have pursued a bland off-the-shelf neoliberal agenda of privatisation, deregulation and austerity. This embrace of big business and the Washington consensus came at the expense of the Canadian civil society that had previously formed the backbone of Liberal thought and talent.

In her reading, it was New Democrats took the Liberals' place as the shapers of Canada. It was John Harney who brought the constitution and Gilles Duceppe - "Captain Canada" - who won the 1994 referendum that kept Canada together, and then in government passed groundbreaking reforms to expand the rights of women, immigrants, LGBT and indigenous peoples and more. And it was NDP-governed provinces, she points out, who were responsible for most of the much-lauded response to the 2002-03 SARS pandemic and the resultant improvements to healthcare and digital governance, even if it was Stronach who was rewarded with a landslide re-election for it.

There is much to this analysis. Freeland's diagnosis of the Liberals' talent problem feels instructive given so much has been written as to the lack of strong figures in the party in recent years. But her commentary feels strikingly incomplete. She gestures, only briefly, to the possibility that the Stronach and LaPointe Ministries, and increasingly conservative direction they took to fend off the Alliance, alienated the party from the centrists and progressives who the NDP won over at the last election. Her criticism of successive Liberal prime ministers isn't that they presided over unprecedented austerity, the gutting the very welfare state the Liberals themselves had built and the consequential hollowing out of the Canadian middle classes, but that they failed to do so in an authentically Canadian fashion.

This line of analysis thus leaves a great hole in what came next. Without acknowledging the economic and social costs of the Crosbie government, of rising poverty and high inequality and weakened social and political institutions that the Liberals once relied on, it is hard to explain the renaissance of the two historic regional parties and their increasingly reactionary rhetoric. It was was their ability to unite and form a credible national platform that is surely the most immediate cause of the disastrous Liberal result at the last election.

Freeland mourns the possible death of Liberal Canada, its reformist zeal and its ability to build consensus and marginalise the extremes. But she does not acknowledge that this consensus-building has not been present in the Liberals for some time: both the Crosbie and Stronach ministries were marked by repeated confrontation, over free trade, privatisation and attempts to curb union power, nor how the Liberals' recent drift to the right only empowered the populist regionalists and their divisive rhetoric instead of marginalizing it. Instead it is the New Democrats who have emerged as consensus makers, willing (perhaps too much so) to accept the consensus on free trade and Quebec so-called Values Act. While she correctly fears that the Liberals have been supplanted by dangerous radicals as the main opposition to the centre left, she avoids blaming them for this state of affairs.

Because of this book is ultimately a curious failure, a neat case study of the inability of Canadian Liberals to truly look itself in the mirror. And given the reaction this book has received among future Liberal leaders (leadership candidate Caroline Mulroney has called the book "a wake-up call" while Alberta Premier Naheed Nenshi also heaped Freeland with praise), it is clear that the party is not ready to face up to reality either.

 

[ZeroFrame]

Chasing Phantoms

6. John Quincy Adams 1825-1830 (National Republican) ✞
(With John Calhoun) Def: OTL
(With Charles Wickliffe) Def: John Calhoun/Louis McLane (Jeffersonian)
7. John J. Crittenden 1830-1837 (National Republican)
(With Theodore Frelinghuysen) Def: John Calhoun/Robert Hayne (Nullifier) John Standifer/William Rives
8. Richard A. Johnson 1837-1845 (Jeffersonian)
(With Linn Boyd) Def: Henry Clay/Daniel Webster
(With Linn Boyd) Def: Francis Scott Key/Edmund Lee
9. Howell Cobb 1845-1849 (Jeffersonian)
(With John Mason) Def: Henry Clay/Davy Crockett
10. John J. Crittenden 1849-1853 (National Republican)
(With William Seward) Def: Howell Cobb/John Mason
11. David R. Atchison 1851-1857 (Jeffersonian)
(With Levi Woodbury) Def: Edward Everette/Winfield Scott Charles Adams/John Dix (Radical)
12. Horace Mann 1857-1858 (Radical) ✞
(With Lyman Trumball) Def: David Atchison/Levi Woodbury Rufus Choate/John Botts
13. Lyman Trumball 1858-1861 (Radical)
14. John J. Crittenden 1861-1862 (Union)
(With Fernando Wood) Def: Lyman Trumball/Abraham Lincoln
15. Fernando Wood 1862-1863 (Union) ø
16. John Brown 1863-1869 (Radical)
(With David Wilmont) Def: Horatio Seymour/George Pendleton
17. Joshua Chamberlain 1869-1877 (Radical)
(With Schuyler Colfax) Def: Samuel Tilden/Hinton Rowan Harper
(With Schuyler Colfax) Def: Hinton Rowan Harper/Winfield Hancock Anthony Kennedy/Thomas Swann (Native America)
18. Roscoe Conkling 1877-1885 (Radical)
(With William Conant Church) Def: Henry George/Michael Walsh (Labor)
(With William Conant Church) Def: Denis Kearney/James Weaver Henry Smith/Francis Bellamy
19. Leland Stanford 1885-1887 (Native American) I
(With Sylvester Pennoyer) Def: Cassius Clay/George Edmunds Henry Smith/Terence Powderly
20. Frederick A. Conkling 1887-1891 (Radical) ✞
(With Peter Grosscup) Def: Sylvester Pennoyer/Thomas Geary Edward Bellamy/Benjamin Butler
21. Peter Grosscup 1891-1892 (Radical) ø
(With Adlai Stevenson) Def: Various
22. Richard F. Pettigrew 1892- (Fascist)

Radical: FB0004
Jeffersonian: 1F9710
National Republican: D9E21E
Nullifier: 0E8AE2
Native American: A650F3
Fascist: FD8F8D

I=Impeached
✞=Death
ø=Overthrown


America's history has been chaotic to say the least. In 1824 John Quincy Adams defeated Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, and Henry Clay in the Presidential election that saw him win a plurality of 92 electoral votes, putting him over Andrew Jackson by one electoral vote. Still, he did not win a majority and thus the election went to the House where Henry Clay assured Adams's victory over Jackson. Clay, despite Adams's offer to appoint him as Secretary of State declined to be involved in Adams's administration, believing he could more effectively fight for his policies from the Senate. Adams's term was fairly successful, with Adams funding infrastructure projects and renewing the National Bank for the next ten years. The economy was also decent and due to the funding of new ports, canals, and roads America's economy grew in the west and South. Still, discontent over Adams losing the popular vote yet being elected by Congress and his tariffs causing controversy within the South. Fortunately for Adams, his greatest threat, Andrew Jackson died in a hunting accident shortly before the anti-Adams national convention in Richmond. With the convention in chaos, the delegates narrowly nominated John C. Calhoun who served as the highest-ranking anti-Adams politician in the United States. His firebrand support for the expansion of slavery however, doomed his campaign from the beginning and his lack of undying support that Jackson had allowed Adams to win a second term, promising to continue America's economic development and to pursue a nationalist agenda that won him support in the west and north. Adams's second term was much bloodier and intense. In Georgia the Georgian government wanted to remove the Cherokee, which the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional. Georgia refused to comply, and militias fought the Cherokee in the Georgian-Cherokee War, a move that forced Adams to intervene, sending in the military to preserve peace between the Cherokee and Georgia. The move angered the Jeffersonian Party, who supported western expansion and the rights of states to remove Indigenous Americans from their homeland. Several militias clashed with Cherokee and American forces who easily repelled the militias. As Georgia was on the brink of war South Carolina went up in flames when Congress once again raised tariffs. The state of South Carolina rebelled, starting the First Nullification Crisis which sees Adams threaten to send soldiers to restore order. A promise that is kept by his Vice President when he's assassinated by an angry South Carolinian when he visits Raleigh.

Adams's successor is Secretary of State John J. Crittenden who succeeds Adams as he has no Vice President after Charles A. Wickliffe resigns to run for Kentucky Senator in 1830. Crittenden made quick work of his unexpected rise to the Presidency, declaring himself the President instead of acting President and demanding that South Carolina back down or face the US military. Governor Stephen Miller reluctantly agrees as most Americans outside of South Carolina were very angry at the assassination of John Adams. Crittenden's first two terms sees him implement the American System pretty close to Clay's original plan, only backing down on Tariffs for the sake of national unity. His most popular reform, however, was the drastic expansion of education, pledging a university in every state and managing to convince Congress to approve funds for poorer, rural states to expand their education programs. Foreign policy wise Crittenden recognized the Second French Republic and peacefully ended many conflicts with Native Americans, with the Seminoles securing an independent state to the south of Florida. Come 1836 Crittenden opted to forgo a third term, as he had already served seven years as President, only a year off from a full two terms. His successor was from Kentucky, but it wasn't Secretary of State Henry Clay but rather Speaker of the House Richard Mentor Johnson, who was a fierce populist and Jeffersonian who ran a brilliant campaign against Clay, defining Clay as an elitist and himself as a man of the people who had fought for his nation in 1812. Come election night Johnson trounced Clay.

