What does it mean to have a "nationality"?

Shortly after I picked up a Dutch passport I discovered that the Dutch seemed to be further rethinking the whole dual-nationality thing - although apparently the most senior governmental advisory body thinks that getting rid of the dual-nationality thing is a bad idea. (That same article also noted that "The new rules, if they become law, will not affect people who currently hold multiple passports.")

So far the Dutch parliamentarians' behaviours have seemed a bit farcical at times. e.g.

Both [dual-nationality and a burqa ban] are difficult [issues] for caretaker home affairs minister Liesbeth Spies who is charged with piloting the legislation through parliament. Spies said earlier this month in an interview with the Volkskrant that as far as she is concerned, both pieces of legislation can be dropped.
But several days later, the minister stressed she was speaking then as a candidate for leadership of the Christian Democrats. 'I can and will defend both pieces of legislation,' Spies said.

Now we've got the latest installment - Ruling parties back dual nationality escape clause for Dutch expats. There you find the following:

On Thursday D66 parliamentarian Gerard Schouw won support from the ruling VVD and CDA parties for his plan to amend legislation aimed at stopping dual nationality. The amendment would allow Dutch expats to take a second nationality without losing their Dutch passports. ... 'We are proud of those Dutch nationals who export our knowledge and expertise,' CDA parliamentarian Mirjam Sterk is quoted as saying. According to the D66 website, a second proposal from Schouw, which would have made dual nationality possible for more people, was not backed by the ruling parties. 'If someone comes to the Netherlands, we think he or she should renounce their other nationality,' VVD MP Cora van Nieuwenhuizen is quoted as saying by Nos television.

Ever so slightly inconsistent isn't it?

There are certain issues related to dual-nationality that seem to me to be somewhat reasonable to insist on - (eventually) being able to communicate in a national language for one and, secondly, having some personal tie to the country. The current Canadian requirements for obtaining citizenship by descent actually seem to me to be one of the more reasonable way of dealing with this. Under the current Canada law, to quote Wikipedia:

Individuals can now only become Canadian citizens by descent if one of their parents was either a native-born citizen of Canada or a foreign-born but naturalized citizen of Canada. This effectively limits citizenship by descent to one generation born outside Canada.

This has produced some quirky results with the possibility of children being born stateless, but it would seem to that these situations could be dealt with through a fairly minor amendment to that legislation. At the moment there's somewhat of an accelerated process to obtain Canadian citizenship to try to deal with such cases.