Delmago Island
Template:Prettytable |+Delmago Island |-
|- |Capital || Georgetown |- |Governor || Michael G. Wilson (since 2005) |- |Chief Minister || Daniel Mahoney (since 2004) |- |Area || 521 sq. km. |- |Population || 34,395 (as of 2002) |- |}
Delmago Island is a very small isle located in the Bay of Lyle in Georgeland. It is also a state of Georgeland. The island is approximately the size of the Isle of Man. The island has approximately 34,000 residents.
History
Delmago Island was, despite its size, the first landing site of Juan Delmago in 1767. It was from Delmago Island that the exploration and settlement of the rest of Georgeland began. Originally called St. Andrew's Island, the island was renamed in honour of Juan Delmago in 1831. The first settlement in Georgeland was Georgetown, established in 1790 as a British colony. The island maintained a tiny population over the years. In 1891, when Georgeland became a self-governing British dominion, Delmago Island was treated as part of the state of Mainland and was granted a limited form of self-government in 1922. In 1958, the territory was granted statehood as part of a ploy by then-Prime Minister Nathan Keegan to increase the size of, and his control over, the Senate. Delmago Island remains a popular destination for tourists, though it is viewed somewhat 'backwards' by many Georgelanders. Delmago Island has a deeply conservative culture and outlook, and has strongly resisted many social and economic reforms of the past five decades. The exception to this was the 1986 election of a Labour state government led by Maryanne Hislop, which in many ways brought Delmago Island, in Hislop's own words 'kicking and screaming' into the 20th and 21st centuries. Hislop became the state's longest-serving Chief Minister, and governed for eighteen years before the collapse of the Labour Party saw the downfall of her government. In 2004, Islanders elected a Conservative government, signalling perhaps a return to the old days.
Government
Delmago Island is a state of Georgeland. The state is run by a Chief Minister. The state Governor is the only one in the nation appointed by the legislature and serves a purely ceremonial role. The island's legislature consists of just eleven people, making it the smallest state or provincial legislature in the world. As a state, Delmago Island sends representatives to both the Georgeland House of Commons and the Georgeland Senate. It is represented in the Commons by a single Member of Parliament, currently Adam Eckles, and by five Senators, to be increased to six in 2006 (all other states recieve ten, soon twelve).