Johnson's term would see him follow Thomas Jefferson's presidency, despite being opposed to Crittenden's policies, Johnson did not reverse even a majority of them. His greatest failure was attempting to dismantle the National Bank, which he failed at; however, he did manage to decentralize the banking system by breaking up the National Bank in favor of state ran banks. Johnson's first term would be held in high regards, outlawing debt imprisonment and decreasing tariffs. Despite his popularity, he faced a strong opponent in Maryland Governor Francis Scott Key. Key was a progressive National Republican and went on the offensive against Johnson, criticizing the cruel practices of slavery. But with a roaring economy Johnson managed to defeat Key. His second term was unimportant, rather than the issue of Texas which had rebelled against Mexico in 1843. The rebellion was led by George Fisher and supported by President Johnson and opposed by the National Republicans. The issue of Texas dominated the 1844 election, which was won by pro-expansion Georgian Senator Howell Cobb, who defeated Senator Henry Clay on a platform of annexing Texas and modern-day Frémont.

Cobb’s legacy can best be described as the fourth worst President in American history. During his term the Mexican American War killed thousands of Americans, with only minor gains of Texas and Frémont, the former of which America would lose in a decade. Furthermore, Cobb also pushed for the expansion of slavery into the newly added Ute and Shasta Territories. Cobb and his southern allies would further alienate the north by adding Texas as a slave state, upsetting the balance of free and slave states. It was this action that divided America and would lead to the First War of the Worlds. Cobb’s divisive stance on slavery would also cost him his re-election to the “great compromiser” John J. Crittenden.

Crittenden’s third term would be chaotic. His first problem was the Panic of 1849, which saw a deep recession swallow the nation. The South however, flourished during this time as cotton prices skyrocketed while the North suffered greatly from the decrease in global trade. It came as no shock when the Jeffersonians swept Congress in 1850 and proceeded to block Crittenden’s policies. All except the Compromise of 1851 which implemented the fugitive slave act while admitting Oregon as a free state.

Due to the economic situation, the Whig’s lost in a landslide and to Missouri Senator David Rice Atchison. His single term destroyed the Union, with him doing the bidding of the Southern aristocracy. His first move was passing the “compromise” of 1854 which implemented popular sovereignty in Platte and Osage. Soon after the bill was passed pro-slavery Southerners and anti-slavery abolitionists, backed by the new Radical Party led by Charles Adams poured into Platte, which had exploded in population as families made their way to Shasta, Oregon, and Ute, which had just discovered vast quantities in silver. It didn't take long for the abolitionists and pro-slavery settlers to clash, with Platte being in a state of civil war for the next two years. "Red Platte" as it was called, only intensified when James Henry Lane's militia occupied the capital of Platte Territory, Salt Creek. In retaliation the pro-slavery militias, led by Daniel Woodson who was backed by President Atchison. The Battle of Salt Creek was a pyrrhic victory for the pro-slavery "Calhounians" against the anti-slavery Liberators. 769 people were killed in the battle and the Salt Creek Massacre that followed, which saw thirty-three Liberators executed by Calhounians outraged the North. Of course, Rice wasn't going to stop there and looked South to expand slavery, specifically Cuba. The colony of the Spanish would make the United States incredibly rich if it was under the control of the United States, but the US needed an excuse to take the colony. That excuse came when the USS Adams sunk off the coast of Cuba after a fire started. The Rice Administration pounced on the opportunity and declared that Spain sunk the USS Adams, a bold lie that Spain, the North, and much of Europe contested. However, there was enough outrage from the deaths of fifty-nine sailors for the US to narrowly declare war on Spain on February 19th, 1855. The ensuing war was a brutal affair, as Northern cities erupted in riots, with Irish and German immigrants rioting in New York City and Boston after the government approved a scheme to allow the rich to buy out of the incoming draft. The Radicals pounced on this opportunity and made inroads within immigrant communities by attacking the Spanish-American War. By 1856 the war was at a stalemate. Diseases and brutal fighting in the jungle of Cuba had taken its toll on the popularity of the war, allowing the anti-war, abolitionist ticket of Massachusetts Governor Horace Mann and Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull to defeat President Atchison.

Upon Mann's election the South immediately talked about secession. Mann had promised to end the Spanish-American War and ban slavery in Platte and Osage. South Carolina was the first to secede and much of the South followed suit, including the border states of Delaware and Missouri. Furthermore, former President Atchison refused to recognize Mann as the President, declaring himself the true President. However, three very important states had refused to secede. Kentucky voted against secession despite support from Governor John C. Breckenridge, Tennessee which narrowly voted against secession, with the pro-union and anti-aristocratic National Republican Governor, Andrew Johnson rallying his state behind the Union. Finally, was Maryland which was prevented from voting for secession by President Mann who declared martial law. It was then Rice made his move, declaring President Mann and from there he declared the Union of Independent States (UIS) or Union. The UIS, per the orders of interim President Atchison sent soldiers to capture D.C which Atchison declared to be rightful UIS territory. 20,000 soldiers under General Jefferson Davis invaded Maryland in a shock to the US. The force of 15,000 American soldiers, under the control of General John C. Fremont, met at Bethesda where Fremont was routed by Jackson. The first battle of the War of the Worlds was a Union victory, with 4,000 people being killed. With Bethesda being captured Fremont led his forces to D.C where he planned to defend the city. However, the battle would be another defeat for the Union, with the UIS outnumbering the Federals 30,000 to 20,000 and deploying General Stonewall Jackson, whose superior tactics allowed him to crush Fremont and capture D.C. President Mann only narrowly escaped, personally visiting the brave Federal soldiers and leaving just three hours before D.C fell. After D.C fell the Union soldiers pillaged and burned D.C, with the White House and Capitol being destroyed. When the Second Burning of Washington was revealed to the North, the backlash was immense. Even in states such as Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Maryland, the anger was unmatched. Governor Johnson immediately decried the UIS, saying "the traitors shall never win." Former President Crittenden, who was once again a Kentucky Senator and opponent of President Mann gave a speech to the State Legislature in Frankford, saying "former President Rice is nothing more than a petty tyrant. I will not pretend I liked the fact Mann was elected President, but the people have spoken. Rice claims that Mann is a dictator but meanwhile he burns and loots the capital because the people rejected him."

The Second Burning of Washington convinced everyone that a peaceful resolution was impossible. Shortly after D.C was burned Mann called for 150,000 volunteers to crush the insurrection. Support for America came from two nations in particular: Italy and Spain. Spain was supportive of the Federals due to Mann ending US involvement in the Spanish-American War. However, Spain was still at war with the UIS, and it didn't take long for the US and Spain to sign the Ostend Manifesto, which effectively brought Spain on the side of the Federals. Italy, meanwhile, was under the control of Giuseppe Mazzini, a staunch Republican and social democrat who gave diplomatic support to the Federals. The UIS on the other hand got support from France and Britain in an attempt to weaken the US. However, both nations were dragged into the war when the British cutter, William III was caught aiding the Unionists and trying to sneak through the blockade of the South. In response, the USS Minnesota attempted to board the vessel which caused a shootout that killed four Americans and seven British sailors. From there, an angry Parliament declared war on the US as King George V and President Mann failed to diffuse the situation. Partially because both men were wildly different. George V was a reactionary, in the same vein as his father Ernest I, and Mann was a radical in the same vein as Samuel Adams or Feargus O'Connor. Furthermore, Britain and Hanover were confident that if France joined in the war, it would be an easy war that would see America crushed for good. However, that would not be the case. First of all, Spain promised to defend America, and declaring war on America would bring Britain, Hanover, and France to war against Spain. Still, Spain wasn't a big problem, having a weak military and navy. So, the three nations declared war on the United States, and the First War of the Worlds began. Things were complicated when the Italian Republic joined the war. The Italian Republic was allied with Prussia and much like Prussia, it wished to kick out the imperialist powers of old. Prussia wished to annex Hanover while Italy wished to kick the French out of Rome, who was propping up the rump Papal States. Of course, neither nation was dumb enough to wage war with two superpowers, even if Spain and the United States distracted them. That's where Russia came in. Under Alexander II, the Crimean War had been a technical draw, as Russia held its own against the UK, France, Hanover, and Ottoman Empire. It was a pyrrhic victory for the Quadruple Alliance and Russia wanted its revenge. Seeing the distraction of the "Grand Concord" (UIS, Britain, France, Hanover) Russia decided to intervene on the side of the Federals. Soon after Prussia and the Republic of Italy joined in. The intervention of Italy, Prussia, and Russia began when Italy bombarded the French-Papal States garrison in Rome. Giuseppe Garibaldi quite easily crushed the depleted garrison, finally capturing Rome. However, his soldiers, inspired by his anticlerical stance stormed the Vatican and looted the Sistine Chapel. Pope Pius IX would be evacuated by the French Navy but tragically die after contracting pneumonia. The Papal States was wiped off the map, but the Cardinalate set up in Avignon. From there the French government declared itself the defender of the Catholic faith and the new Pope, Carlo Luigi Morichini who took the name Pius X declared his support for France against Italy.

