I have noticed in a previous post that it was stated that you must hand in your U.K. licence when obtaining a Canadian 1A. Although they will try to take the U.K. licence from you, with a little discussion, I have found, they will let you keep it. Both my wife and I still have our U.K. licences, and so do most of my ex U.K. friends. I should mention we all live in the Regina area, Saskatchewan, Canada.
I have an online friend who lives in Saskatchewan and her hubby is a truck driver. She belongs to a group on msn called TruckerzHaven. Hope you are enjoying life in Canada and if we had been younger, that is where hubby and would liked to have lived. I got my driving licence in South Africa as well as my advanced certificate, but when I got back to the uk, had to do my test again as they did not accept my S.A. licence. Now going for my advanced again. Take care and look forward to posts from your part of the world. Liz and Terry.
They will not let you keep it in Manitoba, as I just found out.
Benji, I’m 54 and I’ve just moved out here, don’t let age put you off.
What’s their reasoning for confiscating your UK license? I don’t see how holding it would cause a problem to Canadian authorities? And what’s the procedure if you return to the UK after 6months or 6 years, do you still have all your UK licence categories, can you apply for a replacement copy? Wouldn’t want to completely surrender a licence that holds over £2500 worth of categories.
Duplicates 
Duplicates
Kiowan:
What’s their reasoning for confiscating your UK license? I don’t see how holding it would cause a problem to Canadian authorities? And what’s the procedure if you return to the UK after 6months or 6 years, do you still have all your UK licence categories, can you apply for a replacement copy? Wouldn’t want to completely surrender a licence that holds over £2500 worth of categories.
I would think the reason is that they don’t want people to have 2 licences, perhaps for fraudulent purposes.
In France, and I expect Canada is the same, they take your UK licence and send it back to Swansea. Presumably if you return you can do the swop in the opposite direction. Don’t know for sure because it ain’t gonna happen with me. 
When your licence goes back to Swansea they cancel it, so Wheelnut, your “duplicates” solution wouldn’t work I’m afraid.
When I got my Finnish CE licence they took my old UK one off me too.
Paul Hoggard:
When your licence goes back to Swansea they cancel it, so Wheelnut, your “duplicates” solution wouldn’t work I’m afraid.
Yes but that way you have a record of having held a licence showing the classes that you are entitled to hold. If you come back to Blighty then replacing your original licence should be slightly easier.
Also if you come back for a holiday or something you have a licence to show the hire car company
I can’t see how it can be a problem to hold both licences, you are entitled to hold a British and a Canadian passport at the same time. What if you regularly commute between the two countries, and spend 6 months in each?
Wheel Nut:
Paul Hoggard:
When your licence goes back to Swansea they cancel it, so Wheelnut, your “duplicates” solution wouldn’t work I’m afraid.Yes but that way you have a record of having held a licence showing the classes that you are entitled to hold. If you come back to Blighty then replacing your original licence should be slightly easier.
Also if you come back for a holiday or something you have a licence to show the hire car company
Nope. It gets cancelled and you have to start over from scratch. 
Feel free to phone them up to confirm it.
Not entirely. As long as your UK entitlement hasn’t actually expired then you can trade it back again but then you surrender your Canadian licence. It isn’t that bad.
As for holiday car hire, the Canadian licence is fine dor hire cars.
sorry Paul but Bobs right as my wife did it.
Paul Hoggard:
Wheel Nut:
Paul Hoggard:
Nope. It gets cancelled and you have to start over from scratch.
I dont need to phone them up, my concern was that if Canada or anywhere else is not for you. and you come back in say 3 or 4 years time, you are relying on the records at Swansea to be correct. I do know someone who renewed his licence after it had expired for a few years.
He had the devils own job to convince DVLA that he had passed a class one, He didnt have a pass certificate because Swansea had already had it.
My suggestion about obtaining a duplicate was to stop that happening.
I lived in Africa for a while and had to replace my licence after 6 months, any way we discovered it was just easier to hold onto my original and resit the test.
I had to pay the right policeman and it was all done for me
You were lucky then. DVLA seems to accidentally (on purpose) “lose” old records and 2 different people I know were told there was no record of them on the database when returning to the UK 4 years and 9 years later, despite giving them their old licence numbers, addresses, DOBs etc.
Maybe it’s some kind of revenue generating tactic for them; after all, it is a government department.