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Great North Icerail Crisis | {{Infobox civil conflict|part_of=Second Setrus Administration|name=Great North Icerail Crisis|date=February 8 - February 29, 2024|location=[[Cascadia|Republic of Cascadia]]|causes=Icerail Preservation Act (2024)|methods=Hostile takeover of certain icerail lines|status=Concluded|result=Icerails in the Great North temporarily privatized|party1=Great North Icerail Co|party2=[[Cascadia Department of Interior]]|leaders1='''[[Paper1emur]]''' <br> | ||
[[Ruffwoof]] <br> | |||
[[DavidPlayz]] <br> | |||
Orbitz <br> | |||
[[HersheyJr]]|leaders2='''[[Setrus]]''' <br> | |||
[[Moxie|Moxiecodone]]|goals=Return of icerails ownership to the towns|image=[[File:NorthernIcerailHV.webp|260px]]|caption=An icerail intersection in Husky Valley}}The '''Great North Icerail Crisis''' was a domestic political crisis in the [[Cascadia|Republic of Cascadia]] during the Second Setrus Administration. It began on February 8, 2024, when Secretary of Interior [[Moxie|Moxiecodone]] pushed through the Icerail Preservation Act. The law, which placed all icerails in Cascadia under the jurisdiction of the [[Cascadia Department of Interior|Department of Interior]], came under fire from several mayors and politicians, especially from the [[Great North]] region of Cascadia. Shortly after the law was passed, these mayors would establish the Great North Icerail Company, declaring the icerail lines traveling through their towns to be their property, and not the Department of Interior's, separating them from the national system. After several days of arguing and disputes Moxie would eventually acquiesce and give up on plans to improve icerail service nationwide. The crisis came to a close on February 29, 2024, with the passing of the Icerail Management Act, which clarified the differences between privately and publicly owned icerails and gave greater autonomy to mayors who had icerails running through their towns. | |||
== Background == | |||
The [[Cascadian icerail system]] was initially built over the course of several years by a series of builders and Secretaries of Interior. The largest expansions of the system were under the work of Secretaries of Interior Falcoeur and [[EmpressCorgo]] from October 2022 to July 2023. There were also many areas, especially outside the metropolitan core, where regional groups and individual mayors built their own sections of the icerail system. The most notable example of this practice was in the [[The Frontier|Frontier]], where an above-ground icerail was built, but the practice can also be identified in the Great North, where many of the icerails were constructed by individual mayors. The apparent lack of interest from the Department of Interior in maintaining icerails in the Frontier was amongst the major complaints laid against the national government by Frontiersmen through 2023. | |||
The official name for the Cascadian icerail network was the "National Cascadian Icerail System". However, it was more commonly referred to as "CasGate", which was the name of a 2023 Department of Interior program to repair and extend the icerail network. | |||
[[File:December2023CascadiaIcerailMap.webp|none|thumb|620x620px|Map of the National Cascadian Icerail System, created by Secretary Moxiecodone, Circa December 2023]] | |||
As 2023 progressed, the Department of Interior began to pay increasingly less attention to icerail projects, instead focusing on building projects, such as [[Project Fresno]]. Entering 2024, this began to be the cause of general dissatisfaction amongst Cascadians. Several representatives, including some of those from the Frontier, began to ran on campaigns promising improved national infrastructure. Within government channels, including the [[Girlboss GC]], notable political leaders began complaining about the state of the system. With Project Fresno wrapping up in January 2024, Secretary of Interior Moxie decided that she was now ready to begin the process of repairing and upgrading the national icerail system. | |||
== The Crisis == | |||
=== The Icerail Preservation Act === | |||
The Icerail Preservation Act was proposed by Moxie on February 6, 2024. The bill made it illegal to "modify, extend, damage, or demolish the National Cascadian Icerail system without permission from the Department of Interior," punishable by a 10-50g fine. The bill also explicitly provided an exception for the aesthetics of stations and tunnels, provided that the functionality of the icerails wasn't effected. Moxie believed that the bill was a critical step towards fixing the national icerail system, and that without it, mayors would be able to modify the Department of Interior's efforts and damage the system even further. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 12-0, with 1 abstention and 2 absences. It was signed into law by President [[Setrus]] on February 8, 2024. | |||
=== Resistance Efforts === | |||
[[File:NorthernIcerailHV.webp|left|thumb|433x433px|An icerail intersection showing the Northern Icerail and National Icerail in Husky Valley, Johnstone County]] | |||
