• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Infobox and other Wikipedia Graphics Thread

Steve Brinson

The possum is not OK. Neither are we.
Location
Brooklyn (originally Houston)
Pronouns
he/him
Hey, y'all, I thought that we could use one of these over here.

To start us off, some miscellaneous infoboxes:

QNwFWhr.png


l0k9sAl.png
 
Awadh

While a majority of Federated worlds are multi-party democracies, the fact that the largest single one is a Marxist-Leninist party-state has hardly been insignificant to its historical development. Awadh was discovered and claimed by Bharat two centuries prior to the Great Collapse, and owing to its huge, accessible mineral deposits, it was designated as an industrial development zone. The cutthroat policies that had lifted Bharat itself out of post-colonial torpor and turned it into the foremost economic powerhouse was now turned to the colony worlds, and Awadh was one of the flagship examples. Conglomerates, both Bharatiya and foreign, were allowed to set up mines and factories subject to minimal taxation, and the millions of settlers wanting to leave their overpopulated homeland were able to buy cheap passage on liners subsidised by the Union Government. Once there, any laws that might have upheld their rights against their employers were more or less openly flaunted.

It's perhaps understandable that a strong resistance identity took hold among the workers, and various groups formed to speak for them - the Awadh Congress, the All Awadh Workers and Peasants Party, the Samajwadi Parishad, the Avata Munnetra Kazhagam, the Communist Party of Awadh (original), the Communist Party of Awadh (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of Awadh (Revolutionary), along with dozens of smaller ones. It was only thanks to this disunity, and the diverse nature of the planetary population as a whole, that the class conflict remained mostly repressed and the Bharatiya planetary assembly was able to maintain control. Well, that and the economic and military support of the Union Government.

But with the Great Collapse, the Union Government was no longer a factor. Within a year, the entire planet was in revolt and the assembly building had been seized by militants of the CPA(M-L). Provisional elections were declared, and returned an enormously fractured assembly which gave no single group the space to maneouvre - in theory. The CPA(M-L), however, were able to leverage their unity and control over the principal institutions of the capital to expand their influence. By the fifth year, they were the de facto government of the planet, and in that year they solidified their position by forcing several of the assembly parties to merge with them until they controlled a majority of the membership. With the support of the now neutered assembly, the constitution of the Socialist Republic of Awadh was proclaimed.

The new state faced enormous challenges. The local Bharatiya fleet under Admiral Prasad, who would be called rogue if there had been any government left whose orders he could disregard, were determined to "secure" the worlds formerly under their control. They'd already conducted two orbital bombardment campaigns against Awadh, and continued to pose a threat to multiple sectors. The Central Committee acted swiftly. In the first five-year plan, the restoration of planetary defences and shipbuilding facilities was placed at top priority, and the entire planet was placed on a war-communist footing. The Committee also issued requests to all armed ships to defect, offering supplies, pay and blanket amnesty for sailors - but pointedly not for officers. Several ships purged their commands and submitted to Awadhi command, and along with the new production, there was a socialist fleet of equal size to what remained of Prasad's command by year eight.

The Battle of the Shoals, held at the outskirts of the Awadh system, has entered legend among Bharatiya and socialist circles across the galaxy. Prasad, having won a series of minor engagements, decided that his only chance was to raze Awadh once again and then attempt to assert control over it, spreading his influence from there to the peripheral worlds. The Awadhi Central Committee called in all the ships under its control to oppose the attempt, and despite poor equipment and worse coordination, they triumphed. Prasad went down with his flagship, and most of the other ships either defected or left the sector. The Committee issued a proclamation soon after, to the effect that Awadh made no claims whatsoever against other planets, and left them to develop in the manner most suited to their own material conditions and the best interests of their peoples. They themselves would be building socialism on one planet.

And so it went for the next several decades. Awadh had much to do to rebuild itself even to the state it had been in before the Collapse, let alone the socialist utopia its leaders envisioned. Nevertheless, its resource wealth continued to be its greatest asset, and the post-war five-year plans stimulated the growth of heavy industry. The (in)famous Awadhi industrial juggernaut took shape during the second and third decades after the Collapse. First steel, then aluminium, then finished industrial products came off the lines in larger and larger amounts, and Awadh grew rich off the trade in these products as nearby planets reconstructed and demand began to rise for them.

