Kaskadiya (Alternative Russia)

Kaskadiya is one of the westernmost Russophone provinces of Canada (along with Yukon and Alaska), situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.2 million as of 2021, it is Canada's third-most populous province. The capital of Kaskadiya is Novoyekaterinburg, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for Yekaterinburg in Russia, itself named for Russian Empress Yekaterina or Catherine I. The largest city is Vankuver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, and the second-largest in the Pacific Northwest. In October 2013, Greater Vankuver had an estimated population of approximately 2.5 million. Since 2017, the province has been governed by the New Democratic Party, first with a minority government elected in 2017 and subsequently with a majority government elected in 2020.

A former colony of the Russian Empire, much of the Russian America territory in the modern Pacific Northwest region was populated by Russians until 1818, when Russia ceded it to Great Britain by the Treaty of Plymouth. The treaty required the British to sign the Pacific Act, recognizing Russian language and Russian culture in the area, committing to never diminish or persecute the Russians in the Pacific region, similarly to the Quebec Act, which similarly recognized French culture in what is now Quebec. The Colony of Kaskadiya (1858–1866) was subsequently founded on the mainland by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Moody was chief commissioner of Lands and Works for the Colony and the first lieutenant governor of Kaskadiya: he was hand-picked by the Colonial Office in London to transform Kaskadiya into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west", and "to found a marriage of England and Russia on the shores of the Pacific".

In 1866, Vankuver Island became part of the colony of Kaskadiya, and Novoyekaterinburg became the united colony's capital. In 1871, Kaskadiya became the sixth province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu ("Splendour without Diminishment"). As the core of the Russian-speaking population in Canada, Kaskadiya fought since its admission to the Confederation to have Russian as an official language with equal status to English and French. Finally, on April 7, 1890, after nineteen years, the Canadian Parliament enacted the Third Official Language Act, making Russian the third official language of Canada.

First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties, and the question of aboriginal title, long ignored, has become a frequently debated legal and political question as a result of recent court actions. Notably, the Tsilhqot'in Nation has established aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the 2014 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Tsilhqot'in Nation v Kaskadiya.

Kaskadiya's economy is primarily based on forestry, mining, cinematography and tourism. Kaskadiya also benefits from high property values and being a centre for maritime trade. Although less than 5 percent of its territory is arable land, a lot of agriculture is done in the Kaskadiya Valley and Okanagan thanks to the warmer climate. It is the fourth-largest province or territory by GDP.