Shortly after the Icerail Preservation Act was signed into law, it was broken by Great North mayor Orbitz. Orbitz was mayor of Fairview, in present-day [[Nelson County]]. The mayor had disconnected the icerail traveling through his town in protest of the new law, which he considered to be a violation of his town's constitutional rights. Orbitz had previously been a member of the [[Rocky Mountain Federation]], a rebel nation that fought with Cascadia during the [[RMF Wars]]. Due to this fact, the government initially felt that Orbitz was a lone agitator attempting to sabotage the government. This assumption was corrected not long after when other mayors in the Great North began to join in the protest against the law. | |||
The majority of the unrest against the law originated with mayors in [[Johnstone County]], most notably [[Paper1emur]], the mayor of Sullivan Bay, and [[RuffWoof]], the mayor of Husky Valley. They would soon thereafter be joined by another Great North mayor, [[HersheyJr]]. These mayors felt that the law violated their [[National Constitution of Cascadia (Aurora)|constitutional rights]] to manage their internal municipal affairs. Article III, Section 7, Clause III of the National Constitution reads that "The towns shall have power to manage the sale and management of property within the jurisdiction of the town." Those in opposition to the law felt that this meant they had complete ownership over the icerails passing through their towns. They also stated concerns that the law took away their ability to modify icerails around builds and into their already-built stations. | |||
The response of the Department of Interior was to argue that they had ownership over the icerails due to their role in constructing them. The Department of Interior had paid for and provided much of the labor for building the icerails. While many in the House of Representatives, and some in the Great North, found this to be a reasonable conclusion, the opposition was quick to point out that many of the icerails in the Great North had been built by individual citizens, not the Department of Interior. In many cases, it was difficult to determine which icerails had been built by who, since the extent of the system was poorly defined and poorly mapped. | |||
The crisis escalated a few days later, when both Sullivan Bay and Husky Valley cut off their connections to the national icerail system, promising to keep them cut off until the Icerail Preservation Act was repealed. The Department of Interior threatened to fine them and continue with icerail projects regardless of what they did. At the same time, the Fresno-based news outlet [[CTN]] was publishing stories taking the side of the opposition and attempting to raise public outcry. | |||
=== The Great North Icerail Company === | |||
[[File:FresnoIcerail.webp|thumb|418x418px|The Fresno Icerail in Fresno, San Joaquin County]] | |||
Around a week after the Icerail Preservation Act was signed into law, the outraged mayors in the Great North organized their opposition into the Great North Icerail Company (GNIC). The company was founded by Paper1emur, RuffWoof, and Orbitz, with the goal of managing their own private system of icerails in the Great North. The town of Castle John, owned by xHydre, in present-day [[Klondike County]], also joined the company the next day. The GNIC claimed ownership over all icerails within the member towns, the icerails connecting member towns, and all icerails that they would build in the future. This was immediately met with protest from the Department of Interior, as Moxie felt that the company would threaten the consistency of the national icerail system. | |||
While Paper1emur and RuffWoof generally treated the company as a serious endeavor that would work in cooperation with the government, Orbitz and HersheyJr would take a more hostile stance against the central government. Most of these debates were targeted towards Moxie, calling her a fascist, and usually amounted to [[wikipedia:Rage-baiting|rage bait]]. | |||
In [[Aurora:Fresno|Fresno]], a new municipal above-ground icerail had recently been built by councillor [[DavidPlayz]], who was also the owner of CTN. This icerail was owned by the City of Fresno, not the Department of Interior, since the national icerail system was far below ground. Since David already supported the opposition in the Great North, he decided to use his authority as a councillor to have Fresno's icerail system join the GNIC. The announcement of this change was made in CTN news channels. The transfer of the Fresno icerail to the GNIC was reversed later that day by the mayor, x_______. The mayor's unhappiness with the transfer would eventually lead to a decline in David's influence over Fresno. The transfer was the last significant expansion of the GNIC. | |||
=== Orbitz Kicked === | |||
