9 places the official guide is out of date.
Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship is published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and is the only source the real test is drawn from. It is also a printed document, so a few of its facts have moved on since it went to press: a name, a count, a membership. This page lists every one Citizenship knows about, with the government page that shows the current position. Read the guide, then read these.
Chapter 1: The Oath of Citizenship
1 changeWhat a new citizen promises at the ceremony, and what the oath reveals about how Canada sees itself.
What changes here: The oath names the reigning Sovereign, so the name in it changes when the Crown passes. The version published today names King Charles III.
Chapter 2: Applying for Citizenship
1 changeHow the application runs from start to finish: the requirements, the test, the decision and the ceremony.
What changes here: The number of days of physical presence, the age range for the test, the fees and the published processing times are set by regulation and have changed before. Treat any figure you see quoted as needing a check against IRCC.
Chapter 4: Who We Are
1 changeThe peoples, languages and shared expectations that the guide treats as the basis of Canadian identity.
What changes here: This chapter of the guide carries demographic figures, including counts of Anglophones and Francophones and the proportions of Indigenous groups. Those numbers come from the guide's edition and should not be repeated as current.
Chapter 5: Canada's History
1 changeThe long chapter: first peoples, the French and British empires, Confederation, the wars and the people the guide singles out.
What changes here: The guide rounds the Vimy Ridge casualties and describes the battle as Canada's first British victory of the war. The Canadian War Museum dates the battle to April 9 to 12, 1917 and records 3,598 Canadians killed and about 7,000 wounded.
Chapter 6: Modern Canada
1 changePostwar prosperity, the Cold War, the Quebec question, and the artists, athletes and inventors the guide names.
What changes here: The chapter was written for the year the guide was published, so its references to the G8 and to NAFTA are historical. NAFTA has since been replaced by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.
Chapter 7: How Canadians Govern Themselves
1 changeThree levels of government, the parts of Parliament, and who does what inside them.
What changes here: The guide's text predates the current Sovereign and refers to the Queen and to Her Majesty. The role is unchanged, but the office is now held by King Charles III.
Chapter 8: Federal Elections
1 changeWho may vote, how a ballot works, how districts choose a member, and how a government is formed.
What changes here: The guide's description of how many electoral districts there are is out of date. Districts are redistributed periodically, so the number and the boundaries change between editions.
Chapter 11: Canada's Economy
1 changeThe three kinds of industry the guide describes, and how trade fits into them.
What changes here: The trade figures on this page come from the year the guide was published, and its reference to the G8 is historical. Read any share of trade or ranking as a claim from that edition rather than a current figure.
Chapter 12: Canada's Regions
1 changeThe geography the test asks about: the regions, every capital, and the coasts, rivers and lakes.
What changes here: This chapter carries population figures and city rankings from the year the guide was published, such as how many people lived in Canada or which metropolitan area ranked where. Treat them as dated.
How this page stays current
Each change above is linked to the Government of Canada page that shows how things stand today. We check those links before each update, and we do not publish one while any of them is broken. The dates at the top of this page show when they were last checked.
If you spot a fact here that has moved on again, that is worth reporting: this list is only as good as the last time someone checked it.
Where to read the real thing
Read the guide online ↗Download the PDF ↗Large print PDF ↗Listen to the guide ↗
Independent Canadian citizenship test preparation. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to IRCC or the Government of Canada. Practice questions are illustrative and are not official test questions.