Things That Might Confuse You: Canadian Citizenship Test Help
Here are some facts and names that you might find confusing:
1. The Constitutional (with al on the end) Act was written in 1791. The Constitution Act, 1867 is the new name for the British North America Act. The name change happened in 1982. The next two points explain why.
2. The British North America Act, which was originally passed by the British Parliament in 1867, was the Act which created the Dominion of Canada.
3. When Canada patriated (re-wrote and “brought home to Canada”) its constitution in 1982, Canada took an old British law, made a few changes, and made it a Canadian law. The old, British, name was the British North America Act. But since Canada was now its own country, it seemed silly for Canada to refer to itself as British North America. For this reason, the British North America Act was given a new name when it was enacted in Canada as a Canadian law in 1982. Until 1982, the law that make Canada a country existed only as British law; a foreign law that existed in a foreign country!
4. The leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons is the leader of the government. This person is called the Prime Minister. The way that provinces choose their leaders is the same – the leader of the party with the most seats in the provincial legislature is the leader of the provincial government – but the leaders of provinces are called Premiers. Because there is one federal government and there are ten provincial governments, Canada has one Prime Minister, and ten Premiers.
5. Discover Canada uses the phrase Ministers of the Crown. This phrase is correct, but it is much more common to hear people refer to the Cabinet when referring to all of these people, or to the Minister of (for example) Agriculture.
6. Unlike many countries, in Canada, the Head of State and the Head of the Government are two different jobs, and these jobs are done by two different people. At present, the Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II, who is represented in Canada by the Governor General. The Head of the Government is the Prime Minister.
7. In English, when we talk about “anybody” we often use the word “you”. (Example: When you buy a meal in a restaurant, you expect the food to be prepared properly.) This “you” refers to everybody – but not to any specific person. We can also use the word “one” in exactly the same way – to refer to everybody, but not to any specific person. (Example: When one buys a meal in a restaurant, one expects the food to be prepared properly.) “One” is used the same way as “you” but “one” is used in more formal situations. (Also, note that “one” is conjugated as third person singular – just like he, she, and it.) You may see this in some of the questions on your citizenship test.
You can see an example of this use of “one” in the Rights and Responsibilities unit, in the heading “Taking responsibility for oneself and one’s family.”
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