Following the reversal of Fresno's entrance into the GNIC, Orbitz began to target x_______ for his opposition to the company. After a few days, this began to amount to near-constant harassment both in the Cascadian discord and nation chat. This eventually led to x_______ temporarily leaving Cascadia in order to avoid Orbitz. At the same time, the Cascadian government was increasingly concerned that Orbitz's actions could be a planned attempt to cause unrest on behalf of the [[Wagner War|Wagner Alliance]], within which he had old connections. | |||
These factors led to a February 10 vote to kick Orbitz from the nation. The resolution was proposed by President Setrus, Vice President [[Rocksthunder]], and Secretary of State [[Milgorn123]], and cited: | |||
# For the harassment of the mayor of Fresno, Cascadia, despite repeated warnings to end harmful speech. | |||
# For disturbing public order and the unity of the Republic of Cascadia when indirectly encouraging the town of Fresno to leave the nation. | |||
# For repeatedly aligning in the past with enemies of the Republic of Cascadia, including during initial departure from the nation. | |||
# For sowing division and hatred between Cascadians. | |||
The vote was passed 12-0, with 2 abstentions (Including Paper1emur) and 1 absence, on February 11. HersheyJr left the nation shortly thereafter. The actions of Orbitz to harass other Cascadians was followed by a deescalation from the other Great North mayors. | |||
== Aftermath == | |||
After the exit of Orbitz and HersheyJr from Cascadia, the remaining Great North mayors became much less vocal about their icerail efforts. While plans to expand private icerails in the Great North were eventually abandoned, the blockades separating them from the national system would remain until May 2024. Even after the icerails were reconnected to the national system, many intersections between the two continue to state which lines are "Great North" icerails and "CascGate" icerails. | |||
Moxie, exhausted after the harsh criticism of her efforts, would abandon the Department of Interior's efforts to revive the national icerail system. The Department of Interior would not return to the icerail issue until the tenure of Secretary [[Aylywyn]]. | |||
In an attempt to close the icerail issue once-and-for-all, Representative [[Raptormm4]] proposed the Icerail Management Act following his [[February 2024 General Election|reelection]] in February 2024. The act repealed the Icerail Preservation Act, and set a legal standard for the difference between the national icerail system and private icerails, with icerails built and paid for by the Department of Interior being expressly national government property. The act also split the national icerail system into regions, each led by the head of a regional office, in an attempt to provide more regional management and involvement. Additionally, mayors were given numerous privileges, including the right to modify aesthetics, build stations in cooperation with the Department of Interior, and the right to inspect the icerails traveling through their towns. The regions and advisory board created by the act would be repealed by the National Commission on Transportation Act in May 2024. | |||
== Legacy == | |||
The Great North Icerail Crisis was the largest domestic political crisis of the Second Setrus Administration, and marked the end of that administration's large-scale projects. It was also one of the defining events near the beginning of the political careers of the Post-Osoyoos Generation of politicians. Paper1emur would run for that President in February 2024, losing to Setrus with only 37.5% of the final vote. He would run again, and win the presidency, in [[March 2024 General Election|March 2024]], beating Moxie with 53.85% of the final vote. Raptormm4 would continue to put declining icerails to the forefront throughout his political career, including his eventual presidency in summer 2024. The Crisis is also one of the largest events of the Towns Rights movement.{{Republic of Cascadia (Aurora)}} | |||
Latest revision as of 05:30, 29 January 2026
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The Great North Icerail Crisis was a domestic political crisis in the Republic of Cascadia during the Second Setrus Administration. It began on February 8, 2024, when Secretary of Interior Moxiecodone pushed through the Icerail Preservation Act. The law, which placed all icerails in Cascadia under the jurisdiction of the Department of Interior, came under fire from several mayors and politicians, especially from the Great North region of Cascadia. Shortly after the law was passed, these mayors would establish the Great North Icerail Company, declaring the icerail lines traveling through their towns to be their property, and not the Department of Interior's, separating them from the national system. After several days of arguing and disputes Moxie would eventually acquiesce and give up on plans to improve icerail service nationwide. The crisis came to a close on February 29, 2024, with the passing of the Icerail Management Act, which clarified the differences between privately and publicly owned icerails and gave greater autonomy to mayors who had icerails running through their towns.
