So, finished ME2 at last, onto ME3. This is taking up way too much time, but I don't have much better to do.

Without spoiling anything, the part where you're on Earth seems to indicate Vancouver is the capital of the Alliance. This is probably because Bioware's Canadian, eh.

However here's something I don't get.

First, right off the bat, why is it Vancouver instead of Ottawa? You'd figure the capital now would be the capital then.

Second, why isn't it Washington DC? This may sound like ignorant patriotism, but it's not - it's canon in Mass Effect that Canada and Mexico became part of the US. Canada does have a bigger land mass, but only by about 50,000 square miles. More importantly though, is population - America has over twice the population of Canada and Mexico combined, and almost ten times the population of Canada. If it went to a vote which country got to select the capital, the US would win through sheer numbers. And I doubt they decided to make it so out of national pride, otherwise America wouldn't have absorbed Canada, Canada would've absorbed America.

The center of Alliance operations being in Vancouver seems to indicate that it's the capital of Earth, since Earth is the capital planet of the Alliance. Which means the capital of Earth is somewhere in the United North American States. Logically, that would be Washington, DC, which is the logical capital of the UNAS.

Yet it's not.

Just a thought.