[War] Canada: Stepping Up to the Plate

[Dylan de Valk]

[OoC: Sorry people, forgot to put the actions in, just delete the last one.]



'Stepping up to the Plate'
Dec.13/2013
Prime Minister James McColl
Canada

---------------

The atmosphere in Ottawa these days was one of both triumph and despair.  On
one hand, you have thousands of grit supporters who can't wait to see, in
their eyes, the most reviled former Prime Minister Harper get out of
office.  On the other hand, you have the conservative supporters, who are
already wailing about how horrible the Liberals will be.

However, James McColl was oblivious to the atmosphere as he walked down
Sussex Drive from his official residence at number 24.  Never mind the RCMP
and CSIS agents, he wanted to go for a walk, on his own, one last time.
Before he got stuck with the security teams...

At the moment, McColl wasn't thinking about that, he actually thinking about
how his new job would be affecting his family, namely his wife Jennifer and
their two children, Anna and Eric.  Like everywhere around the world, so
many people put their jobs ahead of family and friends here, and he wanted
to be able to say that he had managed to balance the two.

Yesterday he had been sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada by Governor
General Michelle Louise Jenkins.  Although McColl was not really sure how he
felt about the monarchy, he had enjoyed the ceremonies nonetheless, and his
acceptance speech was buoyed by an overwhelmingly positive crowd.  Maybe
further enlightenment would come to him on the issue as time progressed.

James McColl had many plans that he wanted implemented.  The problem was, he
probably couldn't have them all, and definetly not right away.  He was one
of those political types who wanted to rule for the benefit of the country,
not for personal enrichment; he actually despised those who were corrupt in
the bureaucracy.  He may or may not introduce legislation for government
accountability, but that would a long term thing.  He did resent the fact
that the Tories had campaigned on that platform in 2006, and then had
promptly forgotten everything they'd promised and then done what they wanted
instead.

He wanted to see young people going to university, and then coming out
without $40,000 debts, he wanted to see more hospitals built to accommodate
the extra patient loads of an aging population.  Granted, the Medicare
system needed a major overhaul, having been more or the less the same since
the 1960's.  He wanted to see old age pensions and security for those
without disposable income rise, so that poorer people could have a
comfortable retirement.  They needed to find a way to stimulate the
birth-rate, and opening up immigration to the levels of the early 2000's [an
annual immigration rate of nearly 300,000/year!] was not an option.  The
list went on and on.

There was also the issue of appeasing increasingly active nationalists, who
wanted to see the US go down the drain.  McColl knew that would never
happen, but he did see the merit in a more assertive, and less passive
foreign policy with the Americans.  He didn't want relations with the US to
be cold, but nor did he want them to be warm and cuddly, like under Harper.
He also saw the merit in protecting some key Canadian industries from total
American domination, even if that meant risking the yanks' displeasure.  But
there were ways around that.

Probably the most pressing problem the grits had at this point in time was
finding funding for everything they wanted to do.  With the economy still
struggling to get out of the hole from the recession a few years back, the
balanced budget was very balanced indeed, with barely a billion dollars in
surplus for the April.1-March.31 2013/2014 fiscal year.

But never mind that, "But never you mind now," as his great grandmother
would have said in her heavy Polish accent.  James McColl was descended on
his mother's side from the Polish farmers that mass-immigrated to Canada in
the 20th century, and on his father's side of the Scottish McColl clan, some
of whom emigrated to Canada in the 19th century after Confederation.
Interestingly, many people in his family were no longer regularly practising
religion, though on days such as Christmas and Easter they did make an
effort to appear.  Most people didn't have a problem with this, and he
respected them for that, but there some Catholic revisionists in Quebec who
had a heckled more than a few of his campaign stops.  His strong
Presbyterian work ethic had done a lot for him, but as it stands, James
McColl was among the agnostic members of his family.  Along with that, he
was also young, being 48 years old, and thus one of the youngest Prime
Ministers to date...

McColl was, overall, hopefull about his prospects.  Canadians viewed him as
a refreshing change, being young, from the status quo; he wanted to do some
good for the country, which so badly needed it after the right-wing neglect
the conservatives had overseen, calling it in their usual speech
'non-interventionist'.  He was also glad, that Quebec and Western separatism
at this time were fading a little.  Quebec and Alberta had made many a
federal politician lose coherence and break down, and he was thankful that
he might get away with relatively little squabbling with the provinces.

Over the next few days he would be meeting with his Ministers [which the PM
appoints], and he hoped to have some good, solid talks with them.  He was,
of course, more than a little nervous with his first meeting with a foreign
leader, but he decided not to think about that for the time being.  Prime
Minister-ship would be a hard, lonely job, but if he wanted to do it
properly, now was the time to step up to the plate and take his place.

----------------

March.8th, 2014
Prime Minister James McColl
Canada

The last few months had been uneventful, as the new government settled it,
and Parliament resumed its Winter Session in late January.  Relations were
amicable with Canada's allies, and Canada was more or less forgotten by the
rest of the world for moment as attention was still fixed on what the
Chinese would do with North Korea.  The government's attention was more or
less taken up by the upcoming Spring Budget for 2014.  This morning, the PM
had a meeting with his Minister of Finance, to discuss the various details
of the budget.

Eric van der Werden, Minister of Finance, and one of McColl's closest
political allies, knocked softly, and entered, shutting the door behind
him.  "James, its always good to see you."

"Likewise, Eric."  The PM got right down to business: "So Eric, you must
know that a balanced budget is extremely important, we HAVE to run a
surplus, otherwise the critics will be screaming at us for the rest of the
term for departing the balanced budget policy of the last 18 years."  He
paused, then, "Although, I have been tempted to run a deficit just to piss
them off."  McColl grinned.  "I never got a chance to say this, but I'm
really glad you accepted my offer for Minister."

"Thanks bud, I'm glad too."  Eric opened his dossier which was chalk full of
papers, notes, assessments and other assorted documents.  He looked around,
the beautiful old wooden paneling, the antique lamps and curiously modern
computer clashed.  "Well, let's get down to business shall we?  I do confess
that looking at the policies you promised the electorate, I was rather
discouraged at how we were going to pay for it all.  I'm glad you were
looking more at the long term for many of them, because there is no way we
can afford large spending this year unless we raise taxes or cut social
spending, neither of which we are prepared to do.  However, we can afford to
start stimulating the economy but cutting corporate taxes as well as
earmarking funding for research and development in some fields.  What were
your ideas?

The PM looked thoughtful, "Well, I think that if we cut corporate taxes, we
need to make up the funding shortfall in other areas.  I have precisely the
idea, to trade off those corp taxes by instituting a national carbon tax to
help start modernizing our industries.  They HAVE been falling behind in the
last few years of our greenhouse gas emissions targets, so this will help
towards that.  Remember what BC did back in 2008?  They introduced a carbon
tax, but kept it revenue neutral by offsetting it with other tax cuts, thats
what I'd like to do here."

"Hmmm, I'm not sure that would stimulate the economy so much, but we could
try it." van der Werden paused, then, "Maybe we should revise the financial
rules to allow for more freedom in the stock market, that might generate
more revenue, in a big way, and also appease many business people."

"Yea that sounds good, we need to explore as many options as we can, so keep
working on ways to increase our revenue this year while not pissing off too
many people.  At any rate, I want to go over all the options, bend some
rules, and squeeze some more money out of the budget.  Make things work."
McColl smiled disarmingly, then continued on, "However, if possible, I'd
like to increase funding for post-secondary institutions.  Over the next
five years I'd like to make it progressively cheaper for people to attend
university and college.  The standard tuition rate for many universities is
$7000 per year, not to mention residence and extras.  Maybe we could bring
that number down to $2000 by 2019?  There is another issue I'd like to talk
about, how are we going to get the military going again?"

"Weeelll... I'm not sure we would be able to do that this year, with our
kind of funding.  Why don't we see if General Girard and Minister Ansdale
are available for a spontaneous meeting?"  Lieutenant General Girard was the
Chief of General Staff, while Ansdale was the Minister for Defense.

"Sure, hey Sarah, can you put in a call and see if Girard and Ansdale are
available for a meeting with me in 5 minutes?"  Sarah was the PM's personal
secretary.

..... 10 minutes later both Girard and Ansdale were in the office, having
been in the centre block for a meeting.  McColl was in his element, "First
of all I want the three of you to work on Defense initiatives.  Currently,
we are in need of money, and then equipment, and then soldiers, am I not
correct?"

Girard spoke up, "You are indeed sir, the army is desperately short of new
recruits, and needs new vehicles, helicopters, and ground transport.  The
air force needs new recruits, new planes, and more variation in what
aircraft types we have, while the navy needs new ships and new personnel.
All the services need money."

The whole cabinet had done briefings, and the PM was well aware of what the
military needed.  "Very well general, as I said before, I want the three of
you to work together, as money and the military go hand in hand.  I want you
to draft a wish list of everything that is needed, and then we can proceed
from there, ok?"

Contrary to what military types thought of a centre-left PM, McColl was not
adverse to the needs of the military, and supported them, as his brother and
cousin were both officers.  The two ministers and general all concurred.
The conversation went on for another couple of minutes, with Ansdale voicing
some concerns about the capabilities of the military to defend the country.

"Very well, you may go.  I'm glad the three of us had a chance to chat in
private."

Three echoes of "Thank you, sir." and the two ministers and general filed
out.  McColl wondered if the general would take his order to heart, and
actually write everything he thought they needed down.  "Ah well..." he
sighed.  More meetings... today was going to be a long day, he still had to
meet with Foreign Affairs, Industry, and Transportations among others.
Maybe he would schedule a general meeting for all the Ministers so they
could get on the same page.

"Hey Sarah, Could you by chance..."

--------------

Actions:

1: Introduce new characters.
2: Go over some parts of the platform and current political problems.
3: Make sure people know the new government is aware of the importance of a
strong military.
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