The Free Lands of Vancouvia is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its ubiquitous missile silos, anti-smoking policies, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 21.028 billion Vancouvians 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 enormous government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Vesuvius. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Vancouvian economy, worth a remarkable 4,588 trillion coves a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing. Average income is an amazing 218,192 coves, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Seasonal hay-fever sufferers are attending government drug counselling sessions to get free doughnuts, restaurant owners fear visits from government officials more than the actual food critics, it's been a banner year for local vexillology, and evenings at university debating societies often end with everyone acknowledging both sides may well be right. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vancouvia's national animal is the wild cow, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Vancouvia is ranked 4,569^th in the world and 11^th in The Western Isles for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 586.87 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.