Aaron R Jackson

The current Chief Elected Official of McPsychoville, Aaron Jackson is unique in that he is not only the youngest CEO to hold office thus far, but is also a direct descendant of McPsychoville’s first CEO since the nation’s adoption of in 1759. Born in 1981 at the Royston Valley Royal Hospital, he was exposed to the twin worlds of politics and business from an early age; his father Gareth was the Minister of International Relations until 1987, while mother Lucy is still on the board of Schaefer Enterprises - McPsychoville’s largest telecommunications company.

For both the primary and secondary stages of his education, Jackson stayed in Royston Valley, attending privately-owned schools (a factor which has earned him some criticism from left-wing political opponents, the most prominent of whom - Joseph Kelso - is an advocate of the complete abolition of private schooling), but following his graduation from Andrecht Grammar School, gaining D (D, in this case, standing for Distinction - for more information on this and other such topics, follow this link: McPsychovillian Education) grades in eight of his eleven subjects, he was offered scholarships to the Royal Universities of Royston Valley and Deadbolt City.

While staying in Royston Valley would have seemed the easier option for someone studying economic and political science - being the home of the Spade Hall and every section of the government except for Defense - Jackson chose Deadbolt City (the precise reasons are unknown to everyone except for Jackson himself). In spite of the escalating tensions between McPsychoville and neighbouring Alliance nation Buttonmoon, and the resulting numbers of young men being conscripted, he was able to continue his studies as normal, attaining a further Distinction in Economic and Political Science.

However, in 2002, he too was conscripted in the McPsychovillian Armed Forces. Despite not being in the best of physical fitness, he passed the entrance exam for the Special Operations Units - units trained in performing surgical strikes deep into enemy territory - and joined SOU Omicron. Omicron had a thankless task during the war - being charged with the destruction of the Buttonmoonian economic centres - which was made more difficult due to the fact they were the only two nations in the conflict; were other nations of the Alliance to interfere, the chain reaction was too dangerous to risk.

However, Unit Omicron carried out their tasks with relative ease, breaking the supply chains that were arguably Buttonmoon’s most threatening aspect. Later the same year, Omicron were one of the four units that advanced on the Buttonmoon capital city of Terra Luna to capture the Prime Minister, a mysterious figure known only as ‘Mr. Spoon’. Spoon was able to escape, through the efforts of Buttonmoon resistance groups, but was unable to return to power. It should be noted, however, that Roudland-McPsychoville military cooperation has traditionally been good, and the fact that Spoon's body was found in January 2006 may have had something to do with SOU Omincron collaborating with The Agency, Roudland's national security bureau, or the Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU), the Roudland equvalent of Omicron. The war was officially ended on the 2nd of January, 2003, when new Prime Minister Albert Stratton signed the Treaty of Persei.

Jackson left Unit Omicron after a further month spent on peacekeeping duties, and had intended to take further education upon his existing degree. However, according to Jackson himself, he followed a career into politics after hearing a speech by the Republic Coalition’s Minister of Education, Timothy Kell, in which Kell denounced the Conservative Democrats for ordering troops so hastily into Buttonmoon. As the story goes, Jackson took the stage himself and attacked Kell’s left-wing views with surprising fire and passion; the Deadbolt Citizen later referred to the incident as a ‘verbal mauling for the Minister of Education’, also saying that ‘Kell’s extreme left-wing views have come undone’ and ‘the currently-unnamed soldier has become a legend in his own lunchtime for any opponents of the Coalition’.

Naturally, the incident gained Jackson a degree of notoriety within the political world, and he was viewed with suspicion when he joined the Democrats in November, 2003. At 22, he was by far the youngest member of the party, but unlike many other party members, this did not prove to be a barrier to success; he was voted Minister of Defense in the Democrat by-elections in July 2004 by a surprising majority. His political career looked to have hit a buffer of sorts - while youth had helped him get this far, he was almost certainly too young to ascend to the top. The Deadbolt Citizen, despite being a strong supporter of his, still ranked his odds at more than a thousand to one.

However, the Citizen reckoned without what was the greatest and the lowest weapon in the arsenal of the Republicans - a sleaze scandal. Current Chief Elected Official Harvey S. Tolland was a notorious womaniser, but he had managed to keep his affairs secret - up until a Coalition-supporting reporter had been in the right place at the right time and caught him with another woman to his wife of thirteen years. The majority of the Democrat supporters were right-wing, and many of them reacted badly to this revelation; Tolland resigned less than three weeks later.

Jackson, displaying the keen sense of opportunism that had served him well in the past, jumped at the chance to challenge for the spot of CEO, and the rest lies in history; regardless of the scepticism from many sources, he had appealed to one sense or another in the minds of the Conservative ministers, and enough had been swayed to constitute a majority. In the time since then, Jackson has had a number of political and sociological crises to deal with, although there have been a surprisingly low number of military operations during his time. However, this is discounting the very recent conflict within Anti Anti-Racism, in which his old unit, SOU Omicron, joined units from a number of other nations in ejecting the corrupt leadership of the nation.

In the field of diplomatic relations, however, Jackson has not been as active or as influential as many of the other leaders within the Alliance, despite being in close proximity with a large number of nations. He has fostered good relations with both Commissar Emperor Stefan Carney of Kegmenistan and Imperator Letton of Super Rome, but otherwise McPsychoville has no strong allies.

During his time as CEO, Jackson has presided over several ‘hot potato’ issues within Parliament, including the annual military budget and the ever-fierce debate about drugs – McPsychoville’s drug policy is simple, in that anyone convicted of selling, using or even possessing non-medicinal drugs is an automatic thirty-year jail sentence.

The next nationwide election has been pencilled in for the November of 2006, but Jackson is reportedly not worried by the growing influence the Environmentalist Party is beginning to hold. In his words, he still has faith in the voting public.