Write a Canadian cover letter on US Letter paper with a month-first date, the work-authorisation line employers look for, and 250–400 words of evidence. Includes Québec guidance. Free, with no sign-up.
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United States · cover letter
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Sets the paper size, date format, layout and length recruiters in United States expect.
Use United States conventions
Writes the local greeting, sign-off for a cover letter.
Off: an international English letter on United States paper. Turning it on writes the local greeting and sign-off below.
Preview — cover letter
Dear Hiring Manager,
Sincerely,
Add the hiring manager's name to personalise the greeting.
Tone
Measured and businesslike. The safe default for corporate, finance, legal and public-sector roles.
Career level
2–7 years. Leads with ownership and delivered results.
Letter length
240–320 words. The length most recruiters expect. In this market letters usually run 250–400 words.
Layout
Meridian · US & EU
Technology, product, marketing and most corporate roles.
Single column, plain text, no tables or images.
Paste the job description to begin.
Vocabulary
Using the wrong word for the document is the first small signal that an application was not written for Canada. These are the terms you will see in job adverts.
cover letter
English (Canada)
Standard in every province outside Québec.
lettre de présentation
French (Québec)
The Québec name for the document that accompanies a CV.
lettre de motivation
French (Québec)
Also used, especially in job-advert wording.
The conventions
A Canadian cover letter looks close to an American one and behaves slightly differently. The paper is US Letter — Canada did not adopt A4 — the date is usually month-first, and the register is polite without being ceremonial. What distinguishes the Canadian letter is what it has to answer: in a country where a large share of skilled hiring involves newcomers, employers read the letter for one extra fact before anything else, which is whether you can legally work here.
Human rights legislation in every province restricts what an employer may ask about age, citizenship, family status and place of origin. The practical consequence for the letter is the opposite of what many applicants assume: you do not volunteer personal details, but you do resolve the authorisation question in a single clause — 'permanent resident', 'open work permit valid to 2028', 'authorised to work in Canada without sponsorship'. That sentence removes the only reason an otherwise strong application gets set aside.
Québec is its own market. Applications there are usually made in French, the document is called a lettre de présentation, and the conventions follow the French ones: 'Madame, Monsieur,' to open, a formal closing formula, and a place-and-date line. Federal roles and roles in bilingual organisations may accept either language, but writing in the language of the advert is the safest read of intent.
At a glance
What recruiters expect
01
One clause, near the close: 'I hold an open work permit valid to March 2028' or 'I am a permanent resident and do not require sponsorship'. It is not a personal detail in the prohibited sense — it is the logistical fact the employer must verify anyway.
02
Canadian offices print on Letter. A PDF formatted for A4 will still open correctly, but the page break can land in the wrong place, and the generator here sets Letter when you choose Canada.
03
Ontario and the West write 'resume' or 'résumé' interchangeably; Québec writes 'CV'. Government of Canada postings use the language of the advert, and bilingual postings state which language the application must be in.
04
Date of birth, marital status, a Social Insurance Number and a photograph all stay out of the application. Employers may not ask for them at this stage, and offering them early reads as unfamiliarity with the market.
05
Federal and provincial postings carry a process or reference number. Put it in the subject line and in the first sentence; large public-sector hiring pools sort applications by it.
06
'Madame, Monsieur,' to open, the 'Vous–Je–Nous' structure, and a formal closing formula such as 'Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, mes salutations distinguées.' Turn on local conventions and choose the France preset for the closest match, then adjust the closing to Québec usage.
Paragraph by paragraph
The generator follows this order. You can see it in the preview before you export anything.
Name, email, phone, city and province, then a month-first date. The employer's address block is optional and usually dropped for online applications.
Name the position and the posting number, state your current role, and give one measured result that shows you already do this work.
One or two paragraphs of specific achievements against the posting's stated requirements, in the posting's own vocabulary.
Work authorisation, relocation or a start date. This is where a newcomer application earns the read that an ambiguous one loses.
One line of interest in the organisation, one line asking for an interview, 'Sincerely,' and your full name.
The shape on the page
Layout only — the generator fills this with your own facts, never with placeholder text you have to remember to delete.
Jane Doe
jane.doe@email.com · (416) 555-0134 · Toronto, ON
September 16, 2026
Dear Hiring Manager,
[Opening: the role, the posting or process number, and your current position.]
[Evidence: one or two achievements with numbers, matched to the stated requirements.]
[Canadian specifics: work authorisation, relocation, earliest start date.]
[Close: interest in the organisation and the request for an interview.]
Sincerely,
Jane DoeReady to use
Copy one straight into the letter — the generator already uses the greeting and sign-off for this market when conventions are on.
Named recipient
Dear Ms. Alvarez,
The default where a name is published.
No name found
Dear Hiring Manager,
Private-sector standard.
Public sector
Dear Selection Committee,
Federal, provincial and municipal processes with a panel.
Authorisation line
I am a permanent resident of Canada and do not require sponsorship.
One clause, near the close.
Open permit
I hold an open work permit valid to March 2028.
Post-graduation or spousal permits.
Subject line
Application: Data Analyst (process 26-JOB-0041) — Jane Doe
Include the process number where the posting has one.
Sign-off
Sincerely,
Formal and always correct.
Québec opening
Madame, Monsieur,
French-language applications in Québec.
Before you send
Finding the posting
GC Jobs (jobs.gc.ca)
Federal postings; the process number and the statement of merit criteria drive everything.
The dominant private-sector channel in Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal.
Indeed Canada
High volume; a concise letter is read more often than a long one.
Job Bank (jobbank.gc.ca)
Federal service; employers using it may require the LMIA-facing details to match exactly.
Questions
Both are common in English Canada, with 'resume' and 'résumé' used interchangeably and 'CV' more frequent in academic, medical and Québec contexts. Match the word the advert uses.
Yes, in one clause. It is a logistical fact the employer must check before hiring, and stating it plainly is better than leaving a recruiter to guess from your work history.
Very close: same paper, similar length, similar directness. The differences are the authorisation clause, the posting number in public-sector applications, and a slightly more restrained register.
Month-first ('September 16, 2026') is the common business form in English Canada. Day-first is also seen and is not an error; what matters is that the whole application uses one style.
A lettre de présentation is usually expected, written in French unless the advert says otherwise. Follow the French conventions for greeting, structure and closing formula.
Applying elsewhere
Each guide sets the generator up for that market: paper size, date format, layout, length and the local greeting.