Sound fanciful, Vancouver Island as a Republic (or any form of independent country)?

 Well, perhaps it is about time we thought about it! What has Canada done specifically for Vancouver Island? More-over, what has the government done for Vancouver Island? Other than taking up a lot of valuable real estate and providing a lot of cushy civil service jobs!

 Now, before you hit your back key consider that maybe this just might not be the ravings of some "whacko", dope smoking freak...

Consider this, we as residents of Vancouver Island take a Succession Referendum to leave Canada and become independent. Just look at some of our assets:

• We have forest resources
• We have a viable fishery
• We have mining resources (including gold)
• We are an imminently desirable tourist destination
• Our new coastal waterway controls all shipping in the entire Pacific NW

OK, here is the plan! If we declare Unilateral Independence the first Order of Business is to kick the existing Government out of the Parliament Buildings. Then we convert the place to a giant Casino. This Casino becomes the cornerstone of our economy. Look at Nevada and the impact of gambling as a major source of income. And a good income it is too! We don't need as extensive a building as our seat of government. We convert Royal Roads University back to that! The Governor General's residence becomes the home of the ruling party (I am voting myself for King).

 There is no need for BC Ferries, so we would offer to buy the fleet(at 2 cents on the hundred dollar). Where would we get the money? From the US and Canada of course. It is in their interest to support us financially as we might align militarily with some Neuclear Nation like North Korea. And it would not be good to have them that close to the US Coast! Of course we would need a Navy, but purely as a means of getting tourists to and from our Republic. As an aside, too bad they are auctioning off those "Fast Cat" ferries. They would make great Floating Casinos running 24 hours a day to Vancouver and Seattle. We do get Esquimalt back as a base for our Navy. Comox will be our Air Force Base and with the help of the US, Nanoose would be our Marine and Army Base. Naturally, what the ultimate use of that is would depend on public will. I suspect very strongly that we would not want to have any Nuclear Presence, and I know Canada in the form of the rest of British Columbia would immediately want assurances that there would be no nuclear threat to the mainland

We would have to negotiate some sort of treaty with Canada, as Vancouver is no longer an International Harbour. So a treaty, with some form of monetary agreement would have to be drawn up to allow shipping access to that port. Otherwise, we could bar all ships to and from Vancouver! Naturally the Americans would be eager to enter into such an agreement as then all those Alaskan Cruise Boats could keep the bars and casinos open nearly all the way to Alaska. If the Queen Charlottes chose to align with us we could in fact control the entire west coast waters!

 Without interference from Canada and British Columbia we could re-open all the resources. Putting our fishermen and loggers back to work would be a first priority. Followed shortly after by miners. But, we are not going to just rape and pillage the land. Actually we could declare the entire island a Wildlife Preserve and charge American hunters a huge fee to hunt up here. Naturally the fee would be used to purchase good sturdy game animals from Alberta where they are dying from overcrowding. It is possible some of our mountains could sustain wonderful herds of Big Horn Sheep and Caribou. But, we would have to be very careful so as not to disturb the balance of nature like the Australians did with rabbits (which we also seem to have a problem with in some areas).

Well, so much for my small idea. How about some feedback from my readers (click here to email me)?

 And if you are interested in more innane ramblings, click here.