Shipping lanes continued to be menaced by raiders, and for this reason, Awadh decided to send a representative to the conference at Sadko in 76. The conference, convened to examine options for mutual defence, concluded with the signing of an accord to provide joint trade patrols and free reciprocal access to gates maintained by all signatories. Although modest, the Sadko Accord started the path to Federation. Awadh had been distrustful of all diplomatic entanglements until then, but now threw itself fully into the alliance.

Soon came the Papillo Constitution, which transformed the alliance into the Federation. The Constitution deliberately avoided mention of political systems and left it up to every member world to govern itself and send whichever delegates it chose to the Federal Assembly. This was partly to avoid upsetting the autocratic Rim worlds that provided the largest potential avenue for expansion, and partly to avoid upsetting Awadhi industrial and trade power by mandating electoral democracy. The second goal was mostly successful - the first, however, was not, as evidenced when twenty-four worlds in the Perseus Arm withdrew from the Federation over the first membership tax in 157. Initially they were allowed to go, but when they attacked the Federal cutter base at Jericho in 159, the bloodiest war in post-Collapse history ensued.

It was in large part due to the shipyards of Awadh and Korolev, both socialist worlds, that the Federation triumphed in the Persean War. The Delos Constitution, put into effect after the war's end, reaffirmed the permanence of the Federation and introduced stringent political requirements for member worlds, including a degree of open elections. This had been a red line for the Marxist-Leninist worlds, which argued that the party-state represented a form of democracy as pure as multi-party elections, but in the end they were forced to concede. While Korolev established an enforced two-party system, Awadh opted for the absolute minimum of change required to comply with the membership standards. It very likely could've skirted the rules altogether, and the mutual knowledge of this has prevented the Federation from further action.

The Communist Party remains the sole legal party on Awadh, and the constitution acknowledges it as the foundation of the state. The Central Committee, whose membership now exceeds 200, and its more manageable Politburo continue to wield most de facto executive power over planetary affairs. For legislation, they are assisted by the Central People's Congress, which is elected every five years on a public ballot. The 1045 members are elected in single-member districts, and nominations are open but require all candidates to be members of the Communist Party. Official candidates are named at public meetings - typically day-long affairs held at cricket grounds due to the roughly seven million residents in each constituency - where anyone is welcome to make nominations, air grievances or suggest alternative candidates before a poll is held to formally anoint the candidate. The general poll is the less significant step, and the vast majority of official candidates are elected. A significant number are unopposed - the official Year 216 returns show around 1,600 candidates for the 1,045 seats - in which case a yes/no ballot is held. Only three candidates have ever been rejected in a yes/no poll, but the results were accepted and bypolls were held, showing that the Awadhi style of democracy is more than a Potemkin village.

index.php

Worlds of the Federation
Awadh

I'll need to be terser with these in future. I suppose there'll be more of note in the actual infobox for most of them.
 
Last edited:
The 1993 election was never supposed to go this way.

Sure, the Liberals under Paul Martin was sluggish and had the Chretien Problem [the fact he defected to the Tories was embarrassing to them and brought great pleasure to the beleaguered PCs]. Some even started to see them as "yesterday's party". But it was always supposed to be just a fight between them and the Tories, maybe with the NDP getting second-place if they were extremely lucky.

Then the Accord happened, which meant everything was out of the window. The Charlottetown Accord, Mulroney's second attempt at constitutional reform, which proved incredibly unpopular both in Quebec and the West, leading to sovereigntist MPs from the Liberals and PCs defecting to form the Bloc Quebecois, electing the young and charismatic Gilles Duceppe as their leader. Polls suggested that they had a high level of support in Quebec.

The other thing that came out of the Accord was the rise of the Reform Party in the West. Always a minor fringe party, it rose due to Western alienation with the Tories and a bitter opposition to recognition of Quebec's "distinct society". Preston Manning, son of one of Alberta's Social Credit premiers, was its leader and he acquired a national reputation as the face of Western opposition to the Accord.

With Mulroney resigning in 1992 and the election of Jean Charest, Tories hoped that with a new face they could lead the party to a third victory. Kept unsaid was the hope that he would keep Opposition and prevent Reform from surpassing the Tories as the main opposition to the Liberals.

