Cascadia

Welcome to Cascadia! This wiki is intended to provide comprehensive coverage of the Cascadian bioregion and its culture, geography, history, politics, economy, and demographics, and to be a resource to support Cascadian independence.

Cascadia refers to the bioregion and proposed independent country in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. According to the most extensive definition, Cascadia consists of most of the existing sub-national states/provinces of Washington, British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Oregon, and Idaho, as well as significant parts of the surrounding states of California, Montana, Alaska and small areas of Nevada, Wyoming, and the Yukon Territory. The region is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the North American Continental Divide to the east, and includes the entirety of every watershed draining into the Pacific Ocean from the Copper River in Alaska south to the Russian River in California.

Politically, Cascadia consists of portions of the United States and Canada. Canada is a federal state governed by a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy; the United States is a federal constitutional republic. Various groups are working for the peaceful secession of parts of Cascadia from their respective federal governments, with the goal of establishing an independent state with some form of representative government.

Geography
Definitions of the region’s boundaries vary, but usually include the area between the Cascade Range and the Pacific Ocean, and some part of the Coast Mountains. Other definitions follow the boundaries of existing subnational entities, and usually include the territory of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, while others also include parts of California, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Yukon.

In general, the area in and around the Cascadia region is commonly referred to as the Pacific Northwest. The area's biomes and ecoregions are distinct from surrounding areas. The resource-rich Salish Sea is shared between British Columbia and Washington, and the Pacific temperate rain forests, comprising the world’s largest temperate rain forest zone, stretch along the coast from Alaska to California. Long united by similar indigenous cultures, Cascadia was once briefly a single political unit, the Oregon Territory, which was jointly administered by the United States and Great Britain.

The region has since been divided into different political jurisdictions, but Cascadia still retains a sense of self identity. In his book, Nine Nations of North America, author Joel Garreau claimed that the Pacific Rim region he called Ecotopia had a different culture from that of what he called The Empty Quarter to the east, and was necessarily different economically as well as ecologically. It must be noted that the concept of “Ecotopia,” which is specific in its boundaries, does not identically match that of “Cascadia,” which varies in its definition.

Much of Cascadia is, to this day, untamed wilderness. Cascadia boasts the second highest peak in North America, Mount Logan, the highest mountain range in North America (the Saint Elias Mountains), as well as many other significant mountains. Additionally, the fourth largest river in what is currently the United States, the Columbia River, is in Cascadia, as are many other rivers.

Political Subdivisions & Potential Sub-Regions (states, provinces…)

 * Washington
 * Puget Sound
 * Seattle
 * British Columbia
 * Vancouver Island
 * Greater Victoria
 * Thompson/Okanagan
 * Kelowna
 * The Lower Mainland
 * Metro Vancouver
 * The Interior
 * Oregon
 * Portland
 * Idaho
 * Cascadian California (Redwood Coast)
 * Cascadian Montana (Western Montana)
 * Cascadian Alaska (Alaska Panhandle)

History
The region now known as Cascadia was first inhabited thousands of years ago by Native North Americans whose ancestors, as far as we know, migrated from Asia via the Bering land bridge in Alaska.

European exploration of the area began in the 18th century via sailing ships. Concurrently, trappers, fur traders, and explorers began to find overland routes to Cascadia from the eastern parts of North America. The idea of an autonomous state in the region first appeared at this time as well; Thomas Jefferson, who dispatched Lewis and Clark on the first official United States exploration of the area, envisioned a "Republic of the Pacific" that would be independent of the United States.

Culture
Cascadian culture is an amalgam of various influences, including those of Europe and Asia, as well as of elements of the indigenous cultures that existed prior to large scale European settlement.

