Commonwealth of Vancouver

The History of Vancouver:

Following the exodus and the locals' alliance, under the leadership of Kilpatrick and the Vancouver Emergency Council, the island enforced several new policies to best handle the new circumstances of the Change. First and foremost was the creation of the Provincial Identification System, which consolidated all personal information into a quasi Social Security number that all Vancouver residents were eventually assigned. At first this was put in place only for people suffering from contagious or debilitating diseases to best manage the flow of medications and limit the spread of disease. It was designed as a temporary system in which all participants were issued a dog-tag like chain that held the ID Number that local authorities could cross reference.

This system was used primarily to divert the sickly and the contagious to Cowichan Valley, where they were isolated from other the rest of the population and spent their last days constructing great rice patties for those that would survive.

Along with the Cowichan camps, every able bodied man and woman was put to work clear cutting trees for farmland, working in shifts until they were needed for any skills they might possess. By CY 3 the artisan to agrarian ratio had grown substantially with half the population of Vancouver able to produce enough food for the whole island.

CY 3 also marked the birth of the Commonwealth of Vancouver, which among giving citizenship every resident, established the, "Republic Clause," which stated that should a legitimate successor to the US or Canada emerge, the Vancouver Congress must make a vote to cede itself to whatever state emerges first, or remain independent. The Commonwealth also established the Participatory Amendment, which stated that while anyone living in Vancouver was a citizen, only those that registered to vote could receive social services.

CY 4 marked the institutionalization of the Eugenics policies that first started with the Cowichan camps. No Vancouverite, citizen who suffered from any debilitating condition, family history of substance abuse or medical issues, or mental deficiencies, was permitted to conceive children. Most of these parties died during the change, however the practice was used as a step to prevent any future mass die offs. This policy also reflected the Isolation Act, which outlawed making contact with the other post-change nations, for fear of introducing "Monarchists," or, "Theocrats."

The Commonwealth established a House of Parliament, a Senate, a Speaker of the Parliament, and a Consul General. No President was created, instead establishing the Consul as the Head of State, and The Speaker as the Head of Government. The Congress is divided by three major parties, the Maple Party, who are pro-Canadian Social-Democrats; the Unionists, pro-American Libertarians, and the Liberal-Republicans, an isolationist center-left party.

In CY 7 an amendment was made to the Isolation Act that allowed the Consul General to preside over expeditions onto the continent. Consul Kilpatrick promptly ordered a team of some 400 soldiers to make their way across the continent to observe the state of the former US and Canada. The soldiers brought back detailed reports of the new American nations, and procured a number of historical items and rare books from various areas in the death zones, none more important than those from the Smithsonian and the National Archives in Washington DC.

The success of the expedition had made it a tradition for Consuls to authorize at least one expedition per term, and has yielded a slew of useful data and knowledge that would have otherwise been lost to history. The Commonwealth has used this knowledge to better their understanding of the Change, and develop a number of advanced technologies to try to replicate the conveniences of Pre-change life. Of these various devices include analog computers and Babbage Difference Engines; advanced medical techniques, Velocars, and even composites.

By CY 20 Vancouver has developed into an advanced civilization, with the largest population in America and the only liberal-democracy. The Eugenics laws have been reformed to encourage the development superior skills and, "the gifted," however the isolationist policies are finally beginning to meet serious calls for abolishment. The expeditions have since expanded to include much of the world, and even after 20 years since the cities burned and the planes fell out of the sky, useful knowledge continues to flow in from these missions.

Some in the Congress have recently begun to call for evoking the Republic Clause and voting to join the United States of America known to most as Boise. This is met with a great amount of opposition, both by Maple Party and Unionists who argue that Boise is too autocratic to be considered a real successor to the US. Former Consul Kilpatrick, however, has recently begun to advocate for the creation of a "Second Republic," a true successor state to the United States. Support for this idea is growing, partly due to what many Maple Party members would call a biased education system.

-sorry for the really long explanation, but I've been having a lot of fun with this fan-scenario as of late. This map of Vancouver took quite a while to complete, and if you want to use it for your own work feel free to do so.