SENATE BILL: North American Federal Transition Act (Passed)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

This establishes a vast increase in land for the Fremont and Lincoln regions.

The South is being left out here and thus I couldn't condone supporting this unless provisions were made to equalize the land allotted.

The problem, of course, is that the South doesn't actually border Canada. From a gameplay perspective, I don't see how this bill effects the balance of power between the existing regions in a meaningful way.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

If the South thinks it's unfair then you could just balance it by including Mexico too and splitting it geographically between the South and Fremont.

I would support this! Adam proposed something similar at the ConCon, I believe.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Quebec as part of the South makes no sense at all. Given they're the most populous region currently (and twice the size of Frémont), concerns they might be "overpowered" seem a little misplaced.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Here's Griffin's original proposal from 2015:



I'd suggest we add Greenland, too (to Lincoln) if we want to go for the whole continent, but posting this mainly for the Mexican partition. Of course, Ontario goes to Lincoln in the current version of this bill.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

So long as we're posting maps, I have one:



Though we should probably not stray too far from the topic at hand.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I guess the important question is whether we want to incorporate just Canada, just Canada and Mexico, or all of North America. I count four votes (five? not sure where you stand, Yankee) for including Mexico at least. Then there's the matter of how to divide up Mexico between Frémont and the South and whether to consolidate the Mexican states: I stand by my own proposal for the former, though I'm willing to compromise on the exact division.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

For reference, here's a map of Mexico's real-life electoral regions:



If we decide to unite all of North America, I would urge giving Oaxaca and Chiapas to FT in order to facilitate integration of Central America (assuming the South will get the Caribbean), but otherwise giving FT 1, 4, and 5 and the South 2 and 3 seems logical?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Hilarious to hear any Southerner complaining about imperialism, especially as they continue to defend the occupation of Kansas! ASV is of course correct that giving the most-populous region all of Mexico and Central America is hardly balanced. Hopefully the Senate can come agree on a map that is fair to everyone.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

There is absolutely no rhyme nor reason for the Atlantic Provinces to illogically be included in the South. The main benefit of also including Mexico is that the South then also gains territory which actually makes geographical sense.

Yep!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Draft of an amendment:

AN ACT
to establish a federal North America

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in Congress assembled:

Section 1 (Title)
i. The title of this Act shall be, the North American Federal Transition Act. It may be cited as “NAFTA.”

Section 2 (Federal North America)
i. The republics of Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas (The Bahamas), Greenland, Jamaica, the United Mexican States (Mexico), and Canada are admitted to the Union.
ii. Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua; Panama; the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan and the territories of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon; as well as the reorganized Mexican states of Sonora (comprising the current states Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora), Mexico City (comprising the current states of Chiapas, Mexico City, Guerrero, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala), and Mexico (comprising the current states of Colima, Hidalgo, Estado de México and Michoacán); shall be admitted to the Union as constituent states of the Commonwealth of Frémont.
iii. Greenland and the Canadian provinces New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec shall be admitted to the Union as constituent states of the region of Lincoln.
iv. The Bahamas; Belize; Cuba; the Dominican Republic; Haiti; and Jamaica; as well as the reorganized Mexican states of Nuevo Leon (comprising the current states of Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas) and Yucatan (comprising the current states of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán); shall be admitted to the Union as constituent states of the Southern Region.

Section 3 (Enactment)
i. This Act shall take effect upon its ratification by the Parliament of Canada each of the aforementioned signatories.

This would incorporate all of North America except the Eastern Carribean, the Caiman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Mexican states are consolidated as above proposed to make life easier for the RG.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Kind-of hilarious that a compromise intended to satisfy the South was passed by a 4-1-1 vote without the support of either Southern senator.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Kind-of hilarious that a compromise intended to satisfy the South was passed by a 4-1-1 vote without the support of either Southern senator.

It seemed a bit too expansive overall and I feared it would cause opposition to build particularly in the other chamber since there was already criticism of the Mexican acquisition on the grounds that it would just be empty land.

Perhaps I would agree with that if this were just an election sim, but in reality incorporating Mexico and Central America will add a host of new avenues for debate on the policy front. Imagine a debate on the War on Drugs that includes the Mexican drug cartels as a domestic law enforcement problem!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I am tempted to do a skit based on the Treaty of Westphalia skit.


Yankee: Now hold on, you can't just give Fremont and Lincoln more territory
MB: I thought you didn't want it  
Yankee: Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can just give them another province
ASV: What about Mexico?
Truman: Now here then let's split it, Fremont gets the Western Half and South gets the Eastern Half
MB: Is it wise to split a country in such wild and ragged a fashion? In the future we will have Fremontese Mexicans and Southern Mexicans, both at each other's throats.
Truman: Oh that will just give articles in the future something to write about...
Yankee: I must say with this redraw of the Euro...North American Borders, you really do spoil us.  

MB: what about South America
Truman: Oh we forgot South America. Okay here we go 1,2,3 Brazil, Argentina and Grand Colombia.

Great idea!