McGrath - With all due respect - and I don't mean that sarcastically - I don't think you really understand what's going on here, and there's no particular reason you should; it's complicated as hell. I've tried to explain that the issue is not simply about the word "nation"; that term is being used as a political football at the moment, and it has all kinds of baggage attached to it, to mix metaphors.

"The future position of Quebec in relationship to the rest of Canada is something for the people of Quebec to decide"

Has anyone here said it isn't? Have any political figures of any significance said it isn't? Are you aware that there is legislation in place that provides a framework for the separation of Quebec from Canada?

'those wishing for the existing political union to continue would be unwise to to pretend that these are not already "nations".'

You would think so, wouldn't you? Yet there are those, some of whom belong to that "nation" of Quebec, who believe that in the context of the power struggles going on in Quebec and Ottawa, that even the legislation being proposed by Harper - i.e., to label the Quebecois "a nation within a united Canada" - will give a boost to those who wish the "existing political union" to come to an end.

"I've never come across a Scot, from Canada or any other part of the world, who has expressed any doubt that Scotland is indeed a nation."

This one has me scratching my head. I'm half-Scottish, some of my relatives are Scottish on all sides, I grew up in a largely Scottish neighbourhood, I play Scottish music, but I can't for the life of me recall a conversation in which in the nationhood of Scotland or lack thereof has ever come up, explicitly or by implication. It may be different for first-, second-, or even third-generation Canadian Scots, but those of us who have been here for five or ten generations, while we may identify with Scottish culture, a clan, and some locale in Scotland, I think that the matter of Scottish nationhood is just not, again, part of our consciousness. I think most fourth-and-beyond-generation Scottish Canadians would be baffled as to why they would be expected to have an opinion or feeling about it. Now, I may be completely off-base on this; I'd be curious to hear from other (more!)Scottish Canadians - if you're out there, speak up!

A question for you: you seem quite certain that the term "nation" applies to Quebec; would you care to explain what you understand that term to mean?