After Italy declared war on Italy, Britain, Hanover, and the UIS declared war on Italy in retaliation. The next day on March 29th, Prussian soldiers invaded Hanover and Russia came to the defense of the US. A week later King George V asked Franz Karl I of Austria to join the war, bringing up the danger of Germanic nationalism which Franz Karl I accepted. Several German kingdoms joined in on either the Grand Concord or the newly founded Ostend Alliance.

On the American front the US struggled tremendously to hold off both Britain and the UIS. After the Second Burning of Washington Zachary Taylor was appointed Commander of the Army and personally led the Army of the Cumberland, waging war in the Virginia area. Meanwhile John Sedgwick led the Army of the Hudson against Britain. From the start the war was a bloody affair. Fighting was ferocious as the Second Burning of Washington inspired a take no prisoners mentality that saw Federals fight like hell. Furthermore, John Brown, who led several militias began the doctrine of total war, tearing up UIS railroads and burning plantations and factories to the ground. In retaliation the UIS enslaved black Federals and sometimes executed prisoners of war. The first year of the war would see numerous bloody battles. One was the Battle of Cairo, which saw a ten-day siege of Cairo that was eventually won by the Unionists. The battle would cost 55,000 lives and see Cairo burned down. The second bloodiest battle of the year in America was the Battle of Knoxville, which saw 38,000 people die over five days and ended in a federal victory. The bloodiest battle of the war in America would be the Siege of Detroit, which lasted from August of 1857 to January of 1859, with a colossal 192,000 civilians and soldiers killed.

In Europe the situation was equally bloody. Spain was a mess to say the least. Portugal begrudgingly joined the war on the side of the Grand Concord, allowing British and French troops to bypass the Pyrene Mountains. Furthermore, the blockade instituted by Britain and France crippled the Spanish economy and made the invasion on paper very easy. However, Spain fought until the end with the Spanish military comparing the invasion to Napoleon's invasion of Spain fifty years prior. The combined force of Portugal, France, and Britain overwhelmed the Spanish but came at a heavy cost, with tens of thousands dying. But Spain had suffered far worse. Its navy was annihilated by the British, Unionists, Portuguese, and French while the Spanish military was severely crippled. By the time Spain sued for peace in 1860 a total of 595,000 people would be killed. Spain would hold out, believing Prussia, Italy, and Russia could make their way to France and Britain would suffer from overextension. The latter happened but the former did not and thus Spain ceded Cuba to the UIS, Mindano to Portugal, Puerto Rico to Britain, Luzon to France, and $30 million US dollars in reparations. It would come as no shock that Spain would soon fall into civil war between the Carlists and Marxists only three years later.

Otherwise in Europe Austria did not do so well. Prussia's superior military and Russia's overwhelming manpower. By 1860 Austria-Hungary was on the verge of collapse. In 1860 the US had held its own against the UIS however Britain had seized Oregon, Maine, Detroit, and was sieging Boston. Hanover was captured by Prussia and Britain was facing rebellions in Hong Kong and India. Italy was also suffering severely from the war, holding its own against France but Britain had gained a foothold near Geneoa. By 1860 millions were dead and the end was not in sight. Fighting in Austria-Hungary was brutal as the French, Portuguese, British, and Austrians tried to repel the Russian Army. However, Russia and Prussia refused to give an inch and hundreds of thousands were dying due to disease and looting. It was 1860 when the Grand Concord tried to break Prussia but by capturing Berlin. Despite outnumbering the Prussians and Russians, with a force of 450,00 soldiers being mustered for the invasion and 340,000 being mustered for the defense of Berlin the Grand Concord was defeated. On November 19th, 1860, the Third Miracle of the House of Brandenburg prevailed. But one event changed the course of the war and that was John J. Crittenden being narrowly elected over President Trumbull. While Crittenden promised to defeat the British and UIS he died a little less than a year in office on February 9th. His Vice President, Fernando Wood immediately started negotiations with the Grand Concord. Soon after the Treaty of Sao Paulo was signed between the US and Grand Concord. The US would recognize the independence of the UIS and ceded western Tennessee to the UIS. The sudden shift in power ended the First War of the Worlds. Without the American front British and maybe even UIS soldiers would flood Europe and give the Grand Concord enough men to break the Ostend Alliance. The Ostend Alliance needed a decisive victory if they wished to continue the war. That would happen at the Battle of Prague which saw a joint Russian-Prussian force defeat the French-Austrian force and capture the city on May 19th. By the end of May the war was at its end. In France Paris erupted in rebellion as the poor, influenced by Marxism rebelled against the war and proclaimed the second French Revolution, which would be crushed. In Austria-Hungary most supported peace as 1,009,000 people in Austria-Hungary had been killed. In Britain riots engulfed Britain as Ireland once again rebelled and the toll of war and authoritarianism by George V angered the populace. In the Germanic kingdoms, revolution swept cities such as Baden and Magdeburg. Once again, the Grand Concord and Ostend Alliance met, this time in Oslo to discuss a peace.

The peace was a compromise, with Hanover not conceding territory but several Germanic kingdoms were annexed by Prussia and Galicia was seized by Russia while Italy conceded minor lands to France. Furthermore, Alaska was annexed by Britain and Russia renounced all claims on India and Afghanistan. In the end the war had killed 11 million people and destroyed the old world. President Fernando Wood was overthrown by Colonel John Brown and sentenced to death in absentia for high treason. In Britian George V was assassinated, allowing his son Ernest II to take power who proceeded to crackdown on Chartist riots with the military. A move that saw the riots turn into a revolution, with Catholics, Jews, urban poor, and reformist demand his abdication. Ernest II refused and on October 17th, 1868, the military turned on Ernest II. Anger at his supposed concern with Hanover and treatment of Britain's citizens would see Parliament elect the moderate Reform Party to a plurality in the House of Commons. In retaliation Ernest II dissolved Parliament and called new elections. It was from here that things only worsened as Britain entered a massive depression, caused by an increase in cotton prices. Mass protests were responded with by soldiers fixing bayonets and firing into the crowd. From there Parliament was stormed and somehow Parliament was started on fire. No one knows how it started but seven hundred people, who were trapped in it were killed and rumors spread that Ernest II ordered the fire started in order to install an absolute monarchy. From there Buckingham Palace was stormed and Ernest II fled to Hanover. The British Republic was proclaimed the next day.

In the US, the Radical Party becomes the dominant Party for the next fifty years. The Second American Revolution destroys any major opposition due to the unpopularity of the Unionist Party, with Fernando Wood fleeing to Canada. Immediately after taking power Congress expels all "Rattle Snake” representatives and senators for supporting peace, and passes through OTL’s 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. Furthermore, the 16th amendment banned the deportation of runaway slaves to the UIS, the 17th abolished the 3/5th compromise, and the 18th amendment which made anyone born in the United States (including those from the UIS) US citizens. The Radical administration of John Brown would be re-elected in a landslide and got to work emancipating Catholics, successfully getting the Stanton Court to outlaw discrimination against Catholics and also Jews. However, once Brown left office the federal government would ignore the plight of minority groups such as the Irish and later Finnish, Scandinavians, Chinese, Poles, Croats, and Bohemians who emigrated to the US and were exploited by "Titans," large American companies who exploited them. Under Roscoe Conkling the US turned to the right, favoring a Nativist foreign policy that saw Chinese and Nipponese immigration banned by the US. Furthermore, many immigrants remained in poverty.

