TORONTO

Most Canadians would fail citizenship test, poll finds

Chris Fox CTV News Toronto
Published Monday, July 1, 2019 7:28AM EDT Last Updated Monday, July 1, 2019 3:00PM EDT

Text:

As people from coast to coast celebrate Canada Day, a new poll suggests that many of us still have a lot to learn about this country.

Forum Research asked 1,654 voters 10 questions from the study guide for the Canadian citizenship test and found that only 12 per cent of respondents got enough correct answers (eight or more) to pass the test with a score of at least 75 per cent.

On average, respondents to the poll got about five out of 10 questions correct. About 20 per cent of respondents, meanwhile, got only two or fewer questions right. Roughly one in a hundred got all 10 questions correct.

“Many Canadians wouldn't pass the Canadian citizenship test. Canadians' general knowledge of what's in the study guide would only get them about halfway to a passing grade,” Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a press release accompanying the poll.

The poll found that only one fifth of Canadians (19 per cent) were correctly able to identify the Queen as Canada's Head of State while fewer than half (48 per cent) were able to correctly identify the Aboriginal, French, and British as the founding people of Canada.

Most respondents (63 per cent) did recognize that the Midwest is not a region of Canada but some wrongly said that the West Coast (7 per cent), Central Canada (6 per cent), the Prairies (4 per cent), the Northern Territories (4 per cent) and Atlantic Canada (2 per cent) were not regions.

Canadians were also somewhat confused about their party leaders.

A list of four names were presented – Gilles Duceppe, Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer and Elizabeth May – and respondents were asked to identify which was not currently a party leader in the House of Commons.

About half (53 per cent) correctly identified Duceppe but 20 per cent said Trudeau, nine per cent said May and six per cent said Scheer.

The question with the highest percentage of correct answers concerned the Canadian Pacific Railway. About two-thirds of respondents (65 per cent) correctly identified connecting the country coast to coast as the most important element of the project but eight per cent thought it was responsible for the start of the manufacturing industry.

Those most likely to fail the test include Quebec residents (95 per cent) and residents 65 years of age or older (94 per cent).

Those most likely to pass the test include post-graduate degree holders (21 per cent) and those living in British Columbia (22 per cent). About 12 per cent of Ontario residents passed the test, which is in line with the national average.

Here is the full list of questions used by Forum Research (correct answer in bold):

Who are the Métis?