Paul Martin's Liberals was enjoying a strong lead, but then the "Is this a Prime Minister?" ad was released by a desperate Tory campaign seeking to undermine Martin's credibility. The ad involved Jean Chretien speaking out against Martin and arguing that he would ruin Canada. It was widely seen by all Canadians, and although its negativity was criticised in the papers for being American-style, it nevertheless had an impact. The PCs rose in the polls at the Liberals' expense, and Jean Charest's re-election as PM was seen as more likely by the day.

Then the debate happened. On live national television, Preston Manning showed off his intense preparation and castigated both Martin and Charest for their support of the Accord and rather famously, declared that in all but name, the debate was one of Preston Manning against Brian Mulroney, not against Paul Martin or Jean Charest, such was their support of Mulroney's reforms. In the French-language debate, Gilles Duceppe presented forth a well-put, charismatic denouncement of the Liberals and Tories, declaring that Quebec desired a "new direction".

Dave Barrett, leader of the NDP, endeared himself in the debate with his wisecracking humour and blunt rhetoric, saving his best for against Manning, and the second-most remembered quip in the English-language debate was Barrett's declaration that Preston Manning was "a Creditor, just like his father, and just as worthless" which got protestations from the other leaders for its personal nature.

Much ignored, and not even invited to the debate, was the bizarre alliance between the Green Party, led by Chris Lea who was trying to form it into a "normal" party organisation, and the National Party, a nationalist and protectionist vaguely left-wing party led by Mel Hurtig, a political activist and publisher. Their joint platform was one of environmentalism (except when it wasn't), protectionism (except when it wasn't) and a vague left-wing opposition to the status quo. Dave Barrett quipped that they were trying to be "more NDP than the NDP" and this summed up people's view of them. But was it a bad thing, some thought. Certainly, some on the NDP's left wanted a party to keep the NDP from going to the centre, even though they had an adamantly left-wing leader in Barrett.

Going into the election, the predictions was a Liberal minority with Reform narrowly in second and PCs third. But as the results poured in...

The 1993 election was never supposed to go this way...
1529320648669.png

For the first time in its history, Canada had a separatist party win the most seats. The polls got the votes right, but the seats all wrong. Both Martin and Charest both barely held on their Quebec seats against the Bloc's landslide victory in the province. Barrett lost nine percent off the NDP's 1988 vote, but still gained in seats due to the chaos of the election as both the Liberals and PCs imploded. Meanwhile, the Green/National alliance managed to win eight percent due to disaffected Liberals who saw Barrett as too much of a threat for their votes to go to.

But who would be Prime Minister after the election? With the Tories in full civil war mode and the Liberals retreating to lick their wounds, neither Manning or Barrett could count on their support. So after all was said and done, the man who was leading the biggest party was sent for.

And the decade of Gilles Duceppe as Prime Minister began.
 


I like it (GREEN-NATIONAL ALLIANCE), but how does Bouchard not become the first BQ leader? Being one of the most important members of the Tory government, he was the backbone of the Bloc. If you wanted 10 glorious years of Duceppe, I’d probably have an election happen in 1994/1995, right as Bouchard dies of necrotizing fasciitis (allowing Duceppe to take over and attract a sympathy vote).

I am also a little uncertain about having Chrétien joining the Tories. I‘m familiar with Frank Moores’ comments, but it seemed to me as more of a stab in the dark. Mulroney absolutely despised Chrétien, so any negations would begin with lots of hostilities. If Martin actually became Liberal leader, Chrétien’s stature would have to be bad enough for him to be worthless to the PCs (if Martin followed Turner, it would break the ceremonial alternation between Francophones and Anglophones).
 


I like it (GREEN-NATIONAL ALLIANCE), but how does Bouchard not become the first BQ leader? Being one of the most important members of the Tory government, he was the backbone of the Bloc. If you wanted 10 glorious years of Duceppe, I’d probably have an election happen in 1994/1995, right as Bouchard dies of necrotizing fasciitis (allowing Duceppe to take over and attract a sympathy vote).

