If Quebec's "Nation" status is recognized globally will this make her more like Vatican City, or Luxembourg ?

Answer 1

It would depend on the settlement between the existing Canadian government and the new "nation" of Quebec.

If Quebec were to separate, one of two things would happen. Either they would maintain their existing (modern) boundaries, or they would revert back to the boundaries they had at the time they joined the Confederation to create the country of Canada. In either case, there's a pretty good bet that the Canadian government would force the issue of leaving the major federal project (the St Lawrence Seaway) as a part of Canada, rather than ceding it to the new nation.

If they maintain their modern boundaries (and cede back the rights to the seaway), the new country would be a fair size (geographically) in its own right. Population-wise, it would be on the small side (10 million or so, based on 2000 census data). However, it would also have a "right-of-way" separating one portion from the other ... and it's (current) major city of Montreal would be sitting square in the middle of another country's (Canada's) territory. In terms of modern nations, I guess it would be closest to the relationship between Italy and Switzerland, where some of the Italian territory is physically isolated from the rest of the country be water and the surrounding Swiss cantons.

If the new nation was limited to it's orginal boundaries from 1867, though, it's a whole different ballgame. Basically, the new nation would be limited to approximately 50 miles (90 km) either side of the seaway, plus the big chunk to the northeast near Labrador. The Canadian government would still lobby for control of the seaway, making the French position still more untenable. As a side effect of this, the majority of natural resources and industrial development would no longer belong to the new Quebec ... they'd remain part and parcel of Canada. This would DEFINITELY hurt the new nation!

If this were the scenario, the closest modern comparison would probably be Luxembourg or Leichenstein.