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Free Canadian Contests

If you are interested in entering Free Canadian contests, you've come to the right place. Most contests and giveaways on the Internet are geared towards a U.S. audience, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of Canadian contests to be found. We are huge enthusiasts for Canadian sweepstakes and we know you're looking for contests to enter too. Click our links and find contests for kids, contests for adults, fun for the whole family!<

Rules of Canadian Contests

>Canadian contests are governed by a different set of rules from those run in the United States. If you've seen both, then you know that the Canadian contests are unique in requiring you to solve some simple math problems in order to enter. If you don't have to do this in order to enter, then you will have to perform the math skills test if you win, in order to claim your prize.
I'm sure you've wondered why this is. So did we, and here's what we found out.

Sweepstakes are giveaways based on luck. The winner is drawn at random. Contests are giveaways based on some sort of merit: You got the answer to the quiz right, or your baby was the cutest, or you guessed the correct number of seeds in the watermelon. Lotteries are giveaways in which you pay an entrant fee. "Buy a ticket!" as the old saying goes.

In both the U.S. and Canada, private lotteries are illegal; only the government can run a lottery. A lottery is illegal if it's privately run and has the three characteristics of a lottery: Its winner is selected at random (by luck), it charges a fee, and the prize is of value.

Now, you and I certainly want the prizes to be of value! In the United States, sweepstakes are not lotteries because they do not charge money. That's why, on a U.S. sweepstakes, you'll always find some sort of "no purchase necessary" disclaimer. Even if the entry form is found inside a product wrapper, somewhere, the published rules will have a method of entering without purchasing the product (and some of those entry methods are pretty arcane!). So in the U.S., a sweepstakes is random, the prize has value, but it does NOT charge a fee.

Canadian law is different. The contest can, if desired, charge a fee, and of course the prize has value. But in Canada, the winner is not selected entirely at random. Technically, there's no such thing as "Canadian sweepstakes," only "Canadian contests," because contests require skill and sweepstakes do not. A Canadian giveaway will have what is known as a "skill-testing question" so that winners are not entirely chosen by luck. Often, this is a math problem. Sometimes it is a trivia question. The exact nature of the question is governed by Canadian law. The courts of Canada agree that a four-part test of basic mathematics, such as "12 plus 36 divided by 2 minus 17" is good enough to qualify entrants as having a special skill. Such questions are usually found on Canadian contest entrance forms. Some contests, however, inform the entrants (in the rules) that
they will have to answer such a question if they are selected as a winner. It is especially common to be structured in the latter way for a sweepstakes that is open in both the U.S. and Canada. The rules will then state something like "if the winner is a Canadian citizen, an additional mathematical skills test question must be answered before the prize can be claimed."