The surprise move by the Canadian parliament to consider Quebec a nation within Canada has more to do with politics than practical considerations. As such, the resolution likely doesn’t mean much for the largely French-speaking province that borders Maine.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper unexpectedly put forward a resolution to recognize that “the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada.” The resolution passed the House of Commons by a vote of 266 to 16.

Even to scholars it is unclear what the vote means.

The first question, says Howard Cody, a professor of Canadian studies at the University of Maine, is what Quebecois means. Is it everyone in Quebec or just French speakers? What about the province’s immigrants?

Then there is the word nation. Does it mean a political entity – a people under a common government – or a sociological one such as a common race united by language? If it is the latter, since Quebecois, as people who share a common descent, language and history then the resolution is merely a platitude, according to Katherine Barber, editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

“It’s a fairly meaningless resolution because it’s fairly obvious,” she told the Ottawa Citizen. This is especially true because the measure was in the form of a resolution, not a more binding constitutional amendment.

If the resolution is meant to recognize Quebecois as a political entity, it is exclusionary and possibly inflammatory. Canada’s aboriginal people, often called First Nations, are worried about this interpretation and why they, too, shouldn’t be officially recognized as separate nations within Canada.

Professor Cody sees several reasons for Prime Minister Harper’s support for the measure. One was to curry favor with Quebec voters as he continues to lose support and faces the possibility of elections as early as next year. Mr. Harper, a Conservative, wants to give more power to all the provinces as a way to lessen the importance of the national government. Shifting responsibility for social programs to provincial governments would accomplish this while also shrinking the federal budget, another of the prime minister’s goals.

Given the confusion, the resolution is not likely to change Canada’s relationship with Quebec or to dissuade those who are pushing from the province’s separation from Canada. It appears to be a political maneuver that brings with it little change.