Canada
Canadian citizenship test questions and answers
Choose a chapter and open any question to see the answer, why it is right and where it is in the guide.
1.Which three terms describe Canada's system of government?
- ✓ Federal state, parliamentary democracy, constitutional monarchy
- · Federal republic, presidential system, elected monarchy
- · Unitary state, presidential democracy, republic
- · Confederacy, direct democracy, absolute monarchy
Canada's government rests on three key features: it is a federal state with several orders of government, a parliamentary democracy in which voters elect representatives, and a constitutional monarchy with a hereditary Sovereign as head of state.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Introduction
2.What is the British North America Act now called?
- · The Canada Act, 1982
- · The Statute of Westminster
- ✓ The Constitution Act, 1867
- · The Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The British North America Act of 1867 is now known as the Constitution Act, 1867. It defined the respective responsibilities of the federal and provincial governments, which is why it remains central to how Canada is governed.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Federal State
3.Which of these is a federal government responsibility?
- ✓ Currency
- · Municipal government
- · Education
- · Highways
Ottawa deals with questions that concern the whole country or other nations: national defence, foreign affairs, trade and communications between provinces, money, navigation, criminal law and citizenship. Education, highways and municipal government are provincial matters.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Federal State
4.Which of these falls under provincial responsibility?
- · Foreign policy
- ✓ Health
- · National defence
- · Citizenship
Health, education, municipal government, property and civil rights, and highways fall under provincial responsibility. Each province elects a legislative assembly that makes laws in those fields, in the same way the House of Commons does at the federal level.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Federal State
5.Over which two areas do the federal and provincial governments share jurisdiction?
- · Education and health
- · Criminal law and citizenship
- · Defence and currency
- ✓ Agriculture and immigration
The Constitution gives both Ottawa and the provinces a role in agriculture and immigration. In these fields of shared jurisdiction, both orders of government can make laws, so they often cooperate through agreements.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Federal State
6.What are the three parts of Canada's Parliament?
- · The Governor General, the Supreme Court and the Senate
- · The Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the courts
- ✓ The Sovereign, the Senate and the House of Commons
- · The House of Commons, the provinces and the territories
Parliament is made up of the Sovereign (the King or Queen), the appointed Senate and the elected House of Commons. A bill needs the approval of all three parts, through votes in both chambers and royal assent, to become law.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Parliamentary Democracy
7.How are senators chosen, and until what age may they serve?
- · They are elected by the House of Commons and serve until 70
- ✓ The Governor General appoints them on the Prime Minister's advice, and they serve until 75
- · They are elected by voters for four years
- · They are appointed by the provinces for life
Senators are not chosen by voters. They are appointed by the Governor General, who acts on the Prime Minister's advice, and they can sit until age 75. Like the House of Commons, the Senate studies and reviews bills.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Parliamentary Democracy
8.Who grants royal assent to a bill on behalf of the Sovereign?
- · The Chief Justice
- ✓ The Governor General
- · The Prime Minister
- · The Speaker of the Senate
Royal assent is the last step before a bill becomes federal law. The Governor General gives it in the Sovereign's name, once the bill has been adopted by the House of Commons and by the Senate.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Parliamentary Democracy
9.At which stage of the legislative process is a bill studied clause by clause?
- ✓ Committee stage
- · First reading
- · Royal assent
- · Third reading
At committee stage, members examine each clause of the bill in detail and can propose changes. The bill then moves through the remaining stages in the House of Commons before following a similar process in the Senate.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Making laws
10.Who is Canada's head of state?
- ✓ The Sovereign (King or Queen)
- · The Prime Minister
- · The Speaker of the House of Commons
- · The Governor General
The head of state is the Sovereign, who inherits the position and reigns within the limits set by the Constitution. The head of government is the Prime Minister, who actually runs the country, and Canada keeps these two roles clearly separate.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Constitutional Monarchy
11.Who represents the Sovereign in each of the ten provinces?
- · The Premier
- · The Commissioner
- · The provincial Chief Justice
- ✓ The Lieutenant Governor
In each province the Sovereign is represented by a Lieutenant Governor, whose role is similar to that of the Governor General at the federal level. The elected head of each provincial government is the Premier.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Constitutional Monarchy
12.In each of the three territories, who acts as the federal government's representative and has a ceremonial role?
