Cascadian Secession

Various groups are working for the independence of Cascadia from the United States and Canada. There are several reasons why the Cascadia movement aims to foster connections and a sense of place within Cascadia and strive towards independence. The main reasons stated by the movement include environmentalism; bioregionalism; regional integration and urban planning; dedication to open source, dynamic and associative governing models; protection and expansion of civil liberties, freedoms, and digital privacy, and a dissatisfaction with governments in the eastern part of the continent that continue to become more impersonal, secretive, and non-representative; protection and strengthening of social safety nets; fiscal responsibility; and a strong devotion to human rights.

History
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, described the establishment of Fort Astoria as "the germ of a great, free, and independent empire on that side of our continent, and that liberty and self-government spreading from that as well as from this side, will insure their complete establishment over the whole". Other notable figures in U.S. politics in the early 19th century also felt that the region west of the continental divide would become an independent nation.

Organizations
On September 9, 2001, the Cascadian National Party website was launched on Angelfire, but faltered quickly.

Currently, the primary organization promoting regional sovereignty is the Cascadian Independence Project. While the majority of organizing is done through online platforms such as Facebook, reddit, and twitter, embracing a non-traditional, non-hierarchical, horizontal organizing model, the organization now has 2,200 members on Myspace, 2,150 readers on the Cascadia Subreddit, 1,500 on Facebook, with dozens of members actively working within chapters in more than 16 cities throughout the Northwest, including Vancouver BC, Victoria, Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Walla Walla, Spokane, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, and Salem.

Other groups discussing the Cascadia concept, such as the Sightline Institute, Crosscut.com, and Cascadia Prospectus, see the concept as one of a transnational cooperative identity, not secession. Still others, such as The Republic of Cascadia, are whimsical expressions of political protest.

Popular Culture
Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland produces Organic Secession Cascadian Dark Ale.