It was under these conditions radical ideologies fostered. From the ghettos of Boston to the Great Plains people embraced numerous ideologies. Whether it was Possibilism (OTL Anarchism), Marxism, or Fascism, which had sprung up in 1890 when Sicilian peasants rebelled against Prime Minister Silvio Spaventa of Italy, initiating the Italian Civil War. Fascism would come to be supported by anti-Marxist leftists, specifically those such as Pope Lucius III (Lucien Bonaparte), who gave his support to the Sicilian Fasci. Fascism, due to its connections to Christianity and its ability to bridge the gap between the poor farmers of the plains and poor urban laborers of cities such as NYC, Milwaukee, Duluth, and Pittsburgh. The American Fascist Association was created by Francis and Edward Bellamy in 1888 in Boston. After the removal of President Stanford and Vice President Pennoyer for ignoring the Supreme Court on the Gray anti-trust Act, it exploded in popularity, with the Fascist Party electing Richard F. Pettigrew, William Browder, William Jennings Bryan, Robert LaFollette, and Henry Whipple to the Senate. During Conkling’s administration the Fascists began to rise due to the crackdown on labor unions by the violent federal government. It all came to a head in Duluth in 1891 when striking dockers paralyzed the sprawling metropolis. Governor Charles Congdon attempted to find a peaceful resolution, but President Conkling decided to send 5,000 soldiers into Duluth and break up the strike. Surprisingly the strikers fought back, and Duluth was made into a war zone as Pinkertons and military attacked the strikers, killing three hundred men. From there outrage at the government and Titians heavy handed tactics escalated the public response. Across the country strikes began which were crushed by President Conkling who would die only a week later. Newly inaugurated President Peter Grosscup continued the hardline policies against "illegal" strikes. The straw, or in this case two pieces of straw that broke the camel's back was the 1892 election and Platte Crisis. The 1892 election was a sham, with Richard F. Pettigrew of the Fascists being arrested for sedition under the First War of the Worlds era Anti-Americanism Act and therefore illegible. The Native Americans nominated Opposition Leader John G. Carlise who was essentially a puppet of Grosscup. The sham election had gone in favor of the Republicans, who won with only 35% turnout, with most Americans boycotting the election.

The Platte Crisis was caused by the Platte Legislature banning federal soldiers from entering Platte without permission. A law that the federal government broke by sending in soldiers to break up a railroad strike. From there national Fascist leaders called for another revolution. With the grandson of John Brown, John Brown III calling for the military to arrest President Grosscup just as his grandfather (who died recently in Osage as a prominent critic of Grosscup and Conkling) had. The military refused initially but the people didn't, and the White House was stormed by Fascists on December 25th, 1892. Soon after, local governments declared that the people had nullified the Grosscup Presidency. Grosscup, refused to flee and instead tried to convince the military to restore order. But George Armstrong Custer refused to declare martial law, and instead told Grosscup to resign as the soldiers began to mutiny. Grosscup obliged on the condition he would be pardoned, a condition that was met.

Richard F. Pettigrew walked into the White House on January 23rd, being made President Pro Tempore in order to succeed Grosscup. However, the Third American Revolution was far from over and just like the second it would be overshadowed internationally by the War of the Worlds, this time the second. As war between Prussia and France becomes inevitable America wonders is this the beginning of a new story or are they simply chasing phantoms?

 

[Sideways]

This was my entry for the last list challenge. The current one is themed around Stylistic Imitation (that is, imitating the style or content of another list-writer) and there's still a week to get your entry in!

When First We Practice As Decievers
​

2019-2022: Boris Johnson (Conservative)
def 2019: (Majority) Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrats)
2022-2022: Liz Truss (Conservative)
2022-2024: Penny Mourdant (Conservative)
2024-2027: Keir Starmer (Labour)
def 2024: (Minority with SNP confidence and supply) Penny Mourdant (Conservative), Richard Tice (Reform), Angus Robertson (SNP), Ed Davey (Liberal Democrats)
2025 Scottish Independence Referendum: 51.7% YES, 48.3% NO
def 2026: (Coalition with Liberal Democrats) Mike Heaver (Reform), Richard Foord (Liberal Democrats), Tobias Ellwood (One Britain One Nation), Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Nadine Dorries (Conservative)
2027-2029: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrats leading coalition with "PR" Labour)
2029-2031: Edward "Remeece" Freeman (Reform)
def 2029: (Minority) Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat--People's Alliance), Keir Starmer (Labour), Bin Afolami (One Britain One Nation), Jackie Weaver (We Have The Authority), Nadine Dorries (Conservative), Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay (Green--People's Alliance), Adam Price (Plaid Cymru), Cat Smith (Independent Labour--People's Alliance)
2031-2031: Martin Daubney (Reform)
2031-2032: Edward "Remeece" Freeman (Reform)
2032-2034: Ben Wallace (Independent leading Government of all the talents)
def 2032: (Minority) Jackie Weaver (We Have The Authority), Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour), Monica Harding & Stephen Kinnock (Liberal & People's Alliance), Edward "Remeece" Freeman (Reform), Carla Denyer & Adrian Ramsay (Green), Jessica Zbinden-Webster (One Britain One Nation), Delyth Jewell (Plaid Cymru), Alice Grant (Conservative)
2034-2057: Jackie Weaver (We Have The Authority)
def 2034: (Majority) Ben Wallace (Government Of All The Talents)
2038 Enabling Act Referendum: 79% YES, 21% NO
2057-XXXX: "Jackie Weaver" (We Have The Authority) [disputed]

Your name and details? Just a formality for the official immigration records.

Jute. Edgar Jute. 49 years old, white male. Engineer. I've been in Gretna Refugee Camp One for...three years. Seems longer, really.

Right. With that out of the way...it says here you were employed by the British government between 2035 and 2059. Is that correct?

Yeah. I was hired right out of Warwick--should have been a red flag, really. I started out in the Office of Telecommunications, but after a year, some...they needed more people to work on a project, and I fit...experience that I had, apparently that was needed. So I was moved over to UK-GNSS--the people who, uh, they make satellites. So there I was responsible for a lot more R&D. It was a good position.

This project was known as the Malachi Network, correct?

...fuck.

It's not that bad, Mr Jute. If you give us any valuable information on it, we'll take it into consideration at your trial.

I...look, I appreciate it, but I think any info you give me will just keep me in prison for longer.

I'll start at the beginning, right? Just to give some context, however bad it still looks.

Feel free to take your time.

Right. So you've got to remember that, well, we'd had 22 years of political chaos--that was, at the time, nearly my whole life. Nearly my whole life had been uncertainity, governments toppling over themselves with populist or antipopulist agendas, parties splitting apart from referenda, ever-more crazed rhetoric...we left the EU, let you lot leave us, got rid of FPTP, but nothing seemed to help. It never stopped. All these false messiahs kept rising to the top, and the establishments that they chafed with just threw them over once they turned out to be clowns, or something outside their control broke everything anyway. The man who got my first vote--a rapper, you wouldn't have heard of him--went from PM to backbencher to PM again in ten months! Because of a flood!

It was all just a big bubble. A talking shop, for people who thought they were above ordinary Brits. The idea was to break it all up, forever, and...that still doesn't justify what I did. Doing what I was ordered to do. Not in the slightest.

Could you please explain what it was you were ordered to do?

Sure, I'm just...I'm just getting to that bit.

First, you've got to circle back around a bit. Jackie Weaver. You know her, you love her, you can see her face broadcasted on giant screens just over the border, and if you're lucky a bunch of choreographed dancers making a giant aerial representation of same. Now, you're not going to believe this...but there's something not entirely normal about her.

Mr Jute, sarcasm will not get you very far with us.

Fine, fine, fine. My point still stands, though. I mean, it started out small, at first. The Zoom video she was in, y'know, the one where that bloke tells her she doesn't have any authority--fuck me, I must have watched that a thousand times by now--that was only when she was, what, sixty-something? We're all lucky that it didn't come on full-bloom when she was a tot. Maybe it needed the Internet to work, or something. There's still so much we'll nev--we don't know. It--the video launched a thousand ships, metaphorically. Then they put her on TV, and all hell broke loose. After that damn reality show, she was being touted as the ideal outsider, someone who'd turn over the shoddy state of British politics, and somehow, that got her into Parliament, and it all just grew from there. You ever seen a snowball rolling down a hill? Not in real life, of course, in a cartoon, where it rolls and rolls and just keeps getting bigger and bigger? Like that.