- · The Premier
- · The Governor General
- ✓ The Commissioner
- · The Lieutenant Governor
Each territory has a Commissioner who represents the federal government and plays a mostly ceremonial role. The territories also have their own elected assemblies and premiers, much like the provinces.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Constitutional Monarchy
13.What are the three branches of government in Canada?
- · Police, courts and prisons
- ✓ Executive, legislative and judicial
- · Federal, provincial and municipal
- · Senate, House of Commons and Cabinet
The executive, the legislature and the courts cooperate, sometimes with a healthy tension between them, to protect the rights and freedoms of Canadians. This balance prevents any one branch of government from holding all the power.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Constitutional Monarchy
14.In Canada's Parliament, what is a bill?
- ✓ A proposal for a new law
- · A vote of non-confidence
- · A tax receipt
- · A court ruling
A bill is a proposed law. It goes through several readings, debates and a committee study in each chamber of Parliament, and it can be amended along the way before it becomes law.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Parliamentary Democracy
15.What must the government do if it is defeated in a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons?
- · Dissolve the Senate
- · Hold a provincial election
- · Appoint new judges
- ✓ Resign
Cabinet ministers answer to the elected House of Commons and need its confidence to stay in office. When they lose a vote of non-confidence, they have to resign. This principle, called responsible government, keeps the government accountable to the people's representatives.
Where to check: How Canadians Govern Themselves: Parliamentary Democracy
How Canadians Govern Themselves
15
15 questions in this chapter, 150 in the bank
This page lists all 150 questions of our English Canadian bank, one chapter of Discover Canada at a time, with the answer and a short explanation under each question. Open a question to reveal its answer: the four options are shown, the right one ticked, followed by the fact that decides it and the section of the guide where you can read it. The list opens on the chapter on how Canadians govern themselves, the one that applicants most often find unfamiliar; the menu switches to any of the other nine. These are practice questions written by Radif Partners from the guide's facts. IRCC does not publish the questions of the real test, which has 20 questions and is passed with 15 correct answers. Reading the questions with their answers is a good way to revise; testing yourself without seeing them first, on the practice page or the practice exam, shows whether the facts have stuck.
Did I pass the Canadian citizenship test?
Result
Pass
| Pass mark | 15 of 20 (75%) |
| Your score | 80% |
| Margin | 1 above the mark |
Questions, dates and fees by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the questions and dates are built
How the bank is organised
Each of the ten chapters of the guide has its own set: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, 15; Who We Are, 15; Canada's History, 15; Modern Canada, 15; How Canadians Govern Themselves, 15; Federal Elections, 15; The Justice System, 15; Canadian Symbols, 15; Canada's Economy, 15; Canada's Regions, 15. Within a chapter, questions follow the order of the guide's own sections, which is why the source line names a section: you can go straight to the passage and read the context.
Types of questions you will meet
- Who does what. Which level of government is in charge of a service, who signs a bill into law, who forms a government after an election.
- When and in what order. The main stages of the history chapter, from New France to Confederation and the World Wars.
- Where. Provinces, territories, capitals, the regions and their resources.
- What it means. A right of the Charter, a responsibility of citizenship, the meaning of a symbol.
The real test mixes multiple-choice questions and true-or-false statements. Ours all have four options, a slightly harder format that trains you to rule out near misses.
Reading a question well
Take a question on the role of the Governor General. The options might mention the Prime Minister's duties, a provincial office and a court: the trap is not ignorance of the answer but reading too quickly. Read the whole question, eliminate the two options that belong to another level of government or another branch, then choose between the last two. The explanation under the answer shows this reasoning.
From reading to testing
Use this page to revise, not to test yourself: seeing the answer before you think makes everything look easy. A good routine is to read one chapter of the guide, answer a practice set of the same chapter without help, then come here to read the questions you missed with their explanations. In the last days, sit full practice exams with the correction at the end.
French and English
Our French bank is not a translation of this one: its 150 questions were written directly in French and many of them test other facts. Applicants who will take the test in French should practise on the French version.