Is Canada a Country, Nation and/or Nation of Nations?

October 30, 2025

Although they’re often used interchangeably there is a difference between the terms nation, state, and country. Country and State are often symmetrical as they tend to apply to self-governing political entities while nation is generally considered a group of people who share the same culture but do not have sovereignty, A multinational state is a sovereign entity that comprises two or more nations or states. This contrasts with a nation state, where a single nation accounts for the bulk of the population. The terms risk generating confusion as many citizens still equate nation with country. While Quebec politicians often refer to Quebec as a single nation it is clear that Quebecers like other Canadians believe that there are many nations within Canada. In July 2022, some 38% of Canadians said there was one nation in Canada when asked the following: “Quebec increasingly refers to itself as a nation as do several indigenous groups. How many nations do you think that there are in the country?” Without the prompt, a September 2025 ACS-Leger found that 52% agreed that there was one nation in Canada when asked “How many nations do you believe there are in Canada?” Underlying these differences is the continued divergence in how the term nation is understood accompanied by a fair degree of confusion as to its meaning. The September ACS-Leger survey emerges in a different context from the July 2022 poll with a unprecedented push for independence by some Albertans. Hence the survey more deeply probes the nation/national identity question by asking which provinces consider themselves nations, desire special status, support separation and think that while Canada is a country it is not a nation. The survey also provides correlations between from the results to examine the impact of nation self-perception in province/region influences views on Canada’s federalist governance