Canada (cWOD)

Canada is a country, consisting of ten provinces and three territories, in the northern part of the continent of North America. It extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Canada's common border with the United States forms the world's longest land border.

Overview
The land mass of Canada is huge in comparison to its sparse population. Covering nearly four million square miles, Canada has a human population of just 27 million mortals, and most of them live within 190 miles of the southern border with the United States. The Camarilla likes to maintain that it has a strong control over the nation of Canada, but the reality is that the Sabbat controls the areas of large population, and the Lupines control the vast Wilderness that surrounds the rest.

The Sabbat is strong in eastern Canada and its borders; parts of Quebec and Ontario, as well as major portions of the United States bordering these regions. The Maritime Provinces of Canada are New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Prairie Provinces which comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (including such cities as Alberta and Edmonton) and British Columbia are all essentially free from Sabbat taint. These areas are as sparsely populated by people as vampires however.

Covering nearly four million square miles, Canada has a human population of just 27 million mortals, and most of them live within 190 miles of the southern border with the United States. Most Canadian territory is putatively under Camarilla control, but in actuality anything above the magic 190-mile mark (and much that is below it) is left to the Lupines. There is a strong Sabbat presence in and bordering eastern Canada; parts of Quebec (including Montreal) and Ontario (including Toronto), as well as major portions of the United States bordering these regions, are under Sabbat control. The so-called Maritime and Prairie Provinces (including such cities as Alberta and Edmonton) and British Columbia are all essentially free from Sabbat taint, but are as sparsely populated by vampires as by humans. The two largest cities in Canada are Sabbat. After all, what do the antitribu care about the fishermen of the Grand Banks? For Camarilla vampires, the question is whether or not the Masquerade can be maintained. Canada's violent crime rate is much lower than the States', mandating much more caution on the part of Canada's Kindred. In general, they are fewer, farther between and much more reluctant to take human life unnecessarily than their American counterparts.

This is not so much an expression of morality as one of selfpreservation; excessive violent crime shocks and mobilizes Canadian society in a way that no longer touches Americans. Fueled by public outrage, the search for a violent criminal will prove relentless until the perpetrator is found. Canada has vast natural resources and a solid high-tech industrial base. The Prairie Provinces, in addition to Alberta's oil fields, have extensive agricultural industries. Edmonton houses, among other things, the world's largest shopping mall, home to its own criminal (and perhaps Kindred) subculture. On the east coast, the struggles over Quebecois independence and the depletion of the Grand Banks fishing shoals have severely damaged the economy of the Maritime Provinces. Quebec and Ontario, though, remain prosperous rivals in the heart of the country even as the one repeatedly threatens to secede and the other works diligently to get Quebec to remain.

The Quebecois separatist movement, countered internally by the Federalists and externally by the rest of the country, centers around the French-speaking minority's attempts to secede from the rest of Canada to form a Francophone republic. A referendum on secession in late 1995 showed the province's population to be narrowly in favor of remaining part of the Canadian union, for now.

As stated earlier, most of the vampiric population is concentrated in the cities and towns along the U.S. border. There is no Sabbat presence west of Lake Huron, meaning that the Camarilla rules the Prairie Provinces uncontested. The population is the usual mix of the seven main clans with a smattering of others, but all are on their best behavior. The miles between the cities are too long and too Lupine-infested for ready travel from city to city on the ground. Blunders can lead to exile, and exile usually means death here. Plus, with such intense potential pressure from the kine, Canadian Kindred will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their princes in punishing offenders. After all, there's nowhere for them to run either.

Infiltrated by Japanese vampires, British Columbia stands outside the wars of the Sabbat and Camarilla. Ruled by the independent Prince Sigfried, the city of Vancouver is a model of efficiency for other princes. Effectively free of sect entanglements, the city is ruled by its prince alone.

Prominent Cities

 * Montreal
 * Toronto
 * Vancouver