Sanctaria for Vice Delegate

[Sanctaria]

Hi, my name is Sanctaria and I'm an alcoholic running for Vice Delegate.

To date I have been a Deputy Minister for World Assembly Affairs, a Justice of the Court of The North Pacific, and I'm currently Minister for World Assembly Affairs in Delegate Jamie's cabinet. I am an active member of this region, and its executive, and I'd like to take that to the next step by having the honour of being elected its Vice Delegate for the forthcoming term.

If elected, I would be following the very capable Kiwi, and the following is just a number of ways I would like to build on his Vice Delegacy:

• I would seek closer co-operation with the elected Delegate in government affairs. As a member of the executive branch, I would continue my current active participation in cabinet meetings, and would ask the Delegate to allow me to take a cabinet portfolio so I can further be involved in the day-to-day dealings of the region.
  
  It's very important that a link exists between the Executive and, not just other branches, but members of TNP itself, and I think the office of the Vice Delegate could be beneficial here.
  
• I would build on Kiwi's chairmanship of the Security Council, and I would like to work towards a scenario where more frequent meetings are held to discuss the security, not only of TNP, but our allies. The Security Council is an important institution in The North Pacific, and with the new influence changes announced by the NS Game Administration, I think existing members of the Security Council have a unique voice and experience in how best TNP can adapt, and I'd like to help implement changes they believe is necessary to ensure the continued security of the region.
  
  Being chair of the Security Council would mean I would have a very large responsibility for regional security, and it's important that the Delegate, the Vice Delegate, and Security Council members maintain a significant endorsement count. So as part of my duties I would also push for increased endorsement counts of both the Delegate and Security Council members. One way in which I would try to do this is to utilise our new auto-telegramming service and send out frequent reminders to WA members in the region to endorse the appropriate members. This service may also be used for alerting regionmates of serious threats to the region.
  
• Legislation is currently making its way through the Regional Assembly which would give the Vice Delegate a strong say in the security of the region by allowing them to block an application to Regional Assembly (which itself needs to be approved by the Regional Assembly). Needless to say that, if this legislation is passed, this is a significant addition to the tools available, but also a very powerful one and one that should be wielded with due care and consideration. As such, if elected, and if this is passed, I would seek to liaise very closely with the Security Council in how best to operate, within the parameters of the legislation. In the course of their constitutional duty to monitor the region's security, it may be possible for the Security Council to draw up a list of nations they consider pose a security risk, which the Vice Delegate could work off.

I've really enjoyed working in TNP in my various positions to date, and I would like to continue that participation even further by being elected Vice Delegate. I would hope my activity and experience would bring a new vitality to the role, as well as closer interaction between the Government, the people, and other institutions of TNP. I think the Vice Delegate is a unique role in this regards, and I believe I would execute the office diligently and ably if elected.

Thank you for reading. I welcome any questions.

 

[mcmasterdonia]

You have done well as a cabinet Minister and I thought you did excellently on the court as well. I think with your background as a World Assembly author and issues editor you bring a unique perspective to the cabinet and I look forward to continuing to work with you if you are elected and you have my support. Best of luck.

 

[Mall]

How would you respond to claims that since Tim, your opponent in this election, has already done the worst possible job as VD, you lack the valuable experience necessary to never make such mistakes?

 

[Sanctaria]

How would you respond to claims that since Tim, your opponent in this election, has already done the worst possible job as VD, you lack the valuable experience necessary to never make such mistakes?

I think everyone is fallible and I'm certainly far from perfect. Of course I'll do my best not to make any mistakes, and obviously I'll look to others for advice when I can, but I'm not going to say here and now I definitely will not make mistakes. That's slightly naive and even I'm not that arrogant.

 

[punk d]

Sanc,

From all accounts it appears that you have done a fine job in your role as Cabinet Member. However, I must disagree with how McM described your actions while on in the court. I would not describe them as 'excellent'

I believe that there were occasions where you publicly distanced yourself from the court in a way that, in my opinion, undermined the court. There were also times where you publicly chided a fellow justice that undermined the court authority as well.

