"A nation is not necessarily the same as a state. ... ", etc.

This issue cannot be understood outside of the context of Canadian politics, and it's doubtful if it can be understood even within the context of Canadian politics. But I'll point out a few of the pertinent factors: 1) no one is quite sure what the term "nation" means, or at least, no one's quite sure what it means, or might mean sometime in the future, to separatists in Quebec, not to mention what decision some court may make on the basis of that word; part of this is a language issue - we are often told that the term "nation" has a more general meaning in French than in English, in which language - your post to the contrary notwithstanding - we tend to equate the word with the concept of a state; 2) it is assumed, I think, that if the federal government officially recognizes Quebec as a "nation", without qualification, then this will be used rhetorically by separatists to promote their cause: "they call us a nation, but how can we be a nation if we cannot set our own foreign policy?", etc., or, contrarily, "we are a nation; we send our own representatives to trade conferences; we fly our own flag at the Francophonie; why are we bothering with Canada?"; 3) the Canadian provincial governments are like a group of children who are extremely jealous of each other, and always on the look-out for some perceived slight or injustice, and there is considerable resentment in the country over what is perceived to be the disproportionate amount of money that has been pumped into Quebec in various ways over the last fifty years, so there is resistance to any move that looks like it might confer privilege on Quebec; 4) this is the latest event in a battle of wills that has been going on for at least forty years, if not for 200:; Gilles Duceppe and the Parti Quebecois are in a sense trying to make the federal government say "Uncle"; in this instance, Prime Minister Harper has come up with the type of compromise that so far has held this country together: he's saying "Aunt".