Cascadia (Pacific Sunrise)

The Commonwealth of Cascadia, more commonly known as Cascadia is a sovereign state in North America. It is bordered by the Californian Republic and Deseret to the south, Canada, Wyoming and the Blackfoot Confederation to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Its capital city is Calgary whilst its largest city is Seattle.

Early History
The area currently occupied by Cascadia was inhabited by countless indigenous tribes with populations numbering in the hundreds of thousands for millenia until European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Early exploration was undertaken by explorers from Spain but explorers from the United Kingdom, then known as Great Britain soon took over and established colonies in the area. The primary British colony in the area was known as "British Columbia", which became associated with the Dominion of Canada on the west coast in the 19th century following the completion of the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway. Expansion of the United States in the later part of the 19th century led to what is known today as the "Oregon Boundary Dispute", in which disputed expansion plans led to negotiations establising a boundary along the 49th parralel and giving Britain control over Vancouver island, where it remained until the establishment of Cascadia as an independent country.

Modern History
In June of 2009, following the global economic slowdown of the previous year, the Canadian province of Quebec held a referendum in an attempt to gain independence to both assert its own distinct identity and establish firmer control over its own economy. The referendum, the third attempt of its kind was successful and Quebec became an independent republic. The states and provinces of both the United States and Canada were left in shock to see this happen, which led to a number of states becoming independent of the United States including Texas and Deseret. Northern California left California but remained with the Union as a state called Jefferson. In the 2010's, increasing disputes between the west coast governments of Washington, Oregon, Jefferson, British Columbia, Alaska, Alberta, Montana and Idaho led to strengthened regionalism. The first to declare independence were British Columbia and Alberta following a ruling by a Canadian Supreme Court that a series of pipelines from resource-rich Alberta to ports at Kitimat, Prince Rupert and in the Lower Mainland were "unlawful to build". Alberta and British Columbia federated in May of 2013 to form the Pacific Federation, the second blow to what was an already-weakened Canadian federation. Seeing the actions of their neighbours to the north, Washington and Oregon bid within months to join the former Canadian provinces to form the nation-state now known as the Commonwealth of Cascadia. Jefferson and Alaska followed within a year, and by 2015, Cascadia's current borders were established through regional dialogue with locals. The pipelines from Alberta to the Pacific coast were built and a strong economic engine to drive the new country forward was up and running.

In the present day, large fields of oil have been discovered in the Beaufort Sea and municipalities along the northern coast including Prudhoe Bay, Utqiagvik/Nome and Inuvik have become regional boom towns as staging areas for getting the resource out of the ground.

Government and Politics
Cascadia was established in its early forms as a decentralised Federal Parliamentary Republic, and it retains this form of government to this day. The Parliament of Cascadia is a unicameral assembly consisting of representatives from a number of parties from across the country. The head of state, the President, is mostly a ceremonial role with some direct power for certain situations. This position is held for ten years at a term and can be renewed. The head of government, the Prime Minister is responsible for leading a cabinet, which makes decisions for the various ministries and divisions of the government. In addition, the Prime Minister is a sitting member of the Parliament, along with the members of the cabinet. Much power is delegated to the governments of the various Provinces of Cascadia, which are responsible for most items that affect the daily lives of citizens, such as education, healthcare and infrastructure. The federal government is primarily responsible for dealing with items on the global stage, such as trade, border security and international relations, among other things.

Geography
WIP

Economy
WIP

Acknowledgements
Wikipedia for just being great!

User:Dog of War for inspiring me with Rainier and for creating the infobox I used as a template for this!

This paper for providing some plausibility basis for this concept