The Island of Manitoulin is a behemoth, efficient nation, ruled by Liard with a fair hand, and remarkable for its smutty television, daily referendums, and public floggings. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 51.601 billion Manitoulinites love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Little Current. The average income tax rate is 78.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Manitoulinian economy, worth a remarkable 2,709 trillion aurums a year, is extremely specialized and mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 52,506 aurums, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Liard can often be found attempting to coax random citizens' cats down from trees, travelers often bring empty plastic bottles on Air Manitoulin flights to avoid the pay lavatories, Liard is convinced that other nations can simply be "junked" (Manitoulin has found 3 easter eggs), and Liard is too busy listening to praise to get any work done. Crime, especially youth-related, is pervasive, probably because of the absence of a police force. Manitoulin's national animal is the bovina, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Manitoulin is ranked 14,074^th in the world and 2^nd in Ancient Lands for Highest Unexpected Death Rate, scoring 110.97 on the Bus Surprisal Index.