Background
The Cascadian icerail system was initially built over the course of several years by a series of builders and Secretaries of Interior. The largest expansions of the system were under the work of Secretaries of Interior Falcoeur and EmpressCorgo from October 2022 to July 2023. There were also many areas, especially outside the metropolitan core, where regional groups and individual mayors built their own sections of the icerail system. The most notable example of this practice was in the Frontier, where an above-ground icerail was built, but the practice can also be identified in the Great North, where many of the icerails were constructed by individual mayors. The apparent lack of interest from the Department of Interior in maintaining icerails in the Frontier was amongst the major complaints laid against the national government by Frontiersmen through 2023.
The official name for the Cascadian icerail network was the "National Cascadian Icerail System". However, it was more commonly referred to as "CasGate", which was the name of a 2023 Department of Interior program to repair and extend the icerail network.
As 2023 progressed, the Department of Interior began to pay increasingly less attention to icerail projects, instead focusing on building projects, such as Project Fresno. Entering 2024, this began to be the cause of general dissatisfaction amongst Cascadians. Several representatives, including some of those from the Frontier, began to ran on campaigns promising improved national infrastructure. Within government channels, including the Girlboss GC, notable political leaders began complaining about the state of the system. With Project Fresno wrapping up in January 2024, Secretary of Interior Moxie decided that she was now ready to begin the process of repairing and upgrading the national icerail system.
The Crisis
The Icerail Preservation Act
The Icerail Preservation Act was proposed by Moxie on February 6, 2024. The bill made it illegal to "modify, extend, damage, or demolish the National Cascadian Icerail system without permission from the Department of Interior," punishable by a 10-50g fine. The bill also explicitly provided an exception for the aesthetics of stations and tunnels, provided that the functionality of the icerails wasn't effected. Moxie believed that the bill was a critical step towards fixing the national icerail system, and that without it, mayors would be able to modify the Department of Interior's efforts and damage the system even further. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 12-0, with 1 abstention and 2 absences. It was signed into law by President Setrus on February 8, 2024.
Resistance Efforts
Shortly after the Icerail Preservation Act was signed into law, it was broken by Great North mayor Orbitz. Orbitz was mayor of Fairview, in present-day Nelson County. The mayor had disconnected the icerail traveling through his town in protest of the new law, which he considered to be a violation of his town's constitutional rights. Orbitz had previously been a member of the Rocky Mountain Federation, a rebel nation that fought with Cascadia during the RMF Wars. Due to this fact, the government initially felt that Orbitz was a lone agitator attempting to sabotage the government. This assumption was corrected not long after when other mayors in the Great North began to join in the protest against the law.
The majority of the unrest against the law originated with mayors in Johnstone County, most notably Paper1emur, the mayor of Sullivan Bay, and RuffWoof, the mayor of Husky Valley. They would soon thereafter be joined by another Great North mayor, HersheyJr. These mayors felt that the law violated their constitutional rights to manage their internal municipal affairs. Article III, Section 7, Clause III of the National Constitution reads that "The towns shall have power to manage the sale and management of property within the jurisdiction of the town." Those in opposition to the law felt that this meant they had complete ownership over the icerails passing through their towns. They also stated concerns that the law took away their ability to modify icerails around builds and into their already-built stations.
The response of the Department of Interior was to argue that they had ownership over the icerails due to their role in constructing them. The Department of Interior had paid for and provided much of the labor for building the icerails. While many in the House of Representatives, and some in the Great North, found this to be a reasonable conclusion, the opposition was quick to point out that many of the icerails in the Great North had been built by individual citizens, not the Department of Interior. In many cases, it was difficult to determine which icerails had been built by who, since the extent of the system was poorly defined and poorly mapped.
The crisis escalated a few days later, when both Sullivan Bay and Husky Valley cut off their connections to the national icerail system, promising to keep them cut off until the Icerail Preservation Act was repealed. The Department of Interior threatened to fine them and continue with icerail projects regardless of what they did. At the same time, the Fresno-based news outlet CTN was publishing stories taking the side of the opposition and attempting to raise public outcry.
The Great North Icerail Company
Around a week after the Icerail Preservation Act was signed into law, the outraged mayors in the Great North organized their opposition into the Great North Icerail Company (GNIC). The company was founded by Paper1emur, RuffWoof, and Orbitz, with the goal of managing their own private system of icerails in the Great North. The town of Castle John, owned by xHydre, in present-day Klondike County, also joined the company the next day. The GNIC claimed ownership over all icerails within the member towns, the icerails connecting member towns, and all icerails that they would build in the future. This was immediately met with protest from the Department of Interior, as Moxie felt that the company would threaten the consistency of the national icerail system.