Sports
Soccer is much more popular in Cascadia than in most regions in English-speaking North America. The three MLS teams of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Seattle Sounders FC, and Portland Timbers battle yearly to claim the Cascadia Cup. The Flag of Cascadia, also known as the Doug Flag, has made many of its earliest televised appearances at games of these teams. Other popular sports in Cascadia are the American and Canadian brands of Football the professional teams in Cascadia include the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL and the B.C. Lions of the CFL as well as Basketball, Baseball and Hockey. Other professional teams include the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA, the Seattle Mariners Baseball in MLB, the Seattle Storm of the WNBA and the Vancouve

Food and Drink
Cascadia boasts hundreds of microbreweries and vineyards producing high quality, internationally recognized beers and wines. Of particular note for supporters of Cascadian independence is the Secession Cascadian Dark Ale brewed in Portland by the Hopworks Urban Brewery.

Demographics
Cascadia is home to more than 15 million people, predominantly Caucasians of European ancestry but with significant minority populations of Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, First Nations, along with diminished but still impressive numbers of salmon, eagles, grizzly bears, killer whales, and wolves.

Politics
Cascadian politics is currently dominated by the politics of Canada and the United States. Within the contexts of American and Canadian governance, Cascadian politics is generally characterized by several movements. Especially in the US, Cascadian politics has historically been progressive, including direct democracy, and the development of public utilities and infrastructure. Modern politics are generally more libertarian in character than the main stream of left and right politics in both the Canadian confederation and the United States. Cascadians are significantly less religious than other Canadians and Americans. Cascadian governments, as a general rule, score highly on measures of transparency and low on corruption. Criticisms of current national political climates include partisan polarization, legislative gridlock, and a move towards federal mandates, legal moralization, and one-size-fits-all legislation from Ottawa and D.C.

Political concepts for an independent Cascadia
Because many Cascadians, such as supporters of the Cascadian Independence Project, are seeking a withdrawal from American and Canadian political systems and governance, the pure concepts of political science need to be separated from the baggage they have attained within American and Canadian politics. For example, a person viewing themselves as a republican would often be a right-leaning free market and biblical morals advocate in the US, but a progressive anti-monarchist in Canada. As such, we will be maintaining a list of political terms and their meanings for this wiki, and encourage all editors to refer to that list when editing political articles.

Some important ideas for Cascadian governance include:


 * Localism and centralized government
 * Subsidiarity - decisions are made by the most local government.
 * Federalism - decisions are split constitutionally between central and local governments.
 * Centralization - decisions are made at the discretion of the central government.


 * Sovereignty
 * Constitutional monarchy - a symbolic monarch holds reserve and ceremonial powers.
 * Constitutional oligarchy - several representatives of sovereignty hold reserve and ceremonial powers collectively.
 * Multiple sovereignty - different local governments are organized based on different sources of sovereign power, and are integrated only at the national level.
 * Popular sovereignty - power is vested in the people and is transmitted by election to government.


 * Separation of powers
 * Parliamentary Cascadia - executive and judicial power is closely tied to legislative authority.
 * Multi-partite Cascadia - executive, judicial, and legislative authority are exercised independently of each other.

Economy
Cascadia boasts an economy that generates more than $650 billion worth of goods and services each year. This would place Cascadia in the top 20 economies of the world if it were counted as an indendent nation.

Agriculture
Cascadian agiculture is a major economic segment. Some major crops include apples, wheat, potatoes, hay, cherries, peaches, grapes, and pears. Viticulture (winemaking) is becoming increasingly important, and Cascadian wines are renowned world-wide for quality. There is also extensive ranching and dairy-farming.

Aerospace
William Boeing founded the Boeing company in 1916 in Seattle, and ever since then Cascadia has been a leader in aerospace manufacturing. Today, Boeing's major production facilities are still located near Seattle, as are many sub-contractors and specialty manufacturers that serve the aerospace industry.

Software
In 1979, Microsoft relocated from New Mexico to Bellevue, Washington. This was the beginning of the "Silicon Forest" which propelled Cascadia into leadership in development of software and computer technology.

Wiki Policy and Administration

 * Please note that this project is forgoing a "neutral point of view policy", and articles embrace an open-minded, Pro-Cascadian seccessionist attitude. This project, after all, is built around the Cascadian community and its supporters.
 * Please keep in mind that any work posted here is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Do not plagiarize.
 * To experiment with wikiwiki, feel free to use the Sandbox. Please do not experiment on other pages.