The functioning of any state depends upon a more or less stable equilibrium between centrifugal and centripetal forces. Nationalism and regionalism, in a certain way, summarize those forces. The Canadian state, born in 1867, has not succeeded in subsuming French Canadian and Anglo Canadian nationalisms into a superior Canadian nationalism. Hence, a struggle between these two nationalisms, the effect of which was to turn French Canadian nationalism into a "québécois" nationalism, which seeks complete political sovereignty of Québec. This first centrifugal force has been reinforced by that of regionalism. History, geography and economy made for strong regional diversifies in Canada. The political behavior of both the federal and provincial governments exacerbated them almost to a breaking point. These two combined forces imperil the very existence of a country which, from several other standpoints, has been a geographical success.