Rebecca Leora Canton (1959-present) is the current president of Sednyana. Born in Ashemore, East Kaya, Canton attended McCalvin School of Law in Kia Boya before returning to East Kaya to serve as the senator for her home district, the 15th, a position which she served between 1999 and 2005, when Social Democratic presidential nominee Samuel Pacienza nominated Canton as his vice presidential candidate for the 2005 election. In June of 2014, she defeated primary opponent Michael Spear to become the president of Sednyana.
As a senator, Canton served on the Senate Environmental Committee and the Civil Rights Committee, quickly making a name for herself as one of the most prolific authors of bills in the Senate. In her first term as president, she has passed the broad-sweeping Clean Energy Bill, which aims to move Sednyana toward complete reliance on renewable energy sources, and has raised taxes on families making over $250,000 a year in order to finance the Free Tuition Act (2016), which made tuition free at all private colleges and universities for families making under $200,000 a year.
Description[]
Rebecca Canton is fifty-six years old and relatively slight of frame, with short and cleanly cropped auburn hair. She has an impassioned and vivacious oratorial style and is often noted for her youthfulness and vibrancy. She is in very good physical condition and is known to run around the Marblegate grounds. She wears suits to most formal events, and has been known to wear ties.
Early Life[]
Rebecca Canton was born in Ashemore, East Kaya, to David Canton and Raphaela Spazzini. Her first name was chosen by her father, while her middle name, Leonarda, was the first name of maternal grandmother, who passed away two years before Canton's birth. She had two younger brothers, Zachary and Andrew. Her father, David, was a history professor at Harper University, and she grew up in a highly educated middle-class lifestyle. Her parents encouraged her to follow her studies, and, after attending the local public elementary school, she was sent to the Avendine Academy in Halloke for middle and high school. At Avendine, she discovered her own interest in history and politics. She also acceled academically, spurred on by her parents, and graduated near the top of her class. In 1977, she was accepted at Montemayor University in Maytown, West Kaya, where she would attend four years of college.
Montemayor had a very liberal campus, and Canton soon became involved in the campus's political scene; in her junior year, she became president of the campus's Social Democratic Alliance as well as a member of the Model Congress, the Montemayor Political Society, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance. Although she dated several boys in freshman and sophomore years, in her junior year she met the painter Asha Roland, and the two became romantically involved. Roland was a student of the arts school, in her same year, born in Ross City to the notable eccentric and collector Bertrand Roland. Canton allegedly admitted to Roland that she was bisexual, and had been interested in girls since she was young but had never admitted it.
After graduating from Montemayor with a degree in political science, Canton agreed to spend the summer with Roland in the Republic of Ukar, where Roland wanted to explore her artistic sensibilities. The summer extended into a year and a half, split between Port-de-Ukar and the small town of Xiroulana. Canton picked up conversational Ukari and befriended a number of Ukari residents, notably Pagour Koulami, an Ukari socialist writer and politician who lived in Port-de-Ukar. While Roland painted and satisfied her wanderlust, Canton became interested in the Ukari political scene, and outraged at the conditions in the country. In December 1982, she returned alone to Ashemore to spend some time with her family. While in Ashemore, her father urged her to settle down and continue her studies, and also to break it off with Roland, whom he perceived as being a bad influence. Canton has also said that she felt that her father did not approve of their relationship because they were both women.
Meanwhile, Roland, alone in Ukar, attempted to sneak into the Kingdom of Ukar, and was captured at the border and deported back to Sednyana. Canton told her that she felt that they were being too reckless and should begin to settle down; Roland vehemently disagreed. They decided that Canton would apply for law school while Roland traveled to another country so that they could have some space. Canton applied and was accepted at McCalvin Law School, the most prestigious law school in Sednyana, while Roland traveled to Qotisé.