From my understanding of the situation, there was a justice, me, whom you did not respect and going into the Court’s term did not feel should have your respect. My question to you is this, will you be able to work better with anyone on the cabinet chosen by McM who might fall into the category of someone you don’t respect and is there anything you have learned or would do differently if you were on the court with myself or anyone else who did not hold your esteem?

The reason for this line of questioning is not to expose you as some bad person, but in your role as VD you will need to interact with a number of individuals and I am interested to see if the Sanc of the recent cabinet or the Sanc of the Court is the real Sanctaria.

Thank you in advance for your response.

 

[Sanctaria]

Sanc,

From all accounts it appears that you have done a fine job in your role as Cabinet Member. However, I must disagree with how McM described your actions while on in the court. I would not describe them as 'excellent'

I believe that there were occasions where you publicly distanced yourself from the court in a way that, in my opinion, undermined the court. There were also times where you publicly chided a fellow justice that undermined the court authority as well.

From my understanding of the situation, there was a justice, me, whom you did not respect and going into the Court’s term did not feel should have your respect. My question to you is this, will you be able to work better with anyone on the cabinet chosen by McM who might fall into the category of someone you don’t respect and is there anything you have learned or would do differently if you were on the court with myself or anyone else who did not hold your esteem?

The reason for this line of questioning is not to expose you as some bad person, but in your role as VD you will need to interact with a number of individuals and I am interested to see if the Sanc of the recent cabinet or the Sanc of the Court is the real Sanctaria.

Thank you in advance for your response.

Thanks for your question.

I'm not really sure how to answer this, to be honest. I'm not going to lie just to get votes, so I'm going to be honest with y'all.

When I left the bench a number of people, not many granted but enough to get my attention, mentioned to me my less than stellar behaviour and attitude on the bench. I didn't realise that I was so outwardly critical of other Justices. That did honest to God bother me. So I adapted.

Like I said to Mall, I am not infallible. I do make mistakes, and I do bugger up, but I do try to learn from them. That's how I operate, and that's how I continued operating once I started in cabinet. So my answer would be, if you think you've seen a marked improvement in how I operate, it's because I learned from my errors. I was, still am, arrogant and brusque. That's my failings and something I am trying to improve on (not going to happen overnight either, so no expecting miracles, folks , please!)

I've learned that I have a duty to work with those I'm supposed to work with. I won't get along with everyone all of the time, I know that, and it's foolish to think otherwise. But to not do so is infantile and reflect poorly on me and, well, TNP has become my primary community. This election aside, win or lose, I want to stay here. Continuing to act like I did on the bench is not going to do me any favours, and I'm not really wanting to be ostracised from here either.

If I'm elected VD and McM is elected Delegate, then I have a duty to work with those McM chooses for his team, because it is his team. Sure, I mightn't be happy with a choice or two, but I've learned that I have to suck it up. Get on with it.

I want people to vote for me because they think I'm the best choice. If they genuinely don't think so based on how I've operated in the past, then that's my fault and I'll have to live with that.

I hope I answered your question.

 

[SillyString]

You mentioned the impending game changes - I think it's pretty clear that should they be implemented, TNP law will need to adapt (I foresee particular need to tweak the rules for joining and staying on the Security Council and for the allocation of regional officer powers). Do you have a vision for the best approach to take to deal with the changes as they have currently been described by the game admins?

Do you intend to remain an active legislator (drafting and commenting as opposed to just voting) in the RA should you become Vice Delegate, or will you be focusing more on other areas?

 

[Sanctaria]

You mentioned the impending game changes - I think it's pretty clear that should they be implemented, TNP law will need to adapt (I foresee particular need to tweak the rules for joining and staying on the Security Council and for the allocation of regional officer powers). Do you have a vision for the best approach to take to deal with the changes as they have currently been described by the game admins?

Do you intend to remain an active legislator (drafting and commenting as opposed to just voting) in the RA should you become Vice Delegate, or will you be focusing more on other areas?

