A Parliamentary party is a collection of MPs who, on balance, support a common platform. A government is a ministry; it is a body of MPs who advise the executive as to the administration of the nation (ahem). It is necessary that all members of a government vote in for that government; it would be inconsistent for a member of the government to vote against the government of which he or she was a member. When a conflict of principles arises - as really ought to arise far more frequently than it appears to - the appropriate action for a minister is to resign from government and withdraw to the back benches. There is no shame in such an action; on the contrary, it is the very height of Parliamentarianism.Rather than vote against the Government of Canada (of which he was a member) on its parliamentary motion recognizing the Quebecois as a nation within a united Canada, Michael Chong, the former minister of intergovernmental affairs, did the honourable thing and resigned in order to abstain on the issue. He resigned on the principle that while he was still loyal to his leader and his party, he was loyal first to his country, and in all good conscience could not vote on a matter that gave recognition to an ethnic nation. It's moments like this that we can tell the difference between politician and parliamentarian. A politician is a populist, a man of the people. A parliamentarian is a man of honour.
That being said, Michael Chong is probably making too much of the issue, just as I had done earlier before understanding the finer points of the resolution. The government and parliament were not recognizing the province of Quebec as a nation, nor were they recognzing all Quebeckers. They were clearly recognizing only the French speakers of that province, les Quebecois, the ancestors of the first settlers of New France. Yes this is recognizing ethnicity, but it is no different from recognition of the other First Nations of Canada, such as the Cree, the Huron or the N'isga. So Canada lives. In all its tribalistic glory.