That reminds me ... whatever happened to the "Great Weird North" book?
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Gwyn [mailto:dgwyn@colba.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 3:56 AM
To: deadlands@gamerz.net
Subject: Re: [DL] The Big Picture- Tying it all together
Hey, don't forget Canada!
I've noticed in this thread that there has been a tendency to ignore us.
First off, although the Confederation of Canada was established IRL on July
1st 1867 out of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the province of Canada (the
southern portions of what is now Quebec and Ontario), it was still very much
a colony of Britain. In the crisis world of Deadlands, it is likely that
London keeps a firmer control over Canada than it did IRL.
Prince Edward Island and British Columbia soon joined, and Britain soon
transferred the rest of its North American holdings (with the exception of
Newfoundland) over to Canada. Canada was heavily involved in the export of
primary materials, (minerals, lumber and food) to Britain. I am pretty sure
it was a greater source of food than Australia, given the relatively short
voyage across the Atlantic.
Canada was also a large exporter of raw materials to the Union during
the war. (There is an old mine near where I grew up that was established to
supply sulfuric acid to the Union during the Civil War.) Given the state of
near war between London and Washington, the trade across Canada's southern
border has mostly likely been officially stopped. That is to say the
smugglers have taken over. With the length of the Canada-Union border, it
has always been very easy to smuggle stuff across. Quite apart from
Prohibition, during the War of 1812, there was continuous smuggling of war
materials across the border in both directions.
My reading of the "Canadian" attitude to its southern neighbour in
Deadlands, is probably, we really don't want to fight them as A. They
rather out number us, and B. it would get in the way of making money selling
them stuff. That is not to say they wouldn't put up a surprisingly stiff
fight, but simply they don't really want to.
With regards to the Fenian raids, I personally doubt that there could be
much of a chance of it being successful. The British have a very large
number of troops in Canada backed up by a very popular militia. The latter
is particularly significant as it's members would be defending their homes
from the foreign invasion of Fenians irregulars. All other things being
equal, the locals win.
I wouldn't go too far in pushing the Irish unity angle either, simple
because although there was Thomas Meagher and Young Irelanders on one side,
there were many more people like my own Catholic Meagher ancestors who were
living in Canada at that time and who simply didn't care about Ireland that
much. They were more interested in making money and friends no matter what
their religion or nationality. One of them eventually married the
grandaughter of Archbishop Bond, the English-born head of the Anglican
(Episcopal) Church in Canada.
Finally, I think the important thing to remember about Canada at the
current time in Deadlands, is that it is investing a lot of resources and
effort into building a trans-continental railway, a.k.a. "The National
Dream" a.k.a. the Canadian-Pacific. It was important historically, and
given the world of Deadlands, even more so!
Daniel Gwyn
"But my dreams, they aren't as empty
as my conscience seems to be."
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