The changes have just been announced, and I think further scrutiny is warranted before we dive in changing the laws, especially since the full picture isn't exactly available yet.

I do think that the continuation of the Security Council in some variation would be extremely beneficial to The North Pacific, but already I think it's clear that the size of it, and how members are appointed, will have to be revisited. As I said in my statement, I think we should definitely draw on the experience of the Security Council members that we currently have. They are some of the most trustworthy and experienced nations in the region and its likely even after changes we'll be turning to them to continue in the roles, whatever shape they may be.

I think a way to start to do this is to begin brainstorming about possible scenarios which we could be faced with under the new changes, and how best a new Security Council could operate and deal with these. Obviously since Security Council members are Regional Assembly members it could be done in the context of the latter, but I think a robust collaboration between the two institutions may be beneficial, not just to the sharing of knowledge, but perhaps also to improve intraregional relations which I hope would only help and bolster regional security.

As for your other question, I do indeed intend to remain as an active legislator, and if elected one thing that I may concentrate on if elected is the more frequent introduction of "government bills". Of course it would depend on how integrated the elected Delegate would allow me to be with government, but I think the government having some direction or guiding policies that we would bring to the Regional Assembly to approve or deny might be an interesting aspect.

We've touched on this already in the past term with the government as a team deliberating and discussing, and indeed drafting, legislation to amend the Mandatory Ministries Act, or to change how Membership Administration is carried out. I would definitely support and push for greater executive interaction with the legislature because I think it shows an active and involved government as opposed to a detached one.

 

[punk d]

Sanc - regarding your answer to my question, I am pleasantly surprised by your response.

Thank you.

 

[Sanctaria]

Sanc - regarding your answer to my question, I am pleasantly surprised by your response.

Thank you.

I think this is a good thing?

My pleasure, regardless though. I'm here to answer questions.

 

[punk d]

Sorry, I can be a bit ambiguous at times when in a hurry.

I am glad you can see mistakes and take action to correct them. We all make mistakes, but we don't all learn from them. I'm glad to see you learning and trying to be different.

 

[Ash]

Since I nominated you, I think my position is obviously clear. But your responses here have only served to reinforce my commitment to seeing you elected.

And it does help that, unlike Flemingovia and Democratic Donkeys, you don't make references to your "loins" every chance you get.

 

[Democratic Donkeys]

Please keep your pernicious lies to yourself, or I will take you to court.

 

[Sanctaria]

Thanks Ash.

DD - I assume that was to Ash?

 

[Democratic Donkeys]

Yes, sorry. And doubly sorry to interrupt your campaign thread. I have never referred to my "loins", and resent the insinuation, though not the inclusion with so mighty a being as Flemingovia. Best wishes to your candidacy.

 

[Ash]

And for the record, I retract my statement about DD. It is clear that he referred to his "teats" and not his "loins". I stand corrected.

 

[Sanctaria]

I'm glad you could come to a resolution without resorting to litigation.

 

[Great Bights Mum]

I have a question about the VD's new power to deny RA membership to an applicant. Can you give us an example of when you might exercise it?

 

[Kiwi]

The best of luck Sanc! You have my vote.

 

[Sanctaria]

I have a question about the VD's new power to deny RA membership to an applicant. Can you give us an example of when you might exercise it?

Thanks for the question GBM.

As I said in my OP, I'd actually seek the advice of the Security Council before I'd use it. If elected one of the first things I would do is ask Security Council members to draw up and maintain a list of nations that may pose a threat to regional security. I envision this to be updated frequently.

If a nation on this list applies to the Regional Assembly, I will immediately seek to reconfirm the threat with the Security Council before notifying the Speaker that I would be using the new block.

I don't believe I'd be using this power often, if at all, and I definitely don't think it should be used often, only when absolutely necessary.

 

[Sanctaria]

The best of luck Sanc! You have my vote.

Thanks Kiwi.

Obviously I hope others vote for me, and that I win, but every show of support counts and I great appreciate it.

 

[Ash]

What do you think is the best way to increase participation and retention in the government of The North Pacific?