Council of Governors - Meeting Room

[Eðo Grischun]

The Council of Governors has now convened.


Members of this Council are as follows:
@Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir, Başbakan of Atatürk
@Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu, Maestro of Benito
@Amada Merþedes, Sénéchal of Cézembre
@Miestrâ Schiva, UrN, Capitán of Fiôvâ
@Breneir Itravilatx, Governor of Florencia
@Þon Txoteu É. Davinescu, Premier of Maricopa
@Ian Plätschisch, Grand General Secretary of Maritiimi-Maxhestic
@Viteu Marcianus, Premier of Vuode


The office bearer position of Governor-General shall be held by the member for Maritiimi-Maxhestic and as such his province shall now host this councils' proceedings.


The Minister of the Interior shall act as a facilitator until those services are no longer required by this council.


I now open the floor for discussion, motions, points of order, etc...

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Thank you kindly, Minister.

Governors and governor-adjacents of Talossa, there are too many provinces and we should eliminate some so that the remainder can be functional.

These must be real provincial mergers - not those nonsense proposals where merged provinces get double the Senats seats or whatever. All provinces must continue to be equal.

I have heard that the issue of Vuode-MM merger is back on the table. Anyone keen on merging with Fiova? We've got a great constitutional system but almost total apathy.

[Ian Plätschisch]

These must be real provincial mergers - not those nonsense proposals where merged provinces get double the Senats seats or whatever. All provinces must continue to be equal.

This is the only portion of your statement I disagree with. I will support a V-MM merger without extra representation because these two provinces happen to be the two smallest, but beyond that you could end up with provinces with almost twice as many citizens with as others, still with only one Senator.

Of course, if that is what the people want, then go for it, but I doubt there will be much movement if merging means losing a substantial amount of power. Maybe we need weighted Senate voting after all.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

But the whole point of "1 Province, 1 Senate seat" is the federal principle. The people of the various provinces don't have any "power".

An argument for weighted Senäts voting is an argument for abolishing the federal principle altogether, which I don't have any objection to, since the provinces were created AFTER Talossa and have only ever existed in any real sense fitfully.

We could have fun provincial cultures and everything without any Senäts or provincial governments at all. New Zealand's provinces were abolished legally in 1876 but still exist as cultural and sporting entities.

[Viteu]

Conversations in Vuode and, from what I can see, M-M, are underway to determine possible merger. 

But I will stress that Vuode and M-M must be free to chart their own course at this time absent outside influence.  Right now, we need to figure out, individually, if there is popular support for merger.  Then we need to figure out what each province desires and discuss it among ourselves.  Once we have that, Vuode and M-M can work together to figure out what a new province will look like. We will then present that to the National Government for approval.

As Premier of Vuode, I will say that any merger with Vuode will require a new constitution.  Vuode will not be absorbed into another provinces, no matter how much larger they may be.  We will merge as equals, and a constitutional convention with equal representation is required to proceed.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

A successful Vuode/MM merger would set thoughts in motion in the neighbouring province of Fiova, which is still "merger-happy".

... do you think it's worth discussing a three-way merger already?

[Ian Plätschisch]

A successful Vuode/MM merger would set thoughts in motion in the neighbouring province of Fiova, which is still "merger-happy".

... do you think it's worth discussing a three-way merger already?

No

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

A successful Vuode/MM merger would set thoughts in motion in the neighbouring province of Fiova, which is still "merger-happy".

... do you think it's worth discussing a three-way merger already?

No

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I'm going to throw a completely wild suggestion in here which might not only help revive our various local governments, but also solve an issue which has plagued post-Reunision Talossa; how to get new immigrants involved in a way that kept them around.

Time was that a new citizen would be given Cosă seats right off the bat to "get them involved"; however, in practice this meant that the ruling parties just tended to "assimilate" new citizens, leading to self-perpetuating dominance of a single party.

But what if we expected all new citizens to get involved in their local Governments? And what if this Council decided that every Provincial leadership would go away and draw up a Getting New Ctiizens Involved In the Provinces plan over the next month or two?

[Eðo Grischun]

Bump.

We are approaching the absolute cut-off point for the final Hoppering of Bills for the last Clark of this Cosa term.  If there are to be any legislative proposals from this council they would need to be made now.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

The main constructive proposal would be accelerating the Vuode/MM merger, which has to start from the provincial govts themselves, drawing up a merger constitution like we did for F/F.

I see a couple of people liked my idea for getting new citizens involved in provincial government, but I've seen no plans of action. What would  the Ministry of the Interior think of revising immigration law to bring in something like I suggested?

[Eðo Grischun]

The main constructive proposal would be accelerating the Vuode/MM merger, which has to start from the provincial govts themselves, drawing up a merger constitution like we did for F/F.

The conversation on Vuode/MM is ongoing, although it is happening at the usual provincial speed of ~ 1 mile per hour. There are a couple of draft documents already floating about out there from the last time the idea of Vuode/MM came up.  I'll pull up those old docs and ask the provinces to have a serious look at them.  I think the next stage is for both provinces to begin a joint dialogue.     

I see a couple of people liked my idea for getting new citizens involved in provincial government, but I've seen no plans of action. What would  the Ministry of the Interior think of revising immigration law to bring in something like I suggested?

I don't know if immigration law can be changed to accommodate that or not.  A Ministry trying to force the hands of the provinces via national legislation is most likely unworkable; and I wonder if the details within such action would border on 'broosking'.  I think the proposal does have legs, but I would say that this idea, like the one above, is something the provinces themselves need to work on and put in place.  The Ministry, of course, is open to working with each province in coming up with solutions tailored to the workings of each provincial assembly.