For petty small-mindedness it's hard to beat the Parti Quebecois, and in particular the nasty resentment displayed by the premier of the province, Pauline Marois, whose name could be transliterated as Pauline Malice.

When Canadians saw and celebrated the Olympic Sochi Winter Games wins by Canadians, they were ecstatic, overjoyed for the hard-won victories on the part of the Canadian competitors, and happy for Canada, making its mark in outdoor winter sport activities.

Many Canadians were also no doubt highly impressed at the number of Canadians from Quebec who distinguished themselves so brilliantly by their meticulous performances, and winning accolades resulting in medal presentations. Hearing the Canadian anthem played in such a foreign, exotic setting where the best of the best are recognized and awarded recognition, is a real patriotic boost.

But many people might also have felt a bit of a niggling warning that the sheer numbers of Quebec athletes so distinguishing themselves would give ammunition to those Quebecois who have committed themselves to separation from Canada under the belief that they constitute in and of themselves a 'nation', unto themselves deserving of being a country, alongside but yet apart from all the others that comprise Confederated Canada.

And, sure enough. It started hilariously enough with the doctored photograph of two beautiful young French-Canadian sisters, proudly wearing Canadian Olympic clothing having the symbolic Maple Leaf and colour red exchanged for the Quebec fleur-de-lys and blue. Proudly tweeted by a PQ minister as a Quebec win, for the province, not the country.

The Olympic medal-winning Dufour-Lapointe sisters were originally photographed wearing Canada mittens, but an industrious Photoshopper changed the maple leafs to the Fleur-de-lis. (Twitter) 

No matter that the correct and very real photograph was available to show up the absurdity of that nationalistic chicanery, it just added fuel to the fire of the Parti Quebecois championing of its own, separate and apart from the entire Canadian delegation.

Here's the original photo of the Dufour-Lapointe sisters: 

Chloé and Justine Dufour-Lapointe donned the Bay's Red Mittens as part of the company's campaign to raise money to send Canadian athletes to the Olympics. (Canadian Olympic Committee)

And then, the lowest blow of all, when Quebec Premier Pauline Marois gushed enthusiastically over the gold achieved by "the men's Olympic hockey team", studiously avoiding having to mouth the PQ-intolerable ... 'the Canadian men's Olympic hockey team'. Team Canada obviously is comprised solely of skilled athletes from the province of Quebec; any others within the team from elsewhere in Canada were simply incidental to the performance of the entire team, not worth mentioning. 

REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

Certainly not in the context of performing on behalf of Canada.