Canadian Splinter

I nominally follow Canadian politics and current events, as I have family in both Quebec and Ontario, and thus feel some need to keep track of what's going on north of the border. In all likelihood, I'm probably one of the few Americans that could tell you who the first Canadian Prime Minister was (John A. MacDonald). I'm also one of the few Americans that can tell you that the reason for the initial formation of Canada, culled as it was from its various disparate provinces, was to ensure a stronger Canada in the event that the American Civil War somehow spread north of the border. (You can look it up!) I can also tell you that Canada didn't gain complete independent constitutional power from Great Britain until 1982, when the Canadian constitution was put in place to replace the British North America Act. And....I can tell you that Canada has never been a particularly strong federation. And it still isn't. The Quebecois are still agitating to secede from the union (well, they're French; what can you expect?), but now so is a large chunk of Western Canada. Read up, Americans!