Au Canada (Mock Parliament revival, sign-up and rules)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Au Canada
Canadian Mock Parliament • 2015–2019

Background: The longest campaign in Canadian history ended not in catharsis, but in a cliffhanger. The memory of their humiliating defeat four years previous still fresh in their minds, the Liberals exacted a hard vengeance in the 2015 federal election, emerging as the largest party in parliament with a plurality of thirty seats and a slight lead in the popular vote, but falling short of the 170 seats needed to form a majority government. As Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepares to announce his resignation, the incoming Liberal minority government readies itself for what is sure to be a rocky and tumultuous four years.

Overview: The first round of Mock Parliament will play out over approximately twelve turns portioned in three phases. The first, preliminary phase, will be devoted to forming the next government of Canada following the results of the 42nd Canadian federal election and will cover the period from October 19 (election day) to November 1, 2015. This phase will consist of a single turn. The second, government phase, will comprise ten turns (or fewer, if parliament is dissolved early by a no-confidence motion or at request of the prime minister) covering the tenure of the 42nd parliament. On winter turns (November – April), the government will present an annual budget enumerating any and all new programs as well as changes to federal spending and the federal tax code. Summer turns (May – October) will be devoted to non-budgetary legislation; both the government and opposition members may propose legislation during this turn. The third and final phase will cover the course of the 43rd federal election. Turns will last one week during the government phase, and three days during the preliminary and election phases, to allow for contrast between the slow and deliberate pace of government and the fast-paced schedule of a national campaign.

In each turn, players will attempt to turn the course of events in their favor by combining their performances on the floor of parliament with appearances in the press and participation in closed-door negotiations. At the end of each turn, I will grade each party’s performance according to their effectiveness in advancing their agenda while responding effectively to events outside parliament. These may include the activities of various advocacy groups and special interests, as well as foreign and domestic crises simulated by dice roll. Note that while the standard is higher for the party of government, all party leaders are expected to participate actively in the legislative process. If you must be absent for a particular turn, I ask that you inform me in advance; undeclared absences will cause your party to be marked down, and repeatedly missing turns will result in your character being removed from the game.

Parties will be evaluated according to the following rubric:

Policy performance   
(Does the party advocate effectively for their agenda? In the case of the governing party, does the prime minister effectively address external crises? In the case of the opposition, does the leader pose appropriately counter the government’s narrative?)

Media image
(Does the party appropriately answer criticism and advocate for its agenda to the public?)

State of the nation
(Similar to policy, has the government seen to the well-being of the country? There will naturally tend to be an inverse relationship between the scores of the government and opposition on this issue, but much will also depend on each party is seen by its base as advocating for their interests.)

A note on writing legislation: Because this game will move at a much faster pace than does Atlasia, I do not expect players to submit law school-ready dissertations when introducing legislation in parliament. When writing a bill, you should seek to provide a concise summary of the changes you would make to the status quo of whatever issue you are addressing. Players should not feel the need to provide exhaustive detail on the finer points of your proposal; on the other hand, you should provide enough information that we can see what you are trying to do and how you will go about doing it. For example, if you were introducing a bill to reform federal elections, you might write:

“Members of Parliament will be elected from the provinces using proportional representation, with closed party lists.”

You should not write:

“I will fix elections in Canada.”   OR
“[Copy-and-past the Wikipedia entry on proportional representation.]”

If you feel comfortable writing in legalese, go for it; if not, don’t worry about it. While this is not a writing course and is not intended to be a forum for discussing the finer points of English grammar, please note that if I cannot understand the bill you have written, I may choose either to request a re-write or to mark down your party for that turn. Please also note that sloppiness and errant calculations are fair game for criticism from other parties in-game.

Sign-ups For the first round, I ask that players limit themselves to real Canadian politicians and political parties existent at the time of the 2015 election. First priority is to fill the three largest parties—Liberal, Conservative, and NDP—after which, smaller parties (BQ and the Greens) and advocacy groups (including media outlets) may be opened, depending on player demand.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Results of the 42nd Canadian general election
Liberal (Justin Trudeau) 147 seats, 34.47% votes
Conservative (Stephen Harper) 117 seats, 32.91% votes
New Democratic (Thomas Mulcair) 63 seats, 23.73% votes
Bloc Québécois (Gilles Duceppe) 10 seats, 4.67% votes
Green (Elizabeth May) 1 seat, 3.43% votes

Players

Liberals
Justin Trudeau, Leader and Prime Minister (bruhgmger2)
Irwin Cotler (Tim Turner)

Conservatives
Andrew Scheer, Leader of the Opposition (wxtransit)
Kevin O'Leary (jk2020)

New Democratic
Nikki Ashton, Leader (HCP)
Nikki Ashton, Leader (GoTfan)
Jagmeet Singh, Leader (Ted Bessell)

Bloc Québécois
Rhéal Fortin, Leader (Not Madigan)

Green
Elizabeth May, Leader (Sanchez)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Andrew Scheer for the Conservatives, please.