All of this was despite her never really doing or saying anything that'd explain it. She was only moderately funny, had pretty standardly dull political views, all the charisma of, well, a sixty-year-old parish councillor--she shouldn't have even won the reality show! Campbell just gave her a bunch of extra points for "leadership"! She just had this inexplicable aura around her, that let her cheat her way through politics. Made everyone just jump out of her way.

It wasn't everybody who was suckered by her...whatever. Her campaign manager--I forget his name--he was maybe a bit more immune than the rest. Once she got into No10, he started work on a project. That's when they called me in. I had some...relevant experience.

What was this experience in?

[indistinct mumbling]

Mr Jute, if you could speak up, please?

Fetish sites. I wrote for a hypnosis fetish site. I was a horny teenager, and it wasn't harming anybody. Well, it put me in a position to harm everybody. Not sure if that's the same thing, though.

Anyway, what that meant was that I knew a decent amount about actual hypnosis. Which was...aligned to the goal of making the Malachai Network. The idea was that we'd prevent all the chaos, the splits, the factions, the stupid ideas coming down from the top. Just have one "ordinary" but charismatic figurehead to be beloved by the masses but utterly impotent, and we'd get on with managing things properly. The same old philosopher-king bollocks you can get from any midwit civil servant anywhere after 2 pints.

It doesn't properly explain why we did what we did, really. I'm half-certain that most of us were already doped up on Weaver, and our conscious minds were just filtering through a rationalisation for our crazed decisions. The network went up all the same, though, because the people with doubts didn't do bollocks to stop it.

What...was the Malachi Network, exactly?

I told you where I worked, didn't I? Satellites. They were a system of satellites. Didn't start out that way--originally we were just going to do subliminal stuff in TV broadcasts, but no-one watches live TV anymore and all the mobile service providers had been brought out by people a continent away from our legislative powers. It was easier to get a radio dish up into geosynchronous orbit than to regulate Apple.

We'd managed to isolate the signal Weaver produced by then. It was--well, if you asked two people in the department, you'd get three answers. Whatever it was she produced when recorded, we could replicate it. Intensify it, even. A concentrated form of Weaver-Beam raining down on the UK from space. This frequency did something to the brain, that manifested as devotion. A sincere love, a belief in their ability to lead and be one of them. Thomas--the campaign manager, he went on a lot about how we'd found the source of leadership. Alexander, Hong Xiuquang, BoJo, every king or rebel or popular politician through history, all of them, according to him, just people lucky enough to extrude this super-charisma.

What we didn't realise was quite what the effects of constant, 24-7 exposure to...to effectively brainwashing, would have on the British psyche.

Honestly, I think Jackie had the worst time of it out of anybody. She never asked to be in charge of an organic personality cult. She didn't ask for one Zoom meeting where she got a bit bolshy to be played on every channel 'til Kingdom Come. She didn't ask for people naming their kids after her, or postrating themselves before her in the street, or setting up shrines to her old shoes. I mean, imagine that life--infinite theoretical power, but you can't have a normal conversation with anyone. The only human in a kingdom of dogs. Every time I saw her, if I took a minute or two to push away the urge to throw myself into a fire if she asked, she just looked...confused. Confused, and tired, and wanting to go home. Not that anyone would let her.

So...if Weaver isn't in control, who is?

Good question. A very, very, good question. The idea was that it was, well, us. The men in grey suits, made immune to Weaver's aura. The problem was that, well, none of us actually had immunity. We all just thought we did because we were able to rationalise our way around our decisions. We were just checking in on the quality of the broadcasts, caught up in the crowd's emotions, operating to make sure the propaganda had the maximum reach...that sort of thing.

It...if you've ever met an alcoholic, y'know, one of the high-functioning ones? They're always making excuses. It's a hot day, better have a drink, oh this is just for the builders, not for me, it's just a small drink, something to start the day off with...that's what it was like, in Whitehall, by the end. Everyone making excuses as to why they weren't like the addled masses, even as they huddled around the screens blaring Weaver's faces like drunks around a tap. By the end, most of the meetings were about providing more forms of Weaver to the public, and by extension, to us. Infrastructure, housing, the climate--all of that was out of the window. I watched people I respected and looked up to as pillars of savvy intellect beat each other to death with bare fists for the right to touch an old woman's discarded shirt.

...fucking hell.

Bit unprofessional of you, there. What kind of standards are the Scottish government demanding these days?

Sorry. Continue.

Right. Anyway, I'd love to say that I fled, and ended up here, sweating through withdrawal with all the other economically destitute Weaver junkies, because I was sickened at my own actions and had a change of heart. I didn't. I left because we'd made a society of addicts, and were about to run out of the supply.

Run out of...what?

Weaver's dead. Nasty fall, five years ago. All the servants were too overawed to touch her, and...yeah.

None of us made plans, or contingencies, because, well, we were all addled, weren't we? We all thought she'd survive forever, somehow. We didn't even want to think of a world without her. The day we made the announcement, Thomas--the campaign guy, closest thing we had to a leader--he walked out of the room dead silent. We found him a few hours later, hanging from the rafters.

We could just have kept running the same videos again and again, and they did. They are. The thing is, though, like any group of addicts, the public of the UK--whatever's left of them--the British public get desensitised. You have to keep upping the dosage, or changing it up, because the old stuff won't work any more. I'm sure your government's noticed. They're restive, spend longer times at the performances or what have you, hollow eyes, paler skin, more aggressive...eventually, nothing will be enough to keep them sated. My old mates, the ones left at the top, they've got grand schemes of trying to find a replacement, or desperate bluffs of trying to create new activites or ways to venerate her. Me, I just thought I'd leave before I was eaten by a mob of lunatics trying to sniff Buckingham Palace's carpets.

Do you know what you're going to try and do next?

I do. Wish I didn't.

...why not?

Look, this is nothing personal, alright? You've been a decent interviewer, the free biscuits were good, and you haven't punched me in the face for destroying an entire country's psyche. But I know what's going to happen, because you're a professional. You're going to give this interview to your boss.

Your boss will read through it, and then they'll send it on to their boss. And so on, and so forth, and every time it moves up the chain, some data, some vital element of it--the look on my face, the words I used, the implications of this fucking jungle of slowly dying Englishmen huddled around photos of an unlucky parish councillor right outside the door here--will be lost. All that'll remain is the idea.

It's dangerous times, these days. The economy's always spiralling or stagnating, the seas are rising, extremists are all over the place. It's hard to keep a nation stable. How wonderful it would be, if there was some way to bypass all that! To just make people believe in a country again! Or at least believe in some figure that represents the country. Some charismatic individual, who can make people feel better about their shithole lives just by existing.

Remember, if Thomas was right, then everyone produces some sort of mind-whammy charisma beams. Amping up Weaver made Western accounts of North Korea look sane, but amping up some actor or staffer with a satellite system, well, that could be controlled, couldn't it? Even if it can't, do you want to take the risk that some foreign government could make their own super-figurehead? We've got to do it, and save the nation forever, and stay in power forever. We'll bring some sense back, prevent all the chaos, shut the useless talking shop.

There's no way of putting the mushroom cloud back into the nice shiny tube.

Some day, a week or two from now, a very nice car is going to drive through Gretna. Someone will walk out of that car, shiny shoes splashing in the muck of thousands of people in barely human housing. They'll pace through our excuses for streets, until they get to a dismal shed leaning next to an old tree. They'll push open the door, and see me squatting on my matress, and ask "Mr Jute, we'd like you to replicate some of your earlier work for us."

And I'll say "Make me, Prime Minister".

Just to say, this is amazing I love it

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Just to say, this is amazing I love it

Thank you! Your vignette about the Influencing Machine ended up influencing (pun intended) a lot of this--originally it was going to be a relatively comedic Black Mirror ripoff, but then it grew in the telling for a bunch of reasons, at least one of which was how weirdly unimpressive the original Weaver video is.