Law Career[]
At McCalvin, Canton studied Sednyanese law with a focus on international relations. She and Roland fell out of contact, and Canton, despite her interest in her studies, became depressed, feeling trapped. In 1986, she met James Marin, a young idealistic student of environmental law. The two progressed romantically, and in her last year she moved in with him. Marin immediately opted for an internship at an environmental firm in Kia Boya, while Canton got a job at a law firm. However, she allegedly continued to feel trapped, and urged Marin to move. He was unwilling until 1989, when his firm abruptly closed down, leaving him unemployed.
Now that they were freer, Canton convinced Marin to move back with her to Halloke County. In Halloke, they set up a law firm together, Marin & Canton, and Canton worked for their small firm for five years. In 1993, Marin proposed to her, and they were married in 1994. Meanwhile, she became a city organizer, and, in 1995, she was elected to the state senate in Monopodia. She spent the next four years as a state senator for the 34th district. She became very popular in her district for her vocality in the state senate, and soon became a local celebrity, winning the 1999 election for senator for the 15th senatorial district of East Kaya, beating out Liberalist nominee Jack Tormier. She and Marin bought a home in Kia Boya, and Marin opened a new branch of his expanding law firm there.
As a senator, Canton quickly made a name for herself. She powerfully advocated the environment, an open and diplomatic international policy, and greater social recognition for minorities and the GLBT community. She was a co-sponsor of the 2001 GLBT Anti-Discrimination Act, and campaigned for the Clean Water Act of 2003 and the Wilderness Conservation Act of 2004. She went on a number of diplomatic trips to Ukar, including meeting with her former acquainatance Pagour Koulami, who had gotten himself elected to public office. In 2002, she won her reelection in a landslide, and began making herself more of a public appearance, appearing on many talk shows and newspaper interviews to give her opinion on Sednyanese politics.
Canton first met Samuel Pacienza, then Governor of Matreena, in 2001, at a benefit in Niavara, and the two were seated together at the same table. They kept in touch and often discussed politics; Pacienza would later claim that he "never met someone who seemed at the same time so impassioned about politics but also so logical about it all." When Pacienza announced his campaign for president in late 2004, Canton openly endorsed him. Nevertheless, allegedly it came as a complete surprise to her when he selected her to be his vice presidential nominee.
Vice President[]
After a long season of campaigning and a close election, Canton became vice president of Sednyana on July 11, 2005. She and Marin more permanently moved to Kia Boya, and she took up a life working from Marblegate. She selected William Roderick as her chief of staff and Hannah Gaud as her director of communications. She was reelected as vice president along with Pacienza twice, in 2008 and 2011. She received praise as vice president for her strong personality, and was deemed an "active vice president." She and Pacienza allegedly have worked together very well, and she said in 2013, "Well, yes, we've had our ups and downs, but overall the President and I have made a very good team; or a least a much better team than I would ever predicted."
On September 12, 2013, Canton announced her candidacy for the presidential election of 2014, although there had been heavy speculation that she would run ever since 2012. She campaigned heavily throughout the fall, and emerged as the clear Social Democratic Party nominee by the National Convention on January 20, thanks to her left-wing positions, name recognition and charismatic persona. Although it was a very close race between Canton and Spear initially, she pulled ahead of Spear in early April. Later that month, the Green Party candidate, John Waters, officially withdrew from the race to show his support for Canton, and the Green Party endorsed her for its nomination. In the election in June, Canton with 51.3% of the total vote, becoming the first president in the past thirty years to attain a majority of the votes without an instant runoff, most likely because she is the only president in that time to be the nominee of two separate parties.
Personal Life[]
Canton is married to the environmental lawyer James Marin, who is currently the president of the Marin & Canton law firm. They have one ten-year-old daughter, Hannah Marin-Canton, who currently resides with them at Marblegate, and attends Michael Fischer Elementary, a public school in Kia Boya.
She is openly bisexual, a fact that was a problem early in her campaign but that she has always embraced. Canton has spoken up widely for the rights of the GLBT community and has been known to appear at a number of GLBT events. She has shirked any comments that she is in any way less a part of the GLBT community for being married to a man, and has described herself as "proudly queer."