This website aims in the decades ahead at the creation of a United North America and the creation of a political region called "Cascadia" in North Western North America.

Information technology advancements and the logistic revolution are altering the optimal size of government units. Most governments are too small with resulting higher costs.

Most governments in the U.S. and Canada were created in the era when most people rode horses to work. To cite a simple example, the province of Prince Edward Island has fewer residents than Burnaby a municipal government bordering the city of Vancouver in the Province of British Columbia. The U.S. abounds in similar examples...look at Rhode Island compared with city governments in California.

The result is far higher government overhead costs, regulatory confusion and brakes on North America's ability to adapt to changing societal forces. Opportunities and problems spill over existing political boundaries.

Cascadia would be formed from present day Alaska, the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Washington State, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. It might also include part of Northern California.

British Columbia, the Yukon and Alberta would become keystones in this new political entity.

British Columbia and Alberta have a combined population of more than 7 million people, or about one-quarter of the total population of Canada. Three of the six largest cities in Canada are in British Columbia and Alberta. The two provinces produce almost $300 billion worth of goods and services per year, or about one-third of all goods and services in Canada (2002 figures). The Yukon's heritage is of the same pioneering stock as B.C. and Alberta.

Cascadia provinces interests in confederation have been systematically ignored for half a century. The preoccupation with keeping Quebec "in" Canada at all costs has warped the national agenda to the point where national agenda has merely become preserving the status quo. It is difficult if not impossible to alter the constitution because the losers of the potential rewriting of the constitution have a veto.

The current Canadian political structure lacks effective checks and balances. Enormous powers are concentrated in the Office of the Prime Minister. For forty two of last fifty years the Prime Minister has come from the Province of Quebec. Small wonder therefore that few "western" values are reflected in the "national" governance process. As well, the Canadian constitutional structure is leading to a progressively greater "democracy deficit" as the Maritimes become the "rotten boroughs" of our age. (Grossly over represented for their relative population and therefore subject to being easily bought)

Perhaps more importantly the "national project" got lost somewhere along the way. There is no uniting Canadian vision - no heart and soul. The call for a "just society" turned into a money pit and the "progressive" undermining of individual freedom and accountability. The American project, by way of contrast, in all its glory (warts included), is supremely important for mankind - because of its focus on "individual liberty" and the "pursuit of happiness". Nothing in Canada provides a comparable focus and energy. The unification of Europe with all its shortcomings remains a "project" of vision worthy of a global region that gave rise to western civilization and the intellectual roots of democracy and modernism. Canada has become a region of cost sharing arrangements devoid of an informing purpose that all can share. And there are serious cracks in the system.

This site is aimed at assisting in the creation of a cognitive reordering in which the effective architecture of the North American and Cascadian mindset is altered and transformed.

The strategic challenges facing Cascadia, in a North American and a global context, need to be clearly delineated in sufficient detail to inform individual, institution and leadership priorities. Measuring progress toward a fundamental change is inherently problematic. The process is essentially complex, indirect and non-linear. It will require "vision". It will require commitment.

A key component will be "situation awareness". Most existing structures do not encourage effective technical, cultural or political optimization of regional or, for that matter, continental priorities. In Canada a host of government funded crown corporations like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have as their mandate the "selling of the Central Canada vision" and the defacto non-reporting of disturbing alternate views. Canadian newspapers chains and publishers take the same "party line". Canada's cultural industries have for the most part an incestuous relationship to the federal cultural agencies based on funding and "political" support.

Existing structures are simultaneously too small for the big issues and too big for the small issues. Many no longer are consistent with democratic principles because of population and technology shifts. "Situation awareness" of Cascadian interests remains nascent. However, B.C. and Alberta discomfort with government in Ottawa will rise as economic stresses mount. Continental monetary integration forces will rise if only to "protect" Ontario and Quebec industries from the relentless B.C. and Alberta energy and resource driven climb in the Canadian dollar.

Part of the Cascadia vision will be found in the fact that Cascadia is a distinct bioregion that reaches out to encompass the Rockies and their rainshadows. There is a profound sense of place shared by all in this region.

Another aspect we share is the constant threat of a Cascadia megathrust earthquake which could register 9 on the Richter scale. In such an event their will be no borders. We will all pull together.

Existing leaderships have a stake in the existing order and will feel at best uncomfortable with a north south turning from the historic east west axis on which existing power bases have been built. Institutional inertia and caretakers for the status quo are to be found everywhere. Progress is not made by "reasonable people" it is made by visionaries.

The lack of "situation awareness" includes, in some populations in Cascadia, a rejection of and denial of the integrative forces that underpin the existing scientific, technological, commercial, economic, governance and cultural fusion, never mind a robust continental integration. The driving force and vision behind the European Union is only vaguely understood. The world is getting smaller and all the railing against globalization will not change it as a force. It needs to be constructively harnessed for the betterment of mankind.

Much remains to be done to increase global awareness in what is often reduced to a minimalist sound bite "pop" variety of comprehension. As the stresses and strains of technological and cultural change build up nation states need to regularly be rethought. Nothing on the planet is immutable. Parochialism can be overcome in the landscape of Cascadia, in North America and indeed the world at large. There are risks associated with change but the risks of not addressing change are even greater.

What is not possible or desirable is the notion that somehow "Western" Canada or Cascadia as a whole can separate and become an independent country. Any vision of a way forward must be based not only on historical learnings of east west continental power relations but upon recognition of the overwhelming integrative force of modern information and communications systems and how scale plays in power relationships. A continental formula is required with a "continental congress or parliament" and it needs to be strongly bound for over the next half century there will be challenges both to global democracy and to the very fabric of civilization itself brought on by technological change.

The challenge remains how to effectively harness the creative powers of Cascadians to build a new and better future within a North American Integration concept - with appropriate checks and balances - that goes beyond simple economic integration.

In part the impetus for Cascadia and continental integration will come from six wellsprings:

	Continental scale will be required to sustain geopolitical influence in the world to come - China, India, the EU, Continental America - the era of the "mom and pop" country is over.
	Canada's ability to fulfill the roles expected of a modern state will progressively diminish due to changing technological forces, economics and demographics. It isn't big enough. And perhaps more importantly it doesn't "inspire".
	The extreme centralization of power in the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada and the categorical refusal of the Ottawa elites and some provinces to alter east west power arrangements continues to undermine the central government's legitimacy.
	The progressive integration of North America in all other spheres, save the political and legal, will become progressively more anomalous.
	The culture of eastern and western Canada is diverging as a result of demographic changes and as a result of differing relative rates of cultural evolution.
	The global terrorist threat will continue to rise and the need to secure and strengthen the North American Continent will be even more obvious. A twenty year or more conflict can be expected