I am also a little uncertain about having Chrétien joining the Tories. I‘m familiar with Frank Moores’ comments, but it seemed to me as more of a stab in the dark. Mulroney absolutely despised Chrétien, so any negations would begin with lots of hostilities. If Martin actually became Liberal leader, Chrétien’s stature would have to be bad enough for him to be worthless to the PCs (if Martin followed Turner, it would break the ceremonial alternation between Francophones and Anglophones).

All fair criticism. This was more an amateur "how can I make the already crazy 1993 even more crazier", and the idea of a Bloc minority government has always been something I was attracted to ever since I found that it was numerically possible. So yeah, I'll admit it's sorta lacking in 'plausibility'.

If I do return to it and make a timeline out of it, your post will definitely be very useful in a revamp of this election, so thank you.
 
All fair criticism. This was more an amateur "how can I make the already crazy 1993 even more crazier", and the idea of a Bloc minority government has always been something I was attracted to ever since I found that it was numerically possible. So yeah, I'll admit it's sorta lacking in 'plausibility'.

If I do return to it and make a timeline out of it, your post will definitely be very useful in a revamp of this election, so thank you.
A Bloc minority government itself isn’t actually too unrealistic, given that it’s pretty easily to get no party with more than 100 seats (The Populist Problem of Preston Manning being a good example).
 
A Bloc minority government itself isn’t actually too unrealistic, given that it’s pretty easily to get no party with more than 100 seats (The Populist Problem of Preston Manning being a good example).
Oh, true!

I think I'll probably go back and have Charest delay the election a further year for whatever reason, and do as you say. What was Chretien's opinion of Charest, by the way? Is it more likely for him to defect to the Tories under Charest than under Mulroney?
 
Or I could always just have Bouchard die earlier, since that's the easier way to get Duceppe, honestly.

I can always just say Chretien joined the Tories when Charest became leader and PM, or something.
 
I think I'll probably go back and have Charest delay the election a further year for whatever reason, and do as you say.
OTL was about as far the election could be delayed, as a Parliament can only last 5 years.
What was Chretien's opinion of Charest, by the way?
I know that they were close during the 1995 campaign, but I’m not sure what they were like before then.
Is it more likely for him to defect to the Tories under Charest than under Mulroney?
Yes, but at the time Charest was seen as Mulroney’s protege. I think have Chrétien defect is something that had really slim odds, losing the 1990 race would have made his reputation as a sore loser even worse.
Or I could always just have Bouchard die earlier, since that's the easier way to get Duceppe, honestly.
IOTL Bouchard’s health issues only started in November 1994.
 
OTL was about as far the election could be delayed, as a Parliament can only last 5 years.
Ah. I'll have Bouchard be PM, but then die, leaving Duceppe PM then.
I know that they were close during the 1995 campaign, but I’m not sure what they were like before then.
Fair.
Yes, but at the time Charest was seen as Mulroney’s protege. I think have Chrétien defect is something that had really slim odds, losing the 1990 race would have made his reputation as a sore loser even worse.
True. And him defecting would mean Martin wouldn't have the threat of a leadership challenge from a vengeful Chretien, so him staying a Grit would actually help my scenario of a disunited Liberals leading to Bloc winning.
IOTL Bouchard’s health issues only started in November 1994.
Fair.

Thanks for your advice.
 
A Captivating Colorful Collection of Colossal Cryptic Cockups - Part One

Ming Campbell had enough as leader of Britain's third largest party. He was under attack for being a quarter of a century older than David Cameron, performances at PMQs that were dramatically reducing Ambien sales, and blatant attempts by Nick Clegg to force him out. Campbell never had the same beloved reputation as Charles Kennedy did under his leadership. Eventually, he resigned, with a good ol' LibDem two-way (something rarely experienced by most LibDems). On the orange corner was Nick Clegg, a former MEP and freshman MP. On the green corner was Chris Huhne, a former MEP and freshman MP. No one really could tell the difference between the two, but Huhne narrowly pulled off a win. Most pundits assumed it was because most people assumed that anyone named Nick was a wanker.

