Hochelaga

The Province of Hochelaga is the second most populous province of Sober Thought with 23.3% of the national population and is where most francophones in the country live. French is the sole official language for the province as a whole, but the charter municipality of Kingsmount gives equal status to English within its boundaries.

Originally called Pensée, it combined with Central Province (then called Sobriety) to form the Community of Sober Thought. Similarly, Hochelaga contributed Comté de Mit-en-Haut and Central Province Bight County to create a neutral federal seat at Capital Province.

Regional geography

Hochelaga is landlocked and contains 23.3% of the population of Sober Thought. The eponymous provincial capital is a respectably-sized francophone city of 1.6%.

The provincial metropolis is the francophone Ville de Mont Royaume of 6.0%. One fifth of the population of Montroy (as the French city is colloquially known), mainly anglophones, seceded from the municipality to create Kingsmount with 1.6%.

Thoughout the rest of the province there are five French-only municipalities: Comté de Caguenai (north of Hochelaga) of 0.5%, Ville de Gouinshau (east of Montroy) of 0.6%, Ville de Longueoreille (south of Montroy) of 1.0%, Comté de Mit-en-Bas (beside Capital Province) 0.3% and Ville de Trifleuville (between Hochelaga and Montroy) of 0.5%.

Economy and culture

The business and cultural elite of Hochelaga are directly represented in the provincial legislature through representatives chosen by their self-governing bodies. Consequentally, legislative log-rolling is common and subsidies to commercial or artistic ventures are high.

Freewheeling capitalists from outside the province are reluctant to invest because of the high tax rate and frequent changes of provincial government. However, domestic investors -- motivated in part by Hochelaga pride -- ensure the economy is vibrant and sometimes reaches the national median.

Government

Federal representatives

Hochelaga has 55 single-member constituencies for which they elect members to federal House of the Federation. Additionally, 14 members are elected proportionally to more closely reflect the popular vote in the constituency elections. Hochelaga gets five seats in the federal House of the Provinces, chosen by the ever-changing provincial premier.

Provincial government

The Assemblée du Hochelaga is large and unwieldy, having seven separate classes of deputés representing various interests. Each of the 127 deputies have an equal voice in the assembly, although the 37 corporatist deputies must of course remember that they can be removed from their positions by their sponsoring body. Consult the chart below for class, number of MAHs, and means of initial election and replacement:

Collectively, all deputies are formally responsible for choosing one of their number as the Premier ministre du Hochelaga. In practice, the party leader of the largest party or coalition represented in the Assembly becomes Prime Minister. The Assembly expires in five years, but often there have already been several unsuccessful and likely one successful attempts to topple the government before that time.

Municipal governments

Cities with a French speaking majority are governed in a slightly more straightforward manner than the province, although incorporating many similar concepts of representation. The size of the city council varies in its number of councillors depending whether it is for Montroy, Ville de Hochelaga and all the rest. See the chart below:

The municipal councils are styled on the model of Conseil de Trifleuville. Although parties are active on the local level, they have no direct reprentation on council. However, since the Maire and Sous-maire are chosen from among its members by simple plurality, non-partisan councillors will find it difficult to be elected to these offices.

English-speaking Kingsmount has a more straightforward and transparent municipal legislature: voters in each of the 30 wards with longstanding boundaries return one member per ward, and voters across the city elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor at-large.

Shared jurisdictions

Garde civile

The Garde civile is trained and equipped at federal expense as part of the Community Defence Forces, but its members are paid by Hochelaga. French is the exclusive language to higher formations and within the first 13 of every 14 battalions raised. The Civil Guard Minister promotes Soldats-maitres, Soldats-chefs and officers in the three lieutenant ranks. The Prime Minister promotes those in the three commandant ranks, assuming the candidates have successfully completed their CDF qualifications. The CDF itself fills the marshal ranks, and brooks no interference with its choices despite frequent attempts to do so by the provincial government.

The organisation of the guard for provincial service is based on a series of Régions gardières based on chartered municipalities and geographic regions of the province, with Kingsmount being considered part of the Montroy Guard Region. The organisation of the guard for federal service is based on the province providing nearly a whole infantry division in the 8 series and the bulk of a mountain brigade in the 7 series.

Disregarding the two bataillons of Chasseurs alpinistes, francophone Hochelaga contributes all but six battalions of troops to the 8 series of infantry divisions: two of the remainder are provided by battalions of the anglophone Kingsmount Regiment (every 12th Civil Guard unit raised, exclusive of HQ, branch or sub-branch appearing parenthetically) and four by the Regular Force Land Service (starting with four of the artillery battalions, exclusive of HQ). The list below is written ignoring these two other sources of troops.