While Paper1emur and RuffWoof generally treated the company as a serious endeavor that would work in cooperation with the government, Orbitz and HersheyJr would take a more hostile stance against the central government. Most of these debates were targeted towards Moxie, calling her a fascist, and usually amounted to rage bait.
In Fresno, a new municipal above-ground icerail had recently been built by councillor DavidPlayz, who was also the owner of CTN. This icerail was owned by the City of Fresno, not the Department of Interior, since the national icerail system was far below ground. Since David already supported the opposition in the Great North, he decided to use his authority as a councillor to have Fresno's icerail system join the GNIC. The announcement of this change was made in CTN news channels. The transfer of the Fresno icerail to the GNIC was reversed later that day by the mayor, x_______. The mayor's unhappiness with the transfer would eventually lead to a decline in David's influence over Fresno. The transfer was the last significant expansion of the GNIC.
Orbitz Kicked
Following the reversal of Fresno's entrance into the GNIC, Orbitz began to target x_______ for his opposition to the company. After a few days, this began to amount to near-constant harassment both in the Cascadian discord and nation chat. This eventually led to x_______ temporarily leaving Cascadia in order to avoid Orbitz. At the same time, the Cascadian government was increasingly concerned that Orbitz's actions could be a planned attempt to cause unrest on behalf of the Wagner Alliance, within which he had old connections.
These factors led to a February 10 vote to kick Orbitz from the nation. The resolution was proposed by President Setrus, Vice President Rocksthunder, and Secretary of State Milgorn123, and cited:
- For the harassment of the mayor of Fresno, Cascadia, despite repeated warnings to end harmful speech.
- For disturbing public order and the unity of the Republic of Cascadia when indirectly encouraging the town of Fresno to leave the nation.
- For repeatedly aligning in the past with enemies of the Republic of Cascadia, including during initial departure from the nation.
- For sowing division and hatred between Cascadians.
The vote was passed 12-0, with 2 abstentions (Including Paper1emur) and 1 absence, on February 11. HersheyJr left the nation shortly thereafter. The actions of Orbitz to harass other Cascadians was followed by a deescalation from the other Great North mayors.
Aftermath
After the exit of Orbitz and HersheyJr from Cascadia, the remaining Great North mayors became much less vocal about their icerail efforts. While plans to expand private icerails in the Great North were eventually abandoned, the blockades separating them from the national system would remain until May 2024. Even after the icerails were reconnected to the national system, many intersections between the two continue to state which lines are "Great North" icerails and "CascGate" icerails.
Moxie, exhausted after the harsh criticism of her efforts, would abandon the Department of Interior's efforts to revive the national icerail system. The Department of Interior would not return to the icerail issue until the tenure of Secretary Aylywyn.
In an attempt to close the icerail issue once-and-for-all, Representative Raptormm4 proposed the Icerail Management Act following his reelection in February 2024. The act repealed the Icerail Preservation Act, and set a legal standard for the difference between the national icerail system and private icerails, with icerails built and paid for by the Department of Interior being expressly national government property. The act also split the national icerail system into regions, each led by the head of a regional office, in an attempt to provide more regional management and involvement. Additionally, mayors were given numerous privileges, including the right to modify aesthetics, build stations in cooperation with the Department of Interior, and the right to inspect the icerails traveling through their towns. The regions and advisory board created by the act would be repealed by the National Commission on Transportation Act in May 2024.
Legacy
The Great North Icerail Crisis was the largest domestic political crisis of the Second Setrus Administration, and marked the end of that administration's large-scale projects. It was also one of the defining events near the beginning of the political careers of the Post-Osoyoos Generation of politicians. Paper1emur would run for that President in February 2024, losing to Setrus with only 37.5% of the final vote. He would run again, and win the presidency, in March 2024, beating Moxie with 53.85% of the final vote. Raptormm4 would continue to put declining icerails to the forefront throughout his political career, including his eventual presidency in summer 2024. The Crisis is also one of the largest events of the Towns Rights movement.
