We've heard a bit about the Ontario Peace Patrol and the Protectorate of Upper Canada, and they will probably be my main focus for a while, but let's take this opportunity to look at some of the other places and people in Canada in 1995.
Ottawa
The City Fun Forgot . . . and was then mugged and killed in while passing through Vanier, buried in a shallow grave in the Calabogie Hills, until a few years later when it was dug up and used as a hood ornament in races on Sparks Street.
The nominal capital of Canada, Ottawa presides over a divided country, and is, itself, divided. After Alberta and Quebec left Canada, Ottawa had a difficult time doing anything on a national scale. This was compounded by new factions sprouting up within the city to vie for control.
The Royal Loyals, or Loyal Royals, are an odd mix. A gang composed of elderly Canadian citizens and young punks, the Royals believe that the answer to Canada's problems can be found in England. Old or young, the members of this movement all place their faith firmly in the monarchy across the Atlantic.
When it comes to combat, the Royalists refuse to use anything domestic, exclusively driving British vehicles. They rarely range outside the city, sticking close to Ottawa's loosely-defined PZ and outskirts, especially the downtown core and Parliament buildings.
Quebec
Extremely isolationist, Quebec does participate in some broader events within Canada, namely continual attempts to annex Ottawa. Quebec is mostly united, save for Montreal. As the Saint Lawrence dried up, Montreal became inaccessible save by bridge or air. Controlling the bridges meant controlling Montreal, and the city chose not to be controlled, declaring its own independence from Quebec and Canada both, though it still maintains very tenuous connections with them.
Alberta
As things turned bad in the US and global trade disintegrated, the Americans began relying on their northern neighbours more and more. This created an economic boom for Canada, but this couldn't last. When Canada's economy started to fail, Alberta, one of the primary sources of the country's recent wealth, began to feel bitter towards the policies that had left it, and the country, weaker than it ever had been.
In a shocking move, though perhaps no one was actually surprised, Alberta seceded from Canada, taking its oil with it. Selling directly to the Americans when they could afford it, and the Chinese when they couldn't, Alberta rebuilt its wealth - and built itself an army, with the help of the Chinese.
Oil wells became heavily guarded forts, and Calgary became one of the largest, most secure PZs in Canada. Edmonton was razed to the ground in the early days through a series of brutal conflicts among rival oil barons. This disaster led to the introduction of the Alberta Rangers, a force to keep the peace between the oil forts and maintain their trade routes.
The Rangers are primarily former federal police and agents who felt more loyalty to province than country, but can come from all walks of life. They straddle the lines between bounty hunters, frontiersmen, and police, making endless circuits of the highways and trades routs between the oil forts. Because of this, Rangers travel heavily armed, loaded for bear with Chinese ordinance and driving massive muscle cars. These vehicles are provided to the Rangers by Alberta, and are often reproductions of Chinese origin, leftover from when trade was regular between the two nations. Ranger vehicles are typically yellow or blue, the national colours of Alberta, or bare steel.
Highly independent, Rangers rarely travel together, preferring to operate alone. On the rare occasion when the Rangers ride together, the results always become legendary throughout Alberta, further perpetuating the myths and reputations of the Rangers.
The Northern Territories
The environment fractured along with the country, and the True North became a very different place.
While the Great Lakes dried up and the Prairies became a dust bowl, the tundra of the north changed for the better. As the ice melted, water became freer and easier to get than almost anywhere else in North America. Beyond this, the loosened grip of winter, and the non-existent state of federal protection for wildlife and the environment, led to a rabid explosion of resource exploitation.
New diamond mines dotted the landscape; oil wells were sunk deep into earth unfrozen for the first time in millennia; and everywhere water ran, free to be hoarded and sold.
The Yukon became rife with mines and oil wells, while the Northwest Territories became a new breadbasket. The Boreal Forest was clearcut and burned, to turn the tundra into fertile land.
From the PZs of Yellowknife and Whitehorse the Northern Territories command a powerful position within Canada. The diamond has become a new dollar through the north and much of the rest of Canada, and everyone is eagre to trade for food and water.
The territories themselves have a rivalry with one another, and raids between them are not unheard of, but they depend on one another too much for any real violence to take place. The Yukon provides diamonds, oil, and metals, as well as serving as the border with Alaska, and the Northwest Territories provides food and most of the troops to guard that border. Both territories exploit the Arctic Ocean as much as possible. The mines, farms, reservoirs, and fisheries of both territories are well defended by private forces, but the main concern for the Northern Territories is not each other, or even the rest of Canada, but Alaska and American predation.
Against this threat the Territories place the Northwest Motorised Police. Officially considered any recognized force operating outside of a PZ, the NWMP is, at best, a loose para-military organization. Made up of few standing troops, the NWMP includes bounty hunters, independent sanc ops, and even citizen militias. Driving hardy vehicles and customised snow machines, these new frontier lawmen serve as the first line of defence against American invasion.
After Alaska and the Americans, the next greatest concern for the Northern Territories is Alberta, the other Canadian oil nation. Bother powers have a comfortable if competitive peace. The Yukon and Alberta both have oil, and both want the Northwest Territories for their arable land and water. The Northwest Territories plays this to its advantage, often setting off bidding wars between the other two nations over its food. Even so, things are relatively peaceful between the Territories and Alberta, and it is not uncommon to see a Ranger in the North or a NWMP officer in Alberta, even cooperating to solve larger problems. The Territories trade grains, produce, and fish south to Alberta for meat, pork, and dairy products from the ranches there. The system works, with the oil of both nations keeping aggressions in check, for the time being, at least.
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