OTTAWA - The citizenship and immigration minister says newcomers hoping to become citizens will have to learn more about Canada's military as well as the history of politics, Confederation and First Nations.
Jason Kenney says he'll release a new version of a guidebook for immigrants on Thursday in an attempt to modernize and broaden the information newcomers need to know.
The guidebook is the key tool newcomers use to prepare for their citizenship test.
Kenney said in an interview that a revised test based on the new material will come into effect in March.
The booklet will also be made available to schools, to give all Canadians a better sense of common values.
Kenney said the previous version, published in 1997 under a Liberal government is inadequate.
The old educational materials "fail to provide newcomers with a solid grasp of our country's history, symbols, values and institutions."
He has complained in the past that the guidebook contains two pages about recycling and environmental stewardship, but barely a word about the Canadian military, and not a mention of Remembrance Day or the meaning of the poppy.
"This is not right," he said in a statement.
The new book will contain more information about "who we are, where we come from, how our rights and responsibilities developed," Kenney said.
Newcomers to Canada use the guide to prepare for a citizenship test. The old guide was a 47-page publication called "A Look at Canada." The new one will be called "Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship."
The new version should help better integrate immigrants into Canada, Kenney said, and it should also help address what analysts have called Canadians' "historical amnesia."
It will be about 20 pages longer than the old version, but Kenney says the citizenship test won't be any harder. It will still contain about 24 "straightforward" multiple-choice questions.