 

[Yokai Man]

1997-2007 Tony Blair (Labour Majority)

2007-2010 John Reid (Labour Majority)

2010-2015 David Cameron (Conservative Majority)
2010: David Cameron-Conservative [341],John Reid-Labour [204],Nick Clegg-Liberal Democrat [81]
2014 Scottish Independence Referendum: 52,39% No

2015-2021 Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat-Labour Coalition,Liberal Democrat-Labour Progressive Pact-Green-Alliance Minority Coalition with SNP support and confidence)
2015: Nick Clegg-Liberal Democrat [200],David Cameron-Conservative [190],Alan Johnson-Labour [181],Nicola Sturgeon-SNP [47],Nigel Farage-UKIP [7],Nathalie Bennett-Green [1],George Galloway-RESPECT [1]
2016 AV+ Referendum: 51,60% Yes
2020: Nick Clegg/Alan Johnson-Labour/Liberal Democrat Progressive Pact [294],Michael Gove-Conservative [230],Nigel Farage-UKIP [66],Nicola Sturgeon-SNP [30],
Jonathan Bartley/Siân Berry-Green [14],Arlene Foster-DUP [6],Mary Lou McDonald-Sinn Féin [4],Adam Price-Plaid Cymru [4],Naomi Long-Alliance [3],Colum Eastwood-SDLP [3],Steve Aiken-UUP [2]

2021-present day Lynne Featherstone (Liberal Democrat-Labour Progressive Pact-Green-Alliance Minority Coalition with SNP support and confidence)

A sequel of sorts to this:

2006-2008 Stephen Harper (Conservative)
2006 (Minority) : Stephen Harper-Conservative [124],Paul Martin-Liberal [103],Gilles Duceppe-Bloc Québécois [51],Jack Layton-NDP [29]

2008-2011 Stéphane Dion (Liberal)
2008 (Minority) : Stéphane Dion-Liberal [130],Stephen Harper-Conservative [80],Gilles Duceppe-Bloc Québécois [54],Jack Layton-NDP [43],Elizabeth May-Green [1]

2011-2011 Jack Layton (New Democratic)
2011: Jack Layton-NDP [171],Stéphane Dion-Liberal [79],Peter MacKay-Conservative [67],Elizabeth May-Green [1]

2011-present day Thomas Mulcair (New Democratic)


2011-2017 Enda Kenny (Fine Gael-Labour coalition,Fine Gael-Fiannna Fáil-Labour coalition after 2016)
2011: Enda Kenny-Fine Gael [81],Eamon Gilmore-Labour [42],Gerry Adams-Sinn Féin [17],various Independents [17],Micheál Martin*-Fianna Fáil [3],(collective leadership)-Socialist Party [2],(collective leadership)-People Before Profit [2],Séamus Healy-WUA [1]
2016: Enda Kenny-Fine Gael [60],Gerry Adams-Sinn Féin [34],various Independents [19],Joan Burton-Labour [15],John McGuinness-Fianna Fáil [8],(collective leadership)-AAA-PBP [8],Catherine Murphy/Róisín Shortall/Stephen Donnelly-Social Democrats [6],(collective leadership)-Inds.4 Change [4],Eamon Ryan-Green [2], Lucinda Creighton*-Renua [2]

2017-2020 Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael-Fiannna Fáil-Labour coalition)

2020-present day Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin-Green-Social Democrats Coalition)
2020: Mary Lou McDonald-Sinn Féin [54],various Independents [29],Leo Varadkar-Fine Gael [25],Eamon Ryan-Green [23],Catherine Murphy/Róisín Shortall-Social Democrats [9],(collective leadership)-PBP/Solidarity [7],John McGuinness-Fianna Fáil [3],Brendan Howlin-Labour [3],Peadar Tóibín-Aontú [3],(collective leadership)-Inds.4 Change [3]


2012-2015 Antonis Samaras (New Democracy minority government,New Democracy-NIMAR Coalition)
May 2012: Antonis Samaras-ND [124],Alexis Tsipras-SYRIZA [65],Panos Kammeros-ANEL [40],Aleka Papariga-KKE [26],Nikolaos Michaloliakos-Golden Dawn [21],Fotis Kouvelis-NIMAR [19],(collective leadership)-Ecological Greens [5]
June 2012: Antonis Samaras-ND [141],Alexis Tsipras-SYRIZA [81],Panos Kammeros-ANEL [27],Nikolaos Michaloliakos-Golden Dawn [18],Fotis Kouvelis-NIMAR [17],Aleka Papariga-KKE [12](collective leadership)-Ecological Greens [4]

2015-2019 Alexis Tsipras (SYRIZA Majority)
January 2015: Alexis Tsipras-SYRIZA [163],Antonis Samaras-ND [87],Panos Kammeros-ANEL [20],Nikolaos Michaloliakos-Golden Dawn [18],Stavros Theodorakis-To Potami [17],Dimitris Koutsoumpas-KKE [15]
2015 Bailout Referendum: 67,03% No
September 2015: Alexis Tsipras-SYRIZA [158],Vangelis Meimarakis-ND [85],Panos Kammeros-ANEL [21],Nikolaos Michaloliakos-Golden Dawn [19],Stavros Theodorakis-To Potami [17],Dimitris Koutsoumpas-KKE [15],Panagiotis Lafazanis-LAE [5]

2019-present day Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy Majority)
2019: Kyriakos Mitsotakis-ND [160],Alexis Tsipras-SYRIZA [89],Panos Kammeros-ANEL [21],Dimitris Koutsoumpas-KKE [15],Kyriakos Velopoulos-EL [15]


2011-2019 Mariano Rajoy (People's Party Majority)
2011: Mariano Rajoy-PP [241],Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba-PSOE [38],Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida-CiU [20],Cayo Lara-IU [19],Iñaki Auzmendi-Amaiur [9],Josu Erkoreka-EAJ/PNV [6],Rosa Díez-UPyD [5]
2015: Mariano Rajoy-PP [180],Pablo Iglesias-Podemos [71],Albert Rivera-Ciudadanos [40],Pedro Sánchez-PSOE [38],Gabriel Rufián-ERC [9],Francesc Homs-DiL [8]

2019-present day Pablo Iglesias (Podemos-PSOE Coalition)
2019: Pablo Iglesias-Podemos [92],Pedro Sánchez-PSOE [87],Albert Rivera-Ciudadanos [77],Mariano Rajoy-PP [38],Santiago Abascal-Vox [29],Oriol Junqueras-ERC [15],Jordi Sànchez-Together for Catalonia [6]

 

[Time Enough]

President of South Korea:
1962 - 1979: Park Chung-hee (Democratic Republican)
1971 def. Kim Dae-jung (New Democratic)
1979 - 1981: Choi Kyu-hah (Independent)
1980 Constitutional Referendum: Yes 61%, No 39%
1981 - : Yi Cheol-seung (New Democratic)
1981 def. Kim Jong-pil (National Republican), Kim Dae-Jung (Democratic)

Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea:
1973 - 1979: Chung Il-kwon (Democratic Republican)
1973 (Majority) def. Yu Chin-san (New Democratic)
1979 - 1980: Baek Du-jin (Democratic Republican)
1978 (Majority) def. Yi Cheol-seung (New Democratic), Yang il-dong (Democratic Unification)
1980 - 1981: Lee Min Woo (Independent)
1981 - : Yu Chi-song (New Democratic)
1981 (Majority) def. Park Tae-Joon (National Republican), Kim Dae-Jung (Democratic)

“The events of 10.26 still befuddle many historians, the short answer is that Kim Jae-gyu decided to try assassinate Park Chung Hee, the brutal dictator of Korea and his bodyguard and increasingly influential advisor, Cha Ji-chul. Whilst Ji-chul would be killed in a brutal execution, Chung Hee would managed to be saved by two of his bodyguards who killed Jae-gyu and his accomplices.

Chung Hee was hideously injured by the affair, a bullet having perforated his right chest, leading to internal bleeding and a collapsed lung. Despite it all, he would manage to live, but unable to govern for the foreseeable future. Without Chung Hee overseeing affairs, the military increasingly took matters into their own hands.

The Busan Massacre, conducted by Army and Paratroopers would end up seeing officially hundreds dead including Democracy Activist Kim Young Sam in police custody. The event touched off condemnation and the already icy relationship between America and South Korea grew worse, as President Carter began threatening complete troop withdrawal from South Korea.

In this atmosphere of tension and instability, two men would find themselves given opportunity; Choi Kyu-hah, the acting President of South Korea and General Jeong Seung-hwa.

Whilst both had happily supported Park’s Dictatorship when things were going well, it rapidly became apparent that if things continued as they were the Republic of Korea would collapse under instability and if America kept true to there promise, the possibility of invasion from the North seemed inevitable. Both decided to present a moderate facade, meeting up with Americans and promising reform and democracy over the coming months, in return for American support.