Granted. As opposition leader, I presume?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Andrew Scheer for the Conservatives, please.

Granted. As opposition leader, I presume?

Sure.

What is the POD for there being no Liberal "wave"?

Broadly speaking, NDP runs a somewhat-stronger campaign than IRL, and hang on to more of their 2011 voters as a result. Truth be told, I wanted a hung parliament so that it would actually matter how the opposition parties voted (since party discipline in Canada is much stronger than in the US).

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'll play as Kevin O'Leary (with the Conservatives, for now).

[Perhaps we could engineer a by-election to allow him to enter Parliament? Or he could be extraparliamentary, I'm fine either way]

Granted. As the game hasn't started yet, I'm willing to tweak the backstory to have O'Leary elected in 2015—we'll give you the York Centre riding in suburban Toronto, which narrowly voted Conservative (45-42) in our timeline.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Just to clarify, we're currently in a minority government situation, correct? (I assume the NDP abstained from confidence)

Yep.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

JagYEET Singh

Granted. As party leader, I assume?

Would someone be willing to serve as Liberal leader? I don't want to take the nod, I fear I would flop as Liberal leader.

Yes, we really do need a prime minister for this to work. If someone is interested but just really doesn't want to play as Trudeau, I'd be open to allowing a different Liberal (within reason) to win the 2011 leadership vote.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'd actually really like to play as the Greens if possible.

Your party of one awaits you, sir! You'll be playing as Elizabeth May, I take it?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'd like to open the turn as soon as possible; unfortunately, we can't really do that until we have someone playing as prime minister. I had spoken with someone privately who had expressed interest in joining, but it's been a few days now; if any of our current players (perhaps a backbencher or member of one of the smaller parties) would like to switch either to Trudeau or to a different character as Liberal leader, that would be swell of you. I can promise you first dibs on your current character if you'd then like to switch back later on.

Alternatively, if anyone knows of someone (or multiple someones) who you think would be interested in joining, do pass the word along; the more, the merrier!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'd like to play as Rhéal Fortin, leader of Bloc Quebecois

Granted; welcome!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I would be more then willing to play as the Leader of the Liberal Party.

Excellent! Welcome, sir.


In that case, we have a full roll. As soon as buhgmger confirms his character (whether he'll play as Trudeau or a different Liberal prime minister), I'll open the first turn and we can get started.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

You can have Irwin Cotler, Tim.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

(Answering this here to avoid disrupting gameplay with OOC commentary:

This minority is far too unstable. I go to the Governor-General and call for a fresh election.

OOC: I don’t think that’s how this works.

The possibility of an early election does exist within the structure of the game. Opposition parties may bring motions of no-confidence against the government, just as in real life, and parliament may be dissolved if the event the government fails to pass a budget. In a hung parliament, this means the opposition can force an early election by deliberately voting down the government's program; so by logical inference, the prime minister can request the dissolution of parliament (as otherwise, opposition parties would have an unfair advantage in budget negotiations).

I'll admit I didn't expect this option to be invoked so early in the game; I'll allow it this time for the sake of fairness, but in the future there may be restrictions on when an election may be called.

edit: As of this posting, parliament remains in session. The prime minister's request has been "provisionally granted" pending his completion of certain tasks assigned to him by the governor general; in the meantime, parties may act to prevent or bring on an early election as they see fit.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

(Answering this here to avoid disrupting gameplay with OOC commentary:

This minority is far too unstable. I go to the Governor-General and call for a fresh election.

OOC: I don’t think that’s how this works.

The possibility of an early election does exist within the structure of the game. Opposition parties may bring motions of no-confidence against the government, just as in real life, and parliament may be dissolved if the event the government fails to pass a budget. In a hung parliament, this means the opposition can force an early election by deliberately voting down the government's program; so by logical inference, the prime minister can request the dissolution of parliament (as otherwise, opposition parties would have an unfair advantage in budget negotiations).

