Cross Country Checkup

Which great Canadian women deserve to be on our currency?

The Bank of Canada is seeking nominations for important women to display on new bank notes. Who would you suggest? Who are the great women in Canadian history whose faces deserve to be on your money? With guest host Marni Soupcoff.
Beginning in 2017, Jane Austen will appear on the £10 note in the United Kingdom. It came after a campaign to keep women represented on banknotes. After International Women's Day in 2016, the Bank of Canada launched an initiative to place a notable Canadian woman on the currency. (AP)

The Bank of Canada is seeking nominations for important women to display on new bank notes. Who would you suggest? Who are the great women in Canadian history whose faces deserve to be on your money?

Checkup guest host Marni Soupcoff (CCF)
On International Women's Day 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the next issue of Canadian currency notes to be released in 2018, will include a bill with the face of an 'iconic' Canadian woman. The Bank of Canada is now seeking nominations for important women to display on new bank notes. 

It's not clear whether that face will be on the front of the bill — which has been traditionally reserved for the Queen and PMs—or the back of the bill, where some women have already appeared, though ice breakers and other inanimate objects have as well.  

The fact that Canada's money does not bear the faces of great Canadian women has long been a source of disappointment to many. Now Canadians will be able to weigh in on the issue as the Bank of Canada solicits nominations for prominent Canadian women. The women being nominated for the spot on the 2018 note must be historical figures who have been dead for at least 25 years.

Our question: Which great Canadian women deserve to be on our currency?

GUESTS

Merna Forster
Writer, historian, educator, public speaker, naturalist and photographer. She's the author of the popular books, 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces and 100 More Canadian Heroines.

Anne Lagacé Dowson
Montreal-based broadcaster, freelance journalist.

​Imogen Coe
Professor of Biology and Dean of the Faculty of Science at Ryerson University.

​Roberta Jamieson
President & CEO of Indspire, an Indigenous-led charity, and she's the first First Nations woman to earn a law degree in Canada.


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LINKS & ARTICLES

CBC.ca

Globe and Mail

National Post

Huffington Post

Maclean's


Canada's History magazine

Global News

Toronto Star

Northern Life

Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Bank of Canada

Heroines.ca

The Canadian Encyclopedia

The New York Times