Citzenship

A headline caught my attention the other day. "High failure rate calls for rethinking of the Canadian citizenship test." Apparently new rules and a new test format were introduced in March of this year and the failure rate jumped from 9% to almost 30%. I was curious about the question so went to this site to see for myself. http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/

How well do you score? Do you find these questions to be onerous?

The questions are from the Richmond library so you can excuse yourself if you get the local knowledge answers wrong. The writer of the article suggested that the questions be revised to provide for a higher success ratio and then suggested some changes to the questions, such as asking if the applicant knew how to access government services.

You just knew I had some thoughts on this. 

Citizenship is a privilege and it should be earned. Since when is it in the best interest of the country to make sure everyone knows how to access welfare, EI, and a myriad of other benefits? The questions on my form, if I were to be the author, would be about issues like; do you have a job? How much money will you send abroad? Do you have a police record? How many months of the year did you pay income taxes? Have you ever claimed welfare? 

Being a citizen should be about what you can contribute to the country, not how the country can cater to your needs.