by Steven » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:24 am
Florida is an exception to this general rule, you can as a Canadian citizen get a DL valid for a year merely with proof of Canadian citizenship. You have to surrender your Canadian DL, you can't hold both at the same time.
Whether it's a good idea to do it though is another question. Usually it comes up for example when someone spends a lot of time there and keeps a car there but doesn't have one in Canada. Obviously if you have a Florida DL that may cause you problems in Canada with your car insurance or whatever.
As to registering things, the best idea is usually to register it wherever your principal residence is if you plan on crossing the border with it, otherwise for example if you have a Florida registered vehicle but live primarily in Canada and cross the border with it, CBP and CBSA will consider you to be importing it and you have to pay duty, comply with all the paperwork requirements, etc.
Steve.