The current one? Just in the last few months. It seems like a bit of a lottery as to whether you get the new or old design at the moment. They also finally got round to changing the issuing authority from 'IPS' to 'HMPO' despite IPS being defunct since May 2013.

Oh, ah... interesting. So i wasn't far off the mark then.

I personally like the new Canadian passport designs implemented in 2013, they are fairly good looking. The Maltese one looks good as well with your contemporary EU design, but I don't think its been redesigned since the biometric passport was first issued in 2010....or maybe that was 2006, I don't remember. We never got the more bold and golden text that newer UK passports got either.

Canadian passports are awful, they're too flimsy.

I've got a NEXUS card so I only use my passport outside of the US and Canada and even then check-in agents and people at security have managed to damage it.

It was bad enough when they were only valid for 5 years, but now they're valid for 10 years they'll probably look like paper maché by the time they come up for renewal.

No need to get knickers in a twist over passport looks. It's just a piece of paper booklet that you use once in a while. The NEXUS looks good and can be placed in the wallet.

I use mine even spontaneously sometimes to just cross over the border, and it's good just zooming past others into the free lane

Um, all the lanes are free.

Well I must say I am super impressed by the Passport Office. Sent mine off to UK for renewal Mon 11 Apr and its back on the 18th. If the UK bureaucracy is starting to get efficient then I may think about going back. mmmm perhaps not!!

Errrm. Have you had the chance to hold the new biometric [Canadian] passports? They are as stiff as or stiffer than my Maltese biometric passport. I agree the older 5-year, non-biometric design is really flimsy and boring-looking though.