Prime Minister's Office, Fuller House
Tarana, Caldan Union of the Resurgent Dream
The Prime Minister's personal office was a spacious, wood-paneled room located in the a back corner of Fuller House. Despite the hectic activity of the PMO, it was possible to experience an illusion of serenity there. Access was zealously guarded by the Prime Minister's personal assistant, Michael McGarry, and on two sides French windows looked out over the small garden behind the building. In the beginning of his premiership, Oliver Welton had sometimes gone for a walk in that garden when he needed to think but no longer. He was too conscious of the security detail which fell into step behind him the second he stepped outside. He was too conscious of the fact that, unseen by him, his stepping outside caused the entire Fuller House security detachment to shift focus and one or two of the regular Royal Caldan Police patrols around downtown Tarana to make a point of driving past just in case the fence, the guards, and the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment weren't quite enough. It made him feel not so much powerful as awkward. Twenty years ago, Prime Ministers had walked among their people with less security than the average Caer Gawen celebrity used today. A century ago, even the sovereign had only needed guards for ceremonial occasions. Easier, Welton thought, to just look through the bullet-proof glass.
Oliver Welton was a tall man and in good health but he was also a bit on the thin side and not especially imposing. His dark hair, soft brow eyes, and wry half-smile had helped him seem a charming and charismatic figure when he was seeking office, even as it had gotten him mocked by some less friendly voices, but that all seemed a thing of the past. His hairline had started receding in the last two years and he'd gotten more than a few gray hairs. His domestic agenda had gone well enough. The economy was sound and the Caldan people generally prosperous. His foreign policy had not. The Western Atlantic remained as divided as ever and the Caldan Union had few relationships outside the region. The old regional treaties were almost defunct, despite continued nominal adherence from all their members. A few largely symbolic attempts to reconnect with the region and the world had not gone well. A royal tour had had to be cancelled due to the Queen's pregnancy. A gala had attracted a great deal of attention at first but it had sort of petered out. Welton doubted any other sweeping gesture would fare differently. A foreign policy of engagement would require specific contacts with specific countries.
Welton stood and began to pace his office. He was not normally a pacer but he was strangely full of nervous energy today. The country was restless. He was restless. He was anxious about his country's place in the world. And not for nothing. Just three months ago, Parliament had passed, at his urging, the Constitutional Democracy Act. The Act mandated that two proposed constitutional amendments be submitted to the voters concurrent with the next election for the House of Representatives. The first amendment would remove Dominion status from the Caldan constitution. One year after being passed, every Caldan Dominion would be required to hold a referendum on whether its people desired to be an independent, sovereign state or a Caldan Province with equal rights and obligations to every other. The second amendment would alter the composition of the Senate to include a majority of elected Senators for the first time. It would reduce the number of reserve seats to a total of 30 and provide for the election of five Senators from each Province by means of a single transferable vote system of proportional representation and one Senator from the Grand Duchy of Tarana by means of preferential voting. Senate elections would be held concurrent with any House of Representatives election held more than five years after the last Senate election with the first to be held during the first House of Representatives election held after the amendment passes. Amendments to the Caldan constitution are ratified by the people if they receive the votes of a 2/3rds supermajority of voters in a majority of provinces or a majority of votes in 2/3rds of the provinces, provided that they also receive a simple majority of total votes.
Welton had no immediate plans to call an election. If he did call one, he had no idea if the amendments would be approved by the voters or not. There was widespread support but the threshold for ratification was a high one. He also had no idea if he wanted it to pass or not. The reform of the Senate was desperately needed and the constitutional status of the Dominions no less important. As things stood, it was borderline colonialism. But he still feared the outcome. The admission of the Dominions fully into the Caldan Union as Provinces would significantly change the composition of the nation. Their independence would significantly alter the geopolitics of the Western Atlantic and possibly endanger the Caldan Union's relationship with her neighbours. All of which made Welton more anxious about his foreign policy.
He sat back down and pressed a button on his desk, 'Michael, is Janet Parker in the building?'
'Yes, Prime Minister,' came McGarry's dry, officious voice.
'Have her come in here,' Welton said and then waited.
Janet Parker was a short, stocky woman with black curls. She smiled brightly as she stepped into the office. 'You wanted to speak to me, Prime Minister.'
'Yes, Janet. Have a seat. I was actually interested in some of the foreign policy ideas you recommended,' he said with a small smile, gesturing her to a chair on the opposite side of my desks.
'You read my recommendations? I didn't know...' she sputtered.
'You gave it to Toby. Toby gave it to me. It's something I'd been asking about,' he said, leaning forward attentively as she sat. 'The goal is to make a bit of a return to the world scene but without anything unduly dramatic, like intervening in some war, or pointless, like a convention for the sake of having a convention. I liked your idea on the key role of culture.'
'I was thinking about Lise Charest's upcoming visit to Pantocratoria,' Parker said. 'I think we can do more to promote Caldan culture internationally. Not enough Caldan artists do true world tours. I also think we can host more foreign artists here. The government can help or at least can help facilitate. Relationships are ultimately between peoples are all. I think these sorts of contacts create the foundation for the more formal diplomacy.'
'They might. Get on the phone with Selena Lopez, Nicki Pall, CoraT, or whoever else and see if they'd be interested in doing more touring abroad, possibly with a little government assistance, at least with the advertising. Then see who we can book to play in Tarana for Halloween.' He smiled slightly. 'This is just sort of a wedge, of course. Something to get people talking. We'll also be establishing new embassies, signing on to more student exchange programmes, that sort of thing. The situation shall develop from there.'
Parker smiled, 'I think it's a good idea.'
Welton stood with a small shrug. 'It's just an ice breaker, but I suppose it gives better value to more people than a courtship ball. Remember when those were incessant.
Parker laughed as she stood. 'They're just as common now. But the queen and her sister are married.'
'They have other relatives,' Welton said thoughtfully. 'I'll ask about that, I think.'