Meanwhile, Choi Kyu-hah would engage in secret meetings with Democracy activists, whilst General Jeong Seung-hwa would slowly consolidate power. The failure of the December Coup, brought about by a sickly Park siding with Choi and Jeong over the secretive members of the Hanahoe, would increase the need for some form of compromise to occur. Not all the democracy activists were on board, with Kim Dae-Jung resigning from the New Democratic Party when figures like Lee Min Woo and Yi Cheol-seung agreed to compromise on reparations and trials of leading figures within the Park regime.

Park himself would in Early 1980 be given a choice by General Jeong; either leave to Taiwan for ‘convalescence’ or most likely face arrest in the coming months. With Jeong and his supporters holding mass sway within the Army and KCIA (due to the failed December Coup providing Jeong an opening to purge his rivals), Park decided that exile was best.

Park’s exile to Taiwan, would coincide with a purge of Park supporters from Government as Choi set about impose moderate democratic figures in his stead. This didn’t particularly appeal to former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil who formed the National Republican Party in a bid to keep Park’s ideals alive.

The 1980 Constitutional Referendum sought about scrapping the Park Era Constitution and replacing it with something more amiable to moderates and whilst direct Presidential Elections and a reformed Assembly and Cabinet system being implemented were appreciated, provisions added that allowed the Military to run itself with barely any civilian oversight left a sour taste in many mouths.

Some Western Observers commented that it was possible that Korea would become a Turkey style state if the new Constitution was approved. It was anyway, support by the Americans who hoped it would reduce tensions and instability in the region once and for all. Choi Kyu-hah would step down in Early 1981, as the first Democratic Korean Presidential Election went underway.

Despite a barn storming campaign from Kim Dae Jung who campaigned on further Democratic reforms, strong Welfare state and a Free Market Economy, his Liberal outlook spooked more Conservative and Moderate Koreans who overwhelmingly voted for the Moderate Yi Cheol-seung or Kim Jong-pil who appealed to those who favoured Park’s Conservative Corporatist rule.

Now, six years on from the dramatic events of 10.26, many who what is next for Korea. Indeed Yi Cheol-seung prepares for retirement, whilst overseeing a drastic boom in the economy of Korea which should be showcased by the 1988 Seoul Olympics, his tenure has been marred by corruption scandals and the continued domination of the chaebol who have overseen a slow dismantling of Worker Rights to ensure further profits.

Meanwhile Kim Dae-Jung has moderated, whilst still promising radical reform, his courting of military figures like Jang Tae-wan has angered some of the democracy and Labor activists who previously supported him. Indeed Strikes and Political actions by the radical and illegal Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and its political party partner the Hankyoreh. Indeed, political dissident and Labour Activist, Yoon Sang-won has become a prominent figure within the movement, his charismatic and youthful demeanour contrasting massively with the older democratic activists who have now become the ruling elite…time will tell how Korea’s fresh new democracy develops…”

 

[Turquoise Blue]

 

[Callan]

1957-1963: John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative)
1957 (Minority): Louis St. Laurent (Liberal), M. J. Coldwell (CCF), Solon Earl Low (Social Credit)
1958: Lester Pearson (Liberal), M. J. Coldwell (CCF), Solon Earl Low (Social Credit)
1962 (Minority): Lester Pearson (Liberal), Robert N. Thompson (Social Credit), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic)
1963-1964: George Hees (Progressive Conservative)
1964-1971: Lester Pearson (Liberal)
1964: George Hees (Progressive Conservative), Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), Robert N. Thompson (Social Credit)
1968: Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), George Hees (Progressive Conservative), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1971-1979: Claude Wagner (Liberal)
1973 (Minority): Tommy Douglas (New Democratic), John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1974: John Harney (New Democratic), John Diefenbaker (Progressive Conservative), Réal Caouette (Ralliement créditiste)
1979-: John Harney (New Democratic)
1979: Claude Wagner (Liberal), Jack Horner (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)

1979-1983: John Harney (New Democratic)
1979: Claude Wagner (Liberal), Jack Horner (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)
1983-1994: John Crosbie (Liberal)
1983: John Harney (New Democratic), Jack Horner (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)
1987: Marion Dewar (New Democratic), Paul Hellyer (Progressive Conservative), Gilles Caouette (Ralliement)
1991: Grant Notley (New Democratic), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Ralliement)
1994-1996: Lise Thibault (Liberal)
1996-2002: Gilles Duceppe (New Democratic)
1996 (Minority): Lise Thibault (Liberal), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Ralliement)
1998: Lise Thibault (Liberal), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Rodrigue Biron (Ralliement)
2002-2011: Frank Stronach (Liberal)
2002: Gilles Duceppe (New Democratic), Jack Ramsay (Alliance), Nicole Boudreau (Ralliement)
2006: Frances Lakin (New Democratic), Pierre Curzi (Ralliement), Jack Ramsay (Alliance)
2010 (Minority): Moe Sihota (New Democratic), Pierre Curzi (Ralliement), Nancy Greene Raine (Alliance)
2011-2017: Linda Lapointe (Liberal)
2012: Moe Sihota (New Democratic), Nancy Greene Raine (Alliance), Pierre Curzi (Railliement), Adriane Carr (Green)
2017-: Jennifer Hollett (New Democratic)
2017: Linda Lapointe (Liberal), Nancy Greene Raine (Alliance), Pierre Curzi (Ralliement), Linda McQuaig (Green)
2021: Danielle Smith & Éric Duhaime (Action Canada!), Greg Fergus (Liberal), Linda McQuaig (Green)

1960-1972: Jean Lesage (Liberal)
1960: Antonio Barrette (Union Nationale)
1962: Daniel Johnson (Union Nationale)
1966: Daniel Johnson (Union Nationale)
1970: Jean-Noël Tremblay (Union Nationale), Pierre Bourgault (RIN), Camil Sampson (Ralliement creditiste)

Butterflies from the implosion of the Progressive Conservatives and Pearson winning a majority government mean that Jean Lesage ekes out a victory at the 1966 election, and pushes through an agenda of liberalism and a stronger state, while attempting to manage the rising tide of Quebec nationalism. The political movement was taking the form of new parties, aggressive rallies and "direct action" by more extreme groups. Lesage and his successors were helped by their opponents being so clearly divided between right and left; as the once-mighty Union Nationale slowly crumbled it began to embrace nationalism and independence, scaring much of their former coalition into the hands of the Liberal Party.

But this was not plain sailing. There were frequent protests, riots and terrorist activities through the 1970s as Quebec nationalists radicalised and increasingly turned to "direct action". Some terrorist bombings turned fatal, and the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Claude Wagner forced a confrontation. But an exhausted Jean Lesage decided that he did not wish to remain in office to see it.

1972-1980: Pierre Laporte (Liberal)
1974: Marcel Masse (Union Nationale), Pierre Bourgault (RIN), Camil Sampson (Ralliement creditiste)
1978 (Minority): Pierre Bourgault (RIN), Marcel Masse (Union Nationale)

With pressure from the federal government, Pierre Laporte enforced increasingly strict security legislation against Quebec nationalists, which simultaneously clamped down the violence and escalated political and social divisions. His federal counterpart was an asset and a liability; Wagner was a popular figure in his home province and open to constitutional reforms and the Liberals' policies aimed at protecting the French language, but his constant attacks on Quebec nationalists and Laporte's opponents frequently backfired. The Liberals' losing their majority in 1978 deepened the crisis; now a majority of seats were held by parties that either wanted Quebec to separate or were increasingly sympathetic to that view. Laporte survived because those two parties held such different values on almost everything other than the sovereignty question, but political deadlock emerged as protests, riots and bombings continued. Anglophone vigilante groups became common, provoking even more clashes and violence. The air of crisis in Quebec almost certainly cost Claude Wagner re-election.

1980-1991: Brian Mulroney (Liberal)
1980: Jérôme Proulx (Union Nationale). Lise Payette (RIN)
1982 Constitutional Referendum: 67% OUI, 33% NON
1984: Pierre-Marc Johnson (Union Nationale), Lise Payette (RIN)
1988: Marcel Léger (Option Québec), Henri-François Gautrin (New Democratic), Jacques Parizeau (RIN)
1991-1992: Jean Pelletier (Liberal)

Laporte was forced out of the leadership of his party by a cabal of MNAs and business leaders who installed a young MNA who had made headlines for his anti-corruption crusades. Mulroney quickly won a landslide majority on a promise to engage in constitutional reform, and moved to quash dissent from Quebec nationalists on the status of the Harney government's patriation of the constitution with a snap referendum. This action, which left the Liberals' opponents confused and divided, defined the opposition for the rest of the 1980s. The Liberals dominated for so long because of this split in Quebec nationalism: the Union Nationale was too divided and tarnished by their distant past, while leftist Rassemblement pour l'Indépendance Nationale's support was too spread out and limited by their closeness to radical and violent national groups to truly break through.