XTBcE28.png


By the time Gordon Brown finally got out of 10 Downing Street to call a general election, he had been met with the makings of a leadership challenge from David Miliband, the global financial crisis, the Iraq War, and dissatisfaction over 13 years of Labour rule. The question of the election was if Brown could somehow form a coalition with the LibDems, or if David Cameron would be able to get a majority (defying even his own "two election strategy"). Few eyes were put onto the election in Eastleigh, where the LibDems were expected to secure an increased majority for Chris Huhne. Sure, the Tories put up the gaffe-prone Maria Hutchings (who one ambushed Tony Blair during an interview), and Labour the business journalist Leo Barraclough (who claimed that Jesus would approve of Labour). However, the citizens of Eastleigh were proud to have an MP who lead a major party and could become Deputy Prime Minister. This was a sharp increase from their last notable MP, who died from erotic asphyxiation as John Major launched the Back To Basics campaign. Eastleigh would turn out in sharp numbers for their homeboy, with the queues at polling stations being longer than the ramblings of George Galloway. Voters wanted to get out quick to avoid having their fellow citizens stuck in line. Unfortunately, it appeared that perhaps many of them didn't pay enough attention to their vote.

I do hereby declare that Christopher Hulme of the Liberal Party has been duly elected for the constituency of Eastleigh.
Well, it appears that Chris Huhne has somehow lost his seat to a candidate from the Liberal Party, and no, it's not the LibDems I'm talking about.

Mmnimao.png


Christopher Hulme was not the leader of the Liberal Democrats. He was meerly a former candidate for the Liverpool City Council who had ran against Huhne as a joke. Quickly, an internet conspiracy led by the Huhne's Hell's Angels spawned where Steve Radford had drafted up the idea in his sex dungeon, and that Hulme was meerly a slave of Radford selected to take on his rivals.

As the British public viewing Dimbldely at home were either laughing like crazy to the news or were confused out of their minds, it was obvious that this was indeed one peculiar result. In fact, Foreign Secretary David Miliband literally died upon hearing the result. The by-election in South Shields would be an early test of the post-election situation.

The Liberal Democrats were met with stress after the election. Huhne was defeated, and the party was under 20% of the vote. Nick Clegg attempted to claim the leadership of the party and work with the Tories but backed down when it was clear that only David Laws agreed with him.

The continued morning of Miliband's death was concluded when David Cameron failed to win a majority. However, he was within striking distance of one, and all he needed was to shake hands with Peter Robinson at 10 Downing Street to become Prime Minister. Robinson demanded two things; pork barrel spending for North Ireland, and a referendum on membership in the EU.

Reluctantly, the deal was done.

bpxJjgH.png
 
qvKVQZD.png
J3wYES2.png


One can not possibly speak about Northern Irish politics without mentioning the titanic figure of Maynard Sinclair. A veteran of the First World War, he was elected to parliament in 1938 and was promoted to the position of Minister of Finance in 1943 by the new Prime Minister Basil Brooke. It is in this role that his true talents would be revealed. He had a keen knowledge of finance and formed a close relationship with the Treasury in London. In 1953, he considered it a burden that a bout of flu meant he could not board the voyage of the Belfast Victoria, but it would turn out to be a blessing, as the ship sunk, taking all passengers with it. In the years following he would emerge as a prime candidate to succeed the hardline Basil Brooke once he chose to retire due to his personal popularity and in spite of his rumoured liberal views.

Brooke would retire, rather surprisingly, on health grounds in 1963. Sinclair thought he would face some sort of challenge but this did not arrive. The party paved the road for him as he took up the office of Prime Minister with grace at the tender age of 67, the oldest PM Ulster had yet. He immediately set to work continuing what he had done as Finance Minister, appointing Education Minister Terence O'Neill to succeed him. He would set up Five Economic Zones across Northern Ireland to modernise industry and created a new city in Armagh, linking Portadown and and Lurgan, naming it "Blackwater," after a nearby river. His decision not to name it after the late James Craig rankled with some unionists, as did the placement of a new university in Derry rather than Coleraine. Sinclair utilised his stellar record as Finance Minister and popularity with the public to put down internal dissent. In addition, Sinclair's economic record as PM seemed to be rather strong, having brought both Ford Automobiles and Goodyear to Ulster. This, along with co-operation with the Northern Ireland branch of the Irish Trades Union Congress, helped bring unemployment down. Sinclair of course faced some attacks for being a big spender but these would subside as results began to show themselves.

Regarding the Irish matter, Sinclair would further anger hardliners within his party by arranging a meeting with Taoiseach Sean Lamass in 1965, as well as signing an agreement regarding electricity supplies. This would tie in with both his economic revolution and his attempt to boost Northern Ireland's image. As for the latter, Sinclair would do things like visit Catholic bishops and made an effort of improving standards of funding for things like Catholic schools. Anger began to grow at Sinclair despite the clear success his policies were having, and this culminated in the Reverend Ian Paisley setting up his "Sinclair Out" campaign in opposition to the softening of unionist rhetoric coming from the Prime Minister. Sinclair was considered a strong leader, but there was only so much respect he could command. The 1965 General Election shored up his support, producing a massive landslide in favour of the UUP and decimating the voteshare of the moribund Nationalist Party.

Some relative peace and stability would be broken up by the rise of discontent among the minority nationalist population. Sinclair was a marked improvement over the bitter old man Brooke, who once famously boasted about never hiring a Catholic in his life, but the structural injustices of Northern Ireland remained, such as the clear favouring of Protestants when it came to allocation of housing and the property requirement to cast votes. Unrest appeared to grow as the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was formed in 1967. Furthermore, the election of Gerry Fitt to Westminster lead to a greater presence for Northern Ireland there, and as such more attention was paid towards the state of civil rights in the province. Naturally, unionist hardliners pressed against action being taken and supported suppressing the marches, with William Craig being allowed to place a ban on them marching while negotiations took place. NICRA had demands to end what they viewed as unjust laws, and Sinclair would have to face this at some point or risk severe repercussions as violence seemed to flare up. Their first march from Coalisland to Dungannon was a success and was relatively tepid, but a march held in Derry became infamous for the "disgusting" police response, which was recorded on RTE cameras and nearly prompted a response by the new Taoiseach Jack Lynch, which he put off after private assurances by Sinclair, who put forward a reform plan that NICRA members would as a whole consider acceptable. The movement towards One Man One Vote was there, as was the establishment of an ombudsman to look at discrimination, plus measures to deal with housing and allocation of government jobs. These reforms were gradual, to be introduced over a period of two years, to the grumbling of many. Yet, it did something to dilute tensions in spite of rage within the party. Also, Home Affairs minister Craig would be fired due to his growing appearance as a figure of hate by those in the civil rights movement. Against many of the odds, Sinclair put off government action as Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Home Secretary Jim Callaghan seemed to be more than welcoming of his efforts, though informed him of a possible need to deploy the army if tensions unraveled again. This was considered further and eventually done as a peacekeeping measure in late 1969 after consultation between Stormont and Westminster.

By the time he had almost been finished Sinclair was in his mid 70's and had not the energy to continue on anymore, and so he announced his resignation as Prime Minister, Unionist leader, and MP for Belfast Cromac in early 1970. The leadership race to succeed him was a contest between his preferred successor Jack Andrews and the former Home Affairs minister William Craig, with Andrews pulling out a victory. Andrews would go on to win another landslide victory in 1970, however with a growing number of conservative unionists that were either in the UUP or joining Ian Paisley's Protestant Unionist Party. He would eventually be granted a peerage by the government of Ian Gilmour, and would serve out the rest of his life in relative comfort, well regarded as a reformer. He cropped up as a possible candidate to lead a National Unity government during the turbulence of the early 70's, but this never manifested to much.

Brian Faulkner was an interesting man, in a way, and in a sense robbed himself of a successful career. He was the youngest MP elected to the Northern Irish Parliament in 1948, and was mooted for greater career success, but after some consideration, decided to stand in the 1953 North Down by-election to replace Walter Smiles, who died in the capsizing of the Belfast Victoria. He was elected without any opposition and would attempt to make a name for himself at Westminster, to little avail. He contested the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party in 1970 and 1981, failing in both attempts as the party preferred to choose members from the Stormont Parliament rather than the Westminster Parliament. His conservative views became clear but as the party's Chief Whip during the 70's and 80's he pushed through policies that were not to his liking. He received a knighthood in 1985, partly rumoured due to his decision to help prop the Shore government up in 1981 when it looked about to collapse. He died in 1994, a few years short of becoming Father of the House, and the by-election to replace him was won by the liberal unionist Brian Wilson on a much reduced majority.
 
A Bloc minority government itself isn’t actually too unrealistic, given that it’s pretty easily to get no party with more than 100 seats (The Populist Problem of Preston Manning being a good example).
I don't know for this for certain but if I'm remembering correctly the Bloc always had official party policy that they wouldn't form a government in the Canadian legislature if such an opportunity arose - when they became Official Opposition IOTL in the aftermath of 1993 Bouchard famously refused all the perks and traditions associated with the office.
 
Sadko

On the face of it, the elections of 317 in Sadko were the affair of the century. A new party, rising out of nowhere and claiming huge campaign support, breaks into second place in the popular vote, deprives the eternal governing party of its Assembly majority, and paves the road to régime change. Which made it surprising to unfamiliar observers when the All-Sadko Parliamentary List "Fatherland", flush with victory, chose to go into coalition with the PARNAS, the aforementioned eternal governing party.

But to those who know Sadko and its politics, the post-election turn of events was less surprising. The PARNAS has actually ruled in minority more often than in majority, and even if the Fatherland List hadn't about-faced, it would've held on easily with the aid of some of the hundred-or-so local independents that round out the Assembly. Traditionally, PARNAS governments have struggled less with forces outside the party than they have to keep the party's myriad factions united behind them.

Which provides a further clue into "Fatherland" - it originated as the Fatherland Club, an association of PARNAS deputies who support military expansion and foreign interventionism, and Mikhail Medved had been recognised as being among its leaders. Interventionism had been on the decline following the stock market crash of 306, which directed the government's efforts to restructuring and efficiency measures at home - income tax was brought down to 12%, and wealth tax completely abolished - but combined with a dash of economic populism, Medved figured it could sell better than the PARNAS leadership thought it could.

And was he ever right - the Fatherland List won nearly 15 percent of the vote, and took 59 seats. This was less than proportional, but the parallel voting system has tended to overrepresent the PARNAS and independents (and anyone able to concentrate support in a few places) at the expense of everyone else. Medved held his seat in Orlyonovka, but only eight of his colleagues were elected in local constituencies. Still better than the Women's List or the Democrats, whose leaders had given up standing in local seats altogether and fallen back on the top spot on their party lists.

The coalition between the PARNAS and the Fatherland List was almost suspiciously easily negotiated. Medved took the Ministry of Defence, and party members took five out of 27 cabinet posts, with two more going to trusted independents. Orders were placed with shipyards in Korolev and Scindia for six new destroyers built to Federation standards, and domestic small-arms factories went to work producing modern rifle designs for the ground forces in expectation of a tender. Health spending went up by 2%, social services by 0.5%. Public works were turned down by the PARNAS in exchange for leaving income tax where it was. Sadko lumbered on.

index.php

Worlds of the Federation
Awadh
Sadko

General setting thread in sig.
 
Found this old box I made - the general gist of it IIRC was that Dan the Man swept the aging and stodgy symbol of the Old Guard Gerry Ford out of the White House on a wave of goodwill amid the ongoing Recession (shades of Obama in '08), but after Inouye reneges on his promise to get that Democratic bugbear of Universal Healthcare through Congress, Henry Howell primaries Inouye on wave of populist backlash against the Administration that has a noticeable racial tinge to it - Howell sits on allegations of sexual misconduct against the President because it would be ungentlemanly of him to take it to the press, but it destroys whatever's left of Inouye's legacy once the news breaks in the 90's.

arthur_w-_mitchell-png.416056

And I'll just leave this s p o o k y box here for your enjoyment:

cain-box-png.444628
 
Another s p o o k y box from the vault where Bobby Jindal is left holding the bag after George Allen goes down for threatening the victims of Dennis Hastert (who ITTL was a former member of the Cabinet in the late 90's and early Aughts for President Cheney/insert-republican-here) with massive repercussions while President. Jindal taps rising Pennsylvania Republican and son of Joe Scott Paterno which goes about as well as you could expect.

Bit pissed that I forgot to link Supriya Jolly in hindsight, but its whatever.

box1-png.394419
 
Back
Top