Well I'm glad it worked

But its not a method that worked for us 7mths ago with an Ontario Licence

This is straight from the DVLA webside with regards to Canadian licenses.

You can only drive automatic vehicles - to drive manual vehicles you need to prove that you passed a manual car test.

and its the proof that we found very hard to get !
as Canada doesn't do a manual car test

When I did my driving test in Ontario, my 'report card' had details of the car on it, including the transmission. SO it's not specifically that you did a "manual car test", you just have to prove that you completed your road test in a manual car.

Interesting that you said that - just checked my daughter's 'report card' - it gives details of the car but not specifically the transmission - although the system would 'know' that the car has manual transmission, I suppose!

Well I also pass my driving test ages back lol... Entirely possible it's changed!

We had a similar dilemma with my wife who started learning to drive in the UK but as our application progressed we decided that it would be better if she waited and learnt in Canada. Hopefully this will make driving over there easier and safer for her, especially when turning.

I, however, will probably go for the license swap and just try and remember which side of the road I need to be on! ;-)

That's a good point, keeping a copy would seem to be enough

I don't think that was doen when I took my Ontario test?

Thank you so much for all the advice! One of the reasons I've not learned here has been nerves and lack of confidence. The city we live in is notoriously difficult to drive in, lots of narrow roads and very impatient drivers so on balance I think I would rather wait and learn in Canada!

If you actually want to 'learn how to drive', do it in England. Canada has long straight roads and is pretty boring with an automatic. It is not what you call 'driving'.
If you ever move back to England then you will be glad you learnt here.

My advice.

Agreed and learn to drive a standard while you are at it

Like the others, when I moved to the UK with my Canadian license 9 years ago, I was restricted to automatic transmission only because in Canada (Québec) they don't make note of the transmission of the car when you pass your test (well not in my days anyway). So I couldn't prove that I could drive manual even though this is what I had driven since the beginning.

When we moved back to Canada (Québec again) with my British husband, we just had to switch his licence, there was no test and no restrictions whatsoever. He even got to keep his UK license. (My Canadian license was kept by DVLA)

So just thinking that if you do it in Canada and you ever move back to the UK, you might have to redo it again to get to drive a manual car but not the other way around. Although, I don't know if NB will just swap a UK license like they do in Québec.