Armoured:

• 1 bataillon, Hussars Mont Royaume (armoured cars), 2e brigade (Infanterie blindé) of 8e Division d'infanterie
• 1 bat., Cuiraisseurs hochelagais (light tanks), to demi-brigade de reserve divisionale of 8e Division d'infanterie

Infantry:

• 2 bataillons, Chasseurs blindés (armoured infantry), one to 2e brigade (Infanterie blindé) and one to Demi-brigade de Reserve divisionale (Infanterie blindé), both of 8e Division d'infanterie
• 1 bat., Dragoons Mont Royaume (wheeled armoured infantry), 2e brigade (Infanterie blindée) of 8e Division d'infanterie
• 3 bat., Chasseurs à cheval (motorised infantry), 3e brigade (Infanterie motorisée) of 8e Division d'infanterie
• 2 bat., Chasseurs alpinists (mountain light infantry), to 1ier brigade (Infanterie alpiniste) of 7e Division d'infanterie alpiniste
• 1 bat., Fusiliers Mont Royaume (urban light infantry), to 4e brigade (Infanterie légère) of 8e Division d'infanterie
• 2 bat., Chasseurs à pied (urban light infantry), to 4e brigade (Infanterie légère) of 8e Division d'infanterie

Artillery:

• 5 bataillons (one each air defence, rocket air defence, anti-tank, armoured or self-propelled, and towed artillery), Régiment hochelagais de l'Artillerie (antiaérienne, antiaérienne missilière, antichar, mécanisée et motorisée), 5e brigade (Artillerie), to 5e brigade (Artillerie) of 8e Division d'infanterie

Other:

• 3 bataillons, Régiment hochelagais de la Génie (combat, civil and maintenance engineers) to brigades of 8e Division d'infanterie
• 2 bat., Régiment hochelagais des Transports, to 8e Division d'infanterie
• 1 bat., Régiment hochelagais des Provisions
• 1 bat. équivalent, Quartiers-généraux (headquarters) to

Régiment des transports du Hochelaga, Régiment de provision du Hochelaga, Régiment de securité du Hochelaga and Régiment de santé du Hochelaga.

Every twelfth battalion raised in Hochelaga uses English within its own unit. The sequentially numbered English speaking battalions are all part of the Kingsmount Regiment and bear in parentheses the branch (or in the case of support battalions, the sub-branch) they represent.

Each time Sober Thought's population increases by 100 million, Hochelaga raises 23 Civil Guard battalions. Thus, the first wave would raise: 1ière–3e bataillons à Cheval; 1st Battalion, Kingsmount Regiment ([Heavy] Infantry); 1ière–2e bataillons à Pied; 1e bataillon Alpinistes; 1ière–3e bataillons Cuirassiers; 1ière, 3e and 4e bataillons d’Artillerie (champs); 2e bataillons d’Artillerie (aérienne); 1ière–4e bataillons de Génie; 1ière bataillon de Securité; 1ière–2e bataillons des Transports; 1ière bataillons de Provision; 1ière bataillons de Santé. Subsequent waves would finish raising the four missing battalions for a conventional division, then raise 19 more for a second division with the ordinal sequence in each regiment resuming where it left off in the first wave.

Education

Tuition-free public education is offered in French only at the primary, intermediate, secondary and college levels. Collèges municipales are located in each chartered French municipality, and tuition costs are waived for those resident at least three years and who graduated from a public secondary school in the province.

Tuition-charging pubic education is offered at the Université du Hochelaga (campuses in all French municipalities) with tuition costs reduced in a similar manner to the national formula. Provincial scholarships can only be redeemed at this university. Kingsmount College was founded by the municipal government and restricts its entrance to English speaking residents and charges about half of its French university counterpart but cannot offer municipal government scholarships.

Private religious education at or below the secondary level is uncommon, although Catholic parochial schools are still active in more rural and conservative areas. The Universités catholiques de Hochelaga and Mont Royaume serve those two cites, the former in the capital being more prestigious.

Private secular education at or below the secondary level is only common for after-hours English classes in Kingsmount. Oddly, while the private secular Université de Mont Royaume University became part of Kingsmount, it retains its traditional name in its new municipality. The French only private business schoool École supérieure du Commerce operates in Mont Royaume proper.

Transportation

Railways are used for most long distance cargo transport, but the large cities are choked with cars. Large airports serve the capital and the metropolis while small airstrips serving the remainder of the chartered municipalities and a few unorganized settlements.

Exclusive jurisdictions

Justice

The Sûreté du Hochelaga is widely believed to be an ineffectual if not corrupt organization. Police officers report, if they feel like it, to the Commandant policier in each of the chartered cities and in a few of the unchartered settlements, or to the notorious Comamandant policier en chef in Mont Royaume.

Despite problems on the law enforcement side, the actual civil law in Hochelaga is very liberal, especially in family law. In many ways, it is the polar opposite of Jarvet’s highly moralist and controlled civil law. Criminal law (created federally) is unevenly applied in the province.

Health

The Ministère du Bien-être spends vast sums of public money on hospitals, clinics, outreach and self-help programs. While there are some user fees levied, most services are free regardless of their apparent utility because of the Wellness Ministry’s holistic approach. Private health care is available for those who can afford it.

Natural resources

The government had historically mismanaged the natural resources of the province, but it recent times it has taken a more conservation-minded approach to mineral extraction and forestry. Consequently, eco-tourism has flourished at little expense to existing industry.