Great Duck Island

Great Duck Island is a province of the Orbin Federation. Unlike the other provinces, Great Duck Island is far from the rest of the country, being located far out in Lake Huron. For this, among other reasons, it has always been somewhat at odds with the rest of Orb. Its principal industries are fishing, shipping, manufacturing and tourism. Its capital and largest city is St. Edmund.



History
The Manitoulin Archepelego was first settled in the late 18th century by English loyalists fleeing the American Revolution. St. Edmund is known to have been established by 1800.

Unlike Manitoulin, which was predominantly an agrarian society until the mid-20th century, Great Duck Island become a power on the lake. By the year 1880, St. Edmund was the unrivaled. commercial, industrial, political and cultural epicenter on Lake Huron. Great Duck Islanders were almost universally educated people. Indeed, in 1900, 97% of Great Ducks were literate, compared to roughly 90% in both the United States and Canada, and 84% on Manitoulin.

However, due to their homeland's small land area, the Great Ducks had to search for more land for farming in order to feed their people. Starting in the 1840s, settlers from GDI came to Cockburn Island, which was at that time in posession of the Temikahah tribe. About 5 decades later, in 1898, Great Duck Island declared war on the Temikahah and shortly defeated them and their ally, Minising, taking both Cockburn Island and a piece of land on Manitoulin called the Evansville strip from Temikahah and Minising, respectively. From then on, no one dared challange Great Duck Island.

During the Unification, GDI was very hesitant to join, only doing so after numerous provisions were made, finally signing on September 4, 1936.

Great Duck Island remained a popular tourist destination and a home for artists throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

On April 26, 2013, GDI Governor Beth Cartright challanged Premier Harold Swanson's executive authority after the latter authorized a raid on the St. Edmund Times, arresting all staff and seizing all property on April 24. Cartright demanded the return of the staff and confiscated property, and insisted that the raid was illegal and that Swanson violated provincial rights promised by Premier Templin.

Culture
Great Duck Island has, from its inception, had a distinct cultural identity to that of Manitoulin. While Manitoulin was predominantly a rural society until the mid-20th century, Great Duck Island has always been principally urban, with 97% of its people living in a city or town as of 2010.

Another facet of Great Duck culture which has separated it from Manitoulin is the dominance of Roman Catholicism, as opposed to Anglicanism practiced by the rest of the Orbins. In fact, a famous (but possibly apocryphal) incident during the Unification involved George Templin and the other Unifiers preparing the first meeting with Great Duck Island representatives, and Templin gave specific orders to never discuss religion; only to find that every GDI representative was wearing a Rosary when they arrived.

Due to its tiny size (one can circum-navigate the whole of Great Duck on a bicycle in about five hours), many Great Ducks do not own cars, instead opting for bicycles. Among Great Ducks, a young man getting a car is usually taken as a sign that he is about to be married and/or raise a family; popular phrases amongst Great Ducks include, "Take a wife, buy a car," and "Wives and cars go together." A less polite version goes: "Get off the bike, get on the wife."

People from Great Duck Island are called either Great Duck Islanders, or, less formally, Great Ducks. The province itself can be referred to a few ways: Great Duck Island reffers to either the province as a whole, or its principal island; it can also be abbreviated as G.D.I. Within the province, Great Duck usually reffers to the main island, as opposed to West Duck, Middle Duck, Outter Duck, or Thibault Islands. The Island is also commonly used to reffer to Great Duck itself.

Great Duck Island has traditionally seen itself as separate (and usually superior) to Manitoulin Island. This is somewhat justified due to geographic distance, difference of religion, and the fact that Great Duck Islanders have usually been educated folk; St. Edmund University, the province's university (and one of the best in the entire Great Lakes system), is a Jesuit college run by the Society of Jesus, and includes a Roman Catholic seminary.

As the years have gone by, however, Great Duck Island's rivalry with the rest of Manitoulin has become increasingly tongue-in-cheek. Nowadays it is usually confined to light teasing and sporting events (such as when St. Edmund's lacrosse team defeated Odaawa 20-0 in 1989).