I'll admit I didn't expect this option to be invoked so early in the game; I'll allow it this time for the sake of fairness, but in the future there may be restrictions on when an election may be called.

edit: As of this posting, parliament remains in session. The prime minister's request has been "provisionally granted" pending his completion of certain tasks assigned to him by the governor general; in the meantime, parties may act to prevent or bring on an early election as they see fit.

Am I still allowed to appoint people as ministers for certain cabinet ministries?

Yes; they can be either players (as with Minister for Justice Colter), or you can "appoint" real-life MPs to the cabinet.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

With the prime minister's statement yesterday, parliament is officially dissolved. Turn One of the general election will likely begin tomorrow; once I have finished calculating the results of the government phase, I will post the rules for the election and we'll get started.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

May I join as Niki Ashton of the NDP?

Certainly: welcome aboard!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Just a reminder: Turn One ends in approximately 23 hours, at 11:59 pm. We are still awaiting platforms and schedules from the Liberals and NDP.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Sorry for the short notice, but I am going to have to withdraw from the game due to a lack of available time IRL

Sorry to hear that, Ted; thanks for letting us know. Feel free to rejoin if you have more time later.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

As noted in the campaign thread, Nikki Ashton (played by GoTfan) has replaced Jagmeet Singh as leader of the New Democratic Party. Turn One has been extended to Sunday (2/18) to allow him time to submit a platform and schedule.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Turn one is now closed; turn two will be up as soon as I have finished marking your performances and calculating provincial polls/seat estimates.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

A reminder that your schedules and debate responses for Turn Two are due tonight.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Sorry to hear that, GoTfan. Feel free to rejoin if you have more time later on.

With that, we are once again in the market for an NDP leader. If either of our backbenchers would like to take over Ashton (Tim, Sestak...), or if a new player would like to come aboard, let me know as soon as possible. Otherwise, NDP will be on autopilot for Turn Two.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Thanks to those who turned in schedules and debate responses for Turn Two. As Trudeau and Scheer have yet to post their material, I will be extending this turn for another 24 hours (until the end of the day Friday, February 23).

While I don't mind granting extensions when necessary, do make sure you're keeping track of deadlines and letting me know if/when you need extra time; at the very least, it helps me to know that you're still planning to submit material, and have not simply lost interest.

I was recruited by Not_Madigan on the discord, so I'll give it my best!

Can I play as Cam Broten and lead the NDP as if I were elected from Saskatoon West?

Welcome! My only issue with that is Broten would be a first term MP becoming party leader in the middle of an election campaign. Do you have a compelling reason for why Broten would become leader; or, alternatively, is there another NDP figure you'd be willing to play as for this round?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I was recruited by Not_Madigan on the discord, so I'll give it my best!

Can I play as Cam Broten and lead the NDP as if I were elected from Saskatoon West?

Welcome! My only issue with that is Broten would be a first term MP becoming party leader in the middle of an election campaign. Do you have a compelling reason for why Broten would become leader; or, alternatively, is there another NDP figure you'd be willing to play as for this round?

Perhaps since he was the leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, he already had some leadership experience and was thus chosen?

If not, I could try to find another character.

The thing is, NDP has something like 10 seats in the provincial parliament. I'd prefer you play as someone more experienced, at least for this round, but if you look and there isn't anyone else you feel comfortable with, I can approve Broten (just be aware that there will probably be questions about his readiness to serve as PM).

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I was recruited by Not_Madigan on the discord, so I'll give it my best!

Can I play as Cam Broten and lead the NDP as if I were elected from Saskatoon West?

Welcome! My only issue with that is Broten would be a first term MP becoming party leader in the middle of an election campaign. Do you have a compelling reason for why Broten would become leader; or, alternatively, is there another NDP figure you'd be willing to play as for this round?

Perhaps since he was the leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, he already had some leadership experience and was thus chosen?

If not, I could try to find another character.

The thing is, NDP has something like 10 seats in the provincial parliament. I'd prefer you play as someone more experienced, at least for this round, but if you look and there isn't anyone else you feel comfortable with, I can approve Broten (just be aware that there will probably be questions about his readiness to serve as PM).

I'll play as Niki Ashton, then.

Lovely; welcome aboard!

Since you just joined, the lack of an NDP schedule/debate responses for Turn Two won't be counted against you. Turn Three should be up later today.