Canada to feature woman on new bank note

OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada is inviting the public to nominate iconic women from Canada’s past to appear on the next issue of bank notes.

“Today, on International Women’s Day, the Bank of Canada is taking the first step by launching public consultations to select an iconic Canadian woman to be featured on this new bill,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week.

To be eligible to appear on the new bill, the woman must be a Canadian, by birth or naturalization, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, achievement or distinction in any field that has benefitted the people of Canada.

Nominations are now under way and will close on April 15. Those nominations will be reviewed by an independent Advisory Council composed of eminent Canadian academic and cultural leaders.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said that it is “high time to change.”

“One of the very first things I had the honour of doing as the new finance minister was asking the governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, and his colleagues at the bank whether it’s in fact possible to put a woman on the bank note,” he Morneau.

The Two Row Times has put together a short list of names that have been presented for consideration online, let us know who you think should become 2018’s bank NOTEable Canadian woman on our Facebook page or website.

1. Pauline Johnson – Also known in Mohawk as Tekahionwake, lived from 1861 to 1913. She was a writer and performer popular in the late 19th century. Johnson was notable for her poems and performances that celebrated her Aboriginal heritage and was one of a generation of widely read writers who began to define a Canadian literature.
2. Nellie McClung – Nellie Letitia McClung, was a Canadian feminist, politician, author and social activist. She was a part of the social and moral reform movements prevalent in Western Canada in the early 1900s.
3. Agnes Macphail – Was the first female to hold a seat in the House of Commons and the first female MP. She fought for women’s rights, prison reform and old age pension.
4. Sarah Burke – Sarah is representative of 21st century Canadian women. She was a trailblazer, a pioneer of her sport and an inspiration to thousands of women. Every woman in freestyle skiing owes something to Sarah; she fought hard for equality and proved to the world that women deserve a place on the half-pipe and slope style.
5. Dr. Emily Howard Stowe – Dr. Emily Howard Stowe was the first female doctor to practise in Canada and an activist for women’s rights and suffrage. Stowe helped found the women’s suffrage movement in Canada and campaigned for the country’s first medical college for women.
6. Lucy Maud Montgomery – Lucy Maud Montgomery, publicly known as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. The book was an immediate success.