It's an interesting game, with a great variety of point scoring options. Build an environment and populate it with animals. It moves quick, too. 20 turns per game. Period.

Everyone I've played with has liked it. Just saying it's possibly a good way to bring up the concept of Cascadia: "Want to play a game?"

First of all, let me say that I am sympathetic to your feelings towards the United States, and fully understand and support your desire to gain autonomy from it. But, as a semi-regular lurker here I have several thoughts around Canada and Cascadia that do not seem to be often brought up in discussions of independence.

For some background context of myself, I was born and raised in California to an American father and Canadian mother. From a fairly young age I knew I wanted to live in my ancestral homeland eventually, and after moving to Vancouver for university I never looked back. I have lived in BC for the 13 years since then, my entire adult life.

Growing up in San Diego I always found myself identify stronger with being a Californian than being an American. So when I first learned about the Cascadian movement as a teenager I completely understood the sentiment, given that I felt deep down my home state should also rid itself of the dead weight back East. Throughout my early 20s I generally still enjoyed the idea of Cascadia, like when my Seattleite roommate at UBC hung a Cascadia flag in our living room I was fully on board. However, over the last few years my feelings on Cascadian discourse have soured quite a bit.

The main reason behind this is the overwhelming default assumption that BC would be part of Cascadia no matter what. The majority of posters and commenters on here seem to be American, and take for granted that those of us across the border share the same perspective on independence from our parent country. This is not the case. I have not once in my entire life here heard someone say they describe themselves as British Columbian rather than Canadian. Our connections to the rest of Canada remain strong, with the vast majority of us having familial or ancestral ties to at least one other province in our country. To put it simply, British Columbian independence is not currently a going concern and hasn't been for a long time.

I think many here from south of the border also fail to grasp the difference in culture between our countries. Its a symptom of a much wider problem of the American exceptionalism taught in the United States, in which other cultures, especially Canada's, are tacitly seen as lesser than America's. You see it broadly amongst Americans both left and right, where Canada is seen as a quirky copy of America rather than it's own nation. For decades Americans of both sides of the political aisle have declared that Canada will be their emergency exit if the upcoming election doesn't go their way, without a second thought that they might not be welcome to just move up here at will. I could go on, but suffice to say I more and more see the inclusion of BC in essentially every map of a hypothetical Cascadia as being a passive extension of the same sentiment.

The obvious elephant in the room over all of this are the MAGA threats over the last year and a half of at best buying Canada, and at worst violently conquering our lands. And I won't lie and say this hasn't changed my feelings about Cascadia, because it absolutely has. These threats may be treated like no big deal to some in the states, just strong banter between nations, but I assure you the wounds they have caused in Canada will take decades to fully heal, if they ever do. America has collectively demonstrated what was always there but never explicitly stated, that the superpower might of the United States could steamroll Canada in very short order.

Common retorts to this that I see here is that we Canadians should be able to "find common cause with those of us south of the 49th who likewise don’t want to have anything to do with Americans right now", or that we should feel differently about seeing our lands divided on maps of Cascadia because they're being drawn by "Cascadians" not Americans, but to those I say it doesn't matter. With the spectre of subjugation raised by the fascist in the White House, seeing Canadian land divided up by a foreign power, even if it's a hypothetical independent country, is abhorrent to me and many Canadians. This is once again the crux of my distaste with Cascadian discourse at the moment, that Canadians are being told by non-Canadians what should happen to our homeland. If an independent Cascadia ever actually materializes, BC must be asked to come along, not just assumed to, because otherwise you're no better than the land hungry monsters in DC that you despise.

I could go on and on but I think that this point I'm talking in circles. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk, I expect a lot of you aren't going to like this. But if this makes a least a few of you stop and think about your default assumptions of an independent Cascadia that's good enough for me.

Edit: As promised, here's a sampling of posts and comments that contributed in making me want to write this post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/1sel4r9/comment/oeqpt2b/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/1l86wrg/comment/mx5gcmu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/1u3i136/comment/or5yilc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/1n7musw/comment/ncvdi7s/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/gxvap3/what_are_cascadias_canadian_suggested_borders/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/1gl0a4v/comment/lvs557v/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cascadia/comments/1gnu5nf/a_free_pacific_northwest/

Putting them all together I see several are by the same guy, so maybe my beef is more with him than anything. Though there's certainly no lack of upvotes on his posts.

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Hi! Im looking for Cascadian Literature to read. I believe reading to be important to the developing of a strong idea of what our community is trying to get across, especially when those ideas are at odds with eachother.

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Ive heard of books such as Ecotopia, but haven't read it (yet). Im basically looking for Cascadian "theory", bioregionalist or otherwise. Any genre is fine, but non-fiction is what im looking for.

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I also want to invite anyone who has written things on Cascadia to share them! I would love to see things written by other members of this Cascadia.

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So, what should I read?