This allowed Mulroney to dominate Quebec to an extent not seen since the days of Duplessis. He found a partner in Prime Minister Crosbie, following in the federal government's footsteps in a campaign of deregulations, privatisations and austerity. The shrinking Quebecois state was centralised around Mulroney and his tight inner-circle, and his government took advantage of Wagner-era legislation to quash politically inconvenient demonstrations and investigations. It was a long way from Lesage's Quiet Revolution. But the Mulroney era, and the Liberal Party of Quebec, were undone by a series of investigations and public inquiries into systemic collusion between international aerospace companies, provincial construction firms and Montreal's organised crime groups which destroyed the government and led the once-dominant premier into a period of exile. Without a strong personality at its centre, the Liberals quickly crumbled.

1992-1995: Marcel Léger (Option Québec)
1992: Henri-François Gautrin (New Democratic), Jean Pelletier (Liberal)
1994 Constitutional Referendum: 58% OUI, 42% NON

The other factor was the nationalist parties finally uniting. In 1987 Union Nationale voted to dissolve itself and reconstitute itself as Option Quebec, named after the famous white paper from former Liberal Minister turned intellectual René Lévesque, whose ambitions for independence saw him unceremoniously fired back Laporte in 1972. A big-tent movement free of historical or ideological baggage, half of the RIN's caucus soon defected and by the time the Liberals collapsed in the early 1990s, they were considered a serious political force. The new premier Marcel Léger was a pragmatist, who recognised that the Liberal government would likely refuse to recognise an independence voter, and instead called a "consultative" referendum in 1994 to force an intransigent federal government to return to the table for constitutional negotiations to fulfil the winning election platform of "Equality or Independence". The federal Liberals, themselves in crisis, pushed back strongly and the situation may have escalated into a referendum on independence had Léger's health not abruptly declined shortly after his winning referendum result.

1995-2008: Jean Lapierre (Option Québec)
1996: Gaétan Nadeau (New Democratic), Jean Pelletier (Liberal)
2000: Thomas Mulcair (Liberal), Gaétan Nadeau (New Democratic)
2004: Nycole Turmel (New Democratic), Line Beauchamp (Liberal)

His young deputy was another pragmatist who had foreseen the emerging crises in the federal and provincial Liberals and defected to a winner. Jean LaPierre arguably won Duceppe's New Democrats the federal election through his government's tacit support for their constitutional reform agenda. It was a risk that paid off, and with a successful amendment that saw Quebec acknowledged as a "nation" within the constitution and protected their asymmetric powers ratified by the year 2000, Lapierre's tenure was markedly similar to Mulroney's before him: dominating Quebec politics through his strong personality and division among his opponents, governing via a tight inner circle. The old nationalist right was appeased by successive legislation designed to protect Quebec's "established culture" at the expense of newer, non-European newcomers, and the nationalist left was empowered by a controversial amnesty of Quebec nationalists convicted of anti-terror legislation, a measure brutally opposed and partially blocked by the Stronach government in Ottawa. But a steep recession, a succession of political scandals in Quebec's new political machine and hardline nationalists splitting off into the Mouvement d'indépendance abruptly forced Lapierre from office.

2008-2011: Nycole Turmel (Alliance progressiste)
2008: Jean Lapierre (Option Québec)
2011-2015: Monique Richard (Alliance progressiste)
2012: Daniel Turp (Option Québec)
2015-2016: François Pilon (Alliance progressiste)

After suffering repeated existential crises through the 2000s (the Liberals facing extinction with their right flank embracing Lapierre, the New Democrats hitting a decisive ceiling and the Greens struggling to break through), three progressive/or federalist parties finally merged into Alliance progressiste, a loose grouping of parties that with Nycole Turmel as their leader unexpectedly won the 2008 election on a a common platform. As the party was less a party and more of a coalition, governance was much more fraught than in the centralised Mulroney and Lapierre eras. The frequent turnover of leaders was a symptom of these divisions, but over the course of eight years the AP was able to pass a large amount of progressive legislation and repeal some of the more regressive elements of previous administrations, most notably Wagner-era security legislation. Their policy of open government likely won them re-election, as Option Quebec was torn apart by revelations of corruption and malfeasance by a series of public inquiries.

2016-2020: Jean-Marc Léger (Option Québec)
2016: François Pilon (Alliance progressiste)

When they returned to power under the son of their iconic founder, Option Quebec lacked a mandate. They had won largely from the exhaustion and division of their predecessors, and promises to pick fights with a left-wing federal government popular in the province. Plans for a new "Charter of Values" to protect the French language and Quebec's European heritage earned federal and international condemnation, and mass protests forced a u-turn on proposals to ban Muslim head coverings. Dysfunctional and heavily divided, the last-minute suggestion of a further "constitutional referendum" to try and win back hardline nationalist voters halfway through the 2020 election campaign from MI backfired badly.

2020-: Mélanie Joly (Alliance progressiste)
2020: Jean-Marc Léger (Option Québec), Amir Khadr (Mouvement d'indépendance)

The new young and glamorous premier created more positive international headlines, even as she keep much of her predecessor's Charter of Values and Option Quebec's legacy of byzantine public private partnerships. While the 2021 federal election saw right-wing populists sweep Quebec, her increasingly centralised left-wing alliance remains popular in the polls. Joly increasingly speaks of herself as a pro-business leader, hoping achieve a "tranquil normalcy" after decades of division and crises. The fact that the AP is the first party to return to power since Jean Lesage suggests that this is emerging as a true two-party system emerges for the first time since the 1960s. As of December 2022, Joly is currently engaged in a world tour, hoping to promote and protect Montreal's status as Canada's financial capital.

 

[theflyingmgoose]

You have all of the portraits designed to make their subjects look good and then there is Johnson's.

 

[Yoets]

2006-2008: Yasuo Fukuda (LDP)
2008-2009: Tarō Asō (LDP)
2009-2010: Katsuya Okada (Democratic)
2009: Tarō Asō(LDP),Shintaro Ishihara (Sunrise),Akihiro Ota (Komeito),Kazuo Shii(JCP),Mizuho Fukushima(Social Democratic),Yoshimi Watanabe(Your Party)
2010-2012: Yukio Hatoyama (Democratic)
2012-2013: Naoto Kan (Democratic)
2013: Shigeru Ishiba (LDP),Shintaro Ishihara (Sunrise),Yoshimi Watanabe(Your Party),Natsuo Yamaguchi(Komeito),Kazuo Shii(JCP),Mizuho Fukushima(Social Democratic)
2013-2014: Sakihito Ozawa (Democratic)
2014-2017: Renhō Saitō (Democratic)
2017-2020: Shinzo Abe (LDP)
2017: Renhō Saitō (Democratic), Kenji Eda (New Right),Natsuo Yamaguchi(Komeito),Kazuo Shii(JCP),Tadatomo Yoshida(Social Democratic)
2020-2021: Shigeru Ishiba (LDP)
2021-: Seiji Maehara (Democratic)
2021: Shigeru Ishiba (LDP),Ichirō Matsui (Japanese Initiatives),Natsuo Yamaguchi(Komeito),Kazuo Shii(JCP)

-Abe’s health problems flair up a little before the leadership election
- Fukuda runs like he thought about iotl
- The Dems pick Okada as their leader because of his high popularity with the public
- Shintaro Ishihara smells the blood in the water and launches his own party earlier. It acts in a similar fashion to the LDP as the Canadian Reform in the 1993 election did to the Tories
- Ultimately Hatoyama is too large of a figure to not become PM
- Tanigaki is backstabbed a few months
- the Dems win a second term but the LDP make significant rebounds
- Renhō becomes the first female PM
- Abe finally becomes PM but ittl a lot of the stuff he tries to pull is met with discontent and he resigns due to health issues
- the Dems return due to the poor handling of Covid by the Libs

Great list!

 

[Charles EP M.]

Churchill as a mysterious figure with no past doing a Stalin and Callaghan as internal coup is *chef's kiss*

 

[allthepresidentsmen]

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn being called "Jeb(!)" is reasonable but so fucking cursed

 

[neonduke]

Churchill as a mysterious figure with no past doing a Stalin and Callaghan as internal coup is *chef's kiss*

Stupid sexy Truss