Canada

Before any official statement could be released, it became obvious that the region had been taken by the Union because of the nation one of the operatives used. Acting Overseer of TSSU, Krovx Luxembourg, who at the time was also the Union’s Foreign Affairs Minister (under the name Krovx Belgium) quickly became aware of this. He approached multiple high-ranking members of the Union to ask them if they had taken the region from the natives. They originally disputed the accusations until an official statement was made by the Prime Minister, stating:

“Good Afternoon. The government would like to formally announce that our latest military operation has been a success. The former region of TSSU was captured today by a special command in UAF as part of a refounding operation. The government shall be going into formal talks with what is left of the previous government as their founder destroyed the region. Our proposal is simple: a referendum on the future of TSSU. In our negotiations, we hope to reach a just conclusion to this that both parties are satisfied with. Thank you.”

The referendum mentioned in this statement is what brought controversy. Originally the idea given by the Prime Minister was to hold a referendum on having TSSU possibly join the Union. Our government knew they didn’t have much of a chance of winning, but wanted to at least try since they knew the community was struggling and might need some help. That being said, holding a referendum could only happen if TSSU agreed to hold one. The Acting Overseer of TSSU agreed, conditionally (if his agreed), to hold one. Our government later admitted that holding a referendum was a bad idea and apologized for it. Krovx’s agreement though, came as a surprise, but a surprise that would bring bad news.

At around the same time, the Acting Overseer of TSSU reached out on the NationStates Leaders Discord to ask for help, saying we were forcefully trying to hold a referendum in TSSU. It seemed that we hadn’t made it clear that the referendum could have been refused which is why Krovx thought reaching out to more powerful leaders was his only option. TSSU gained support from some of the largest regions in NS, including The North Pacific, The West Pacific, The Pacific and the United Regions Alliance, who then issued a joint statement on the situation, asking our embassies to cut ties. Since our Founder had to leave just after we offered a referendum, no official statement could be issued, paralyzing Force and worsening the situation.

Following this, there was some OOC drama and since it could be its own story altogether, I’ll just provide a brief summary: In short, when Renegalle came back from his absence and realized what had happened, he responded inappropriately, not understanding the whole situation. After he realized his mistake, he tried to smooth things over with some jokes, but they were not well received and only made some people even angrier.

Due to these comments, a military operation combining the forces of The Pacific, The West Pacific and Europeia managed to kick New Legland from his position as World Assembly Delegate as a symbolic gesture. Since the WAD does not have any powers in Force, this did not gain much attention initially from the federal administration. What it did manage to do was instill fear in citizens of our states and territories, which had also been targeted by these attacks. This caused some regions, like Heart and RGBN, to distance themselves from the whole mess to stop the attacks. Some days later, I talked with Xoriet, who led the attacks, and condemned how our Founder reacted. After that, the attacks ended.

We recognize the many errors we made during this whole debacle and will work to try to prevent anything similar from happening in future. We apologize to TSSU for our actions, to every person who was hurt by irresponsible comments, and to our own citizens for our conduct. We hope to reform ourselves so we can put this behind us and build a better region. If you want to see the official statement released by us on the situation, you can find it here.

While I am honored to be nominated by this party I must refuse the nomination as I am in opposition to the very union for which the Prime Minister is to serve. I ran this campaign to raise awareness for confederalism, expanding relations with the MOST NOTABLE anti-fascist region the kaiserreich, and to give voters an anti-establishmentarian option. I believe I have successfully fulfilled all my goals and as such I do not need the premiership. I have spoken to the party leader, The Scottish Republic (Salibaic do to non scots speakers), and he has given me the power to declare Azerubia the party nominee. Thank you to everyone who voted for me and best wishes to azerubia to lead the party.

It was due to this statement that with 18% of the vote Azerubia was renominated. While at first folks thought this was the end of the affair, a few weeks later, when Azerubia nominated independent Lashnakia to become DPM the former Prime Minister Salibaic stated:

“I will no longer be supporting Azerubia for Prime Minister so long as his DPM is the dishonourable Lashnakia. Lashnakia tried to intimidate me for voting abstain and state I was disloyal. This is unacceptable and I shall not be talked down to by the government. I demand the government apologise immediately.”

Salibaic, who still holds great influence in the party, was joined in his statement by Elysium who stated “hear hear”. A few days later Krovx posted a poster telling people to vote him for PM and Elysium for DPM and the slogan “Get in the Fight for Regions Rights” emblazoned on the top of the poster. This has led some to speculate that there may soon be a major political party shift, although these remain rumors.

Conclusion: 2/10; They got the color and texture right, but nothing else. Would not recommend or force upon my worst enemy.

In the past month, the High Court has reviewed three versions of the Heart constitution, one version of the Canterbury constitution, and one version of the CAD constitution. The CAD constitution was reviewed because of a flaw which limited voters to those who had been in CAD for a certain length of time, which was a violation of House Bill 61.

The Canterbury constitution was reviewed at the request of the Governor of Canterbury, and a small issue was found with the specification of rights. The Heart constitution was reviewed multiple times, with the first review pointing out many flaws such as grammatical flaws, and also dispensed legal advice. The second review had an issue with applying retroactively, which was fixed in the fourth and final review.

However, it is also important for me to note that this is equally down to the hard work of my wonderful members of government, particularly Spirit Glaceons and Neo-Caduceo. Spirit or Moon, as we within the discord servers know them, has been unwaveringly diligent at running our Lovecraftian themed RMB RP, with the activity that provides undoubtedly attracting players to CAD. They have also done their fair share of manual recruitment, which is, as ever, greatly appreciated. Caduceo has also been an incredible friend as well as a hardworking Internal Affairs Director. Their work on bringing CAD’s dispatches into the absolutely beautiful works that they are, has been beyond helpful; there’s nothing like a beautifully formatted dispatch to attract new players. They have also been hard at work running manual recruitment for the region, and providing feedback regarding whether the recruitment telegram is working particularly well or not.
I would of course very much like to thank the individuals who have joined the region, as well. The fact that nearly 50 new individuals have looked at our region, and decided that they want to be a part of it fills me with such happiness. CAD is nothing without it’s people, they are our very lifeblood, and I can only repeatedly heap thanks upon them for choosing us above the myriad of other regions that exist.

I shan’t particularly sing my own praises, however. I have largely been focused on fixing issues with our constitution, and taking part in the RP, as well as occasionally remembering to make sure that the API recruitment is still running. I am merely glad to have been able to head this region into it’s new success; we have truly entered CAD’s golden age, and I have so many people to thank for helping us reach it.

As ever, Glory to the Citizens’ Alliance of Democracy!

Last year, I mentioned how so much more people are celebrating Pride around the Union than the year before that, and the same can be said for this year, and I can't write a Pride Month article without mentioning the beautiful Gay Agenda - the club, that is. If you didn't know, Force's LGBTQIA+ club is called The Gay Agenda, one of the first clubs ever created and one that is active to this very day. Our fellow LGBTQIA+ members as well as the many allies we have really like sticking around the club, so to all of you, I am thankful for giving me and others like us a place to feel welcome and accepted.

I'm also so happy to mention that this year, FIVE of our Union's territories (including Force) flew a Pride Month variant of their regional flags, and I had the honour of having helped design three of them. I've always been so happy to see how many regions across NationStates fly Pride variants of their flag, and with CAD and Canterbury joining in this year, you can clearly see why I personally consider Pride the best event in the Union.

However, as you probably know full well by now, not everything is all sunshine and rainbows - the world is still, unfortunately, in a dark place. While light is slowly creeping in from various corners of the planet, let us celebrate Pride Month that same way - by glowing bright amidst this darkness we're all in, and let us guide those who might need the light at their darkest hour. Let me close this off by repeating what I said last year - be thankful, be loving, be human. This is your good friend Caduceo wishing you a safe and beautiful day!