In which year was 'O Canada' proclaimed as the national anthem?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: O Canada was proclaimed as the national anthem in 1980. It was first sung in Québec City in 1880. French and English Canadians sing different words to the national anthem. The proclamation year the test wants is therefore 1980.

Two dates frame the anthem's history. Discover Canada commits to 1880 as the year the song was "first sung in Québec City" and 1980 as the year it was "proclaimed as the national anthem." So O Canada existed as a song for exactly 100 years before becoming the formally proclaimed national anthem — making the 1980 proclamation a centenary milestone.

Two language versions exist. Discover Canada writes that "French and English Canadians sing different words to the national anthem." So O Canada is not just a single text translated — the French and English versions have distinct lyrics that share the same melody. This reflects Canada's two-official-language framework formalised by the Official Languages Act of 1969.

1980 fits a wider pattern of Canadian symbol-formalisation. Discover Canada notes that O Canada became the official anthem in 1980, just two years before 1982, when the Constitution was patriated and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. Together, these moves of the late 1970s and early 1980s — the anthem proclamation, the Constitution Act, and the Charter — formalised much of Canada's modern national identity. "God Save the Queen" is the country's Royal Anthem, separate from the national anthem.

The question is testing whether new citizens know when O Canada was proclaimed the national anthem. Discover Canada commits to one year: 1980. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different year. 1880 is the year the song was first sung in Québec City — but it was not yet the national anthem at that time. 1950 is too early; the proclamation came thirty years later. 1990 is too late by a decade. Only 1980 — exactly 100 years after the song was first performed — matches.