----------------------------Original message---------------------------- In response to your discussion about "nation" and "state", especially Nick Millea's comment on "country": Quebec offers some interesting variations of "pays". The national news network, which is often more nationalist (quebecois) than Canadian, uses the word "pays" to refer to Canada, i.e. synonymously with "state". At the same time the Quebec legislature is called the Assemblee nationale. But I remember Jacques Brault, an excellent Quebec writer, once telling me that he asked directions from an old farmer on the Ile d'Orleans (in the St Lawrence River just downstream from Quebec--city that is). The old man said (verbatim)," "VousVous allez tout droit, c'est trois pays plus loin"--here "pays" seems to conjure up feelings of attachment, loyalty, belonging. "Pays" or "country" appeals to the emotions; "nation" is a political/cultural entity, a politically organized "pays"; and "state" is a purely legal construct. Barbara Belyea University of Calgary