Canada

From Kaiserreich

Revision as of 23:33, 20 October 2007

Canada is a country located on the North American Continent. It is the northern most country in the western hemisphere and is bordered only by the United States of America along the 49th parallel and by the American state of Alaska to the Northwest. It is comprised of 10 provinces and 2 territories subject to federal jurisdiction.

Reputation of Canadian Troops

The Battle of Vimy Ridge is one of Canada's proudest moments from the Great War. Succeeding where British and French forces had failed, Canadian troops dislodged an entrenched and skilled contingent of German troops from Vimy Ridge under the brilliant leadership of Canadian general Sir Arthur Currie. This victory was attributed to the use of underground sapping, rolling artillery barrages and informing NCO's and rank soldiers of the battle's objectives so in event of commanding officers being killed, the mission could still go ahead. Canadian newspapers lauded the troops while the soldiers themselves wrote home enthusiastically to state that Canada had been born on the fields of Vimy, an equal to England and all her other allies. Because of this battle, Canadian soldiers are now considered some of the most elite soldiers on the face of the Earth.

Canada after the Great War

Canadian troops returned to their country after the conclusion of the peace with honour treaty. Canadian Prime Minister Robert Laird Borden received column of troops headed by the tenacious and well-beloved Canadian general Arthur Sir Currie GCMF, KCB, who was esteemed heavily by both the Allies and the Central Powers for his brilliant leadership of the Canadian Corps.

PM Borden, dogged and tired after holding a Union Government together for the duration of the war, appeared visibly strained and prematurely aged as he proclaimed: "I welcome you home from the fields of war, from which you knew no defeat!" Canadian attitudes to the war were divided. While Patriots and Imperialist took comfort some comfort in the fact that the Empire had not been defeated per se, the fact that the war ended in a unfavourable "draw" heavily in Germany's favour kindled great resentment, especially in Quebec where conscription riots and opposition to the war seemed to be justified in the light of German dominance of the European continent.

Upon conclusion of the war, all the Union liberals who had not left the government yet quickly rejoined their fellow party members in the opposition and the government fell apart, divided as to how to take Canada into the future. Former liberal PM Sir Wilfrid Laurier's optimistic prediction that the 20th century would be Canada's century seemed laughable now to most Canadians. Laurier himself had passed away during the war, seemingly taking with him to the grave the sunny prosperity that had affected Canada during his leadership in the late 19th century.

Shortly after calling the election, PM Borden lay in his room at the Chateau Laurier (named in honour of the former liberal PM) and passed away. His last words were of regret that he had never returned to his native Nova Scotia to rejoin the Celtic Diaspora.

With many of the heavyweights of the old 19th century and pre-war political traditions dead, Canada weaved in and out of political obscurity and a deep sense of national malaise. All of this would be grimly impacted by the loss of the Home Islands.

Canada's Leadership

With the loss of the Home Isles, the British liberals fled to Canada along with the other establishment figures. Still tarred with having lost the war under the leadership of Herbert Asquith and David Lloyd George (at least in Canada), the liberal tradition of Britain did not impact the Canadian liberal party as much as some thought it would. William Lyon MacKenzie King, who became liberal leader in 1919, had previously been Minister of Labour under Laurier and came from an interesting family. His maternal grandfather had been the leader of the Upper Canadian rebellion and had died in the United States in exile. After serving under Wilfird Laurier as Labour minister for a brief time in 1907, King took time to travel the United States and wrote extensively on Labour relations, becoming well acquainted with many leading American industrialists such as the Rockerfellers while doing his best to aid them in successfully resolving their labour disputes. He returned to Canada at the outbreak of the Great War.

Opposed by the Conservatives, led by Arther Meighan after the death of Borden, King has met with mixed success in rallying the forces of Canadian liberalism. His greatest success has been painting Meighan as a yes-man to the British lords and exiles blamed for losing the Empire, but his policy of urging a peaceful foreign policy based on mutually dependent, integrated economies with other the nations within “The Anglo-Saxon World” (as he calls it) has antagonized the British and Canadian military elites and has proven difficult to reconcile with Canada’s massive fleet and imperial obligations in the Pacific and the Caribbean. One of King's King’s highest priority however seems to be helping the traditional political parties in the USA retain control as part of the Anglo-Saxon World, but it is rumoured that if civil war comes to the USA, King may side with the America First movement, if only to prevent the growth of syndicalism in North America…

The Depression

With the onset of the Depression in left wing elements in the Prairies organized a general strike in Winnipeg which was brutally repressed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, egged on by the British and Canadian elites who desired to stamp out any possibility of another revolution occurring. However the extent that many of the RCMP officers went to shocked many within the Canadian body politic. It was rumoured that the RCMP is now heavily influenced by a group of men who are former members of the old Special Branch. The Liberals under King have reached out to members of the socialist Canadian Commonwealth Federation (CCF) declaring that they were merely ‘Liberals in a hurry.’ King’s charm and reaching out to the left-wing in order to form a united opposition to the Conservatives has resulted in Canadian socialism and liberalism adopting a policy of gradual, legal reform.

Canada's Royal Family

Relations with the Royal family are strained. The King has no time for the Liberal leader, leading wags in the press to talk about the war between the King’s of Canada. The Prince of Wales, the darling of Canada’s media, finds King to be nothing but a mere colonial and spends most of his time putting in valuable facetime for the Monarchy in Canada, especially in Quebec where he is doing his best to woe the French Canadians with his charm. His brother Albert however, possessed of a powerful sense of duty, has granted King a great deal of mutual respect, if not public endorsement, especially in regards to King’s contention that each British Dominion is a separate state with equal rights within a larger Empire, each with its separate crown for its head of state.

The other sons of King George V, HRH Henry Duke of Gloucester and HRH George Duke of Kent have kept a low profile in the Canadian public life, though the Duke of Kent’s interest in the development of airpower has lead to his active engagement and elevation within the Royal Canadian Airforce. Henry has remained in the army and patronizes the Royal Military College in